The US and Japan will "speed up" talks on a trade agreement, Japan's economy minister pledged Friday, as Washington pushes Tokyo for a "more fair" trade relationship.
President Donald Trump, while touting his close ties with Japan, has repeatedly criticised Tokyo for what he views as a trade imbalance, with the issue coming up during his bilateral talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the G20 Friday.
"During the Japan-US summit, the two leaders agreed to speed up trade negotiations so that they can achieve results swiftly. Based on that, we held a ministerial meeting in the afternoon," Japan Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said after talks with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
The two negotiators agreed to "vigorously push for meetings of working-level and high-level officials to move negotiations forward", Motegi told reporters.
The meetings will begin in early July to be followed by another round of ministerial-level talks, he added.
"Discussions have 

US, Japan to 'speed up' trade talks

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An exiled advocate for China's ethnic Uighur minority Friday urged world leaders gathered in Japan for the G20 summit to confront Chinese President Xi Jinping over the "genocide" of her Muslim people.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Osaka meeting, Rebiya Kadeer said strong world pressure was essential to free an estimated one million people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, held in internment camps in western China.
"(The) entire Uighur people are facing (an) existential threat, and its real and urgent," Kadeer, the 72-year-old head of the World Uyghur Congress, said through an interpreter.
Chinese officials describe the camps as voluntary "vocational education centres" where Turkic-speaking Uighurs receive job training.
But rights groups and former inmates describe them as "concentration camps" where Uighurs and other minorities are being forcefully assimilated into China majority ethnic Han society.
Kadeer said Uighur culture could vanish if "strong actions" are not taken by ...

Uighur leader urges G20 pressure to end China 'genocide'

The Dalai Lama has accused US President Donald Trump of lacking "moral principle", in a wide-ranging BBC interview in which the Tibetan spiritual leader said that any female successor should be attractive.
"One day he says something, another day he says something," the 83-year-old Buddhist monk said of the US president. "But I think (there is a) lack of moral principle."
"When he became president he expressed 'America First'. That is wrong. America they should take the global responsibility," the Dalai Lama said, adding that Trump's emotions are "also a little bit... too complicated".
The Nobel Peace Prize winner told the BBC from his exile in Dharamsala in northern India that if his successor is a woman then she should be attractive.
"If female Dalai Lama comes, then she should be more attractive," he said. "If female Dalai Lama, oh, oh... that people, I think prefer, not see her, that face." He also reiterated his views on immigration into Europe, saying that only a "limited number" 

Dalai Lama says Trump 'lacks moral principle'

An Indonesian military helicopter with 12 people on board lost contact with air traffic control Friday just minutes after takeoff, an official said.
The Mi-17 chopper was en route from Oksibil, in easternmost Papua province to Sentani, also in Papua.
All passengers on board were military crew and the aircraft was carrying logistical supplies, Papua military spokesman Muhammad Aidi said.
It took off at 11:44 am Friday local time and was supposed to land in Sentani 1.5 hours later.
"The plane originally took off in Okbibab district, but it had to refuel in Oksibil," Aidi said.
The weather was reported to be good at the time of takeoff but routes in the rugged area are subject to rapid and extreme weather changes.
Search and rescue teams have been deployed to look for the chopper.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands, but mountainous Papua is a particularly difficult area to reach.
Last August, eight people died when a Swiss-made Pilatus aircraft .

Indonesian military helicopter loses contact in Papua

Turkmenistan on Friday opened a USD 1.7 billion gas-to-liquids plant as it seeks to monetise vast but idle gas reserves amid an economic crunch.
The isolated Central Asian country holds the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves and has in recent years sought to diversify an economy battered by low energy prices.
The plant opened in the desert town of Ovadan-Depe outside the capital Ashgabat with Japanese and Turkish investment is the largest gas-to-liquids plant in Central Asia.
"Our country keeps pace with scientific progress," Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said at the opening ceremony.
"We want Turkmenistan to become the centre of a 'green' economy." In a message read out at the ceremony, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he was glad that Japan helped diversify Turkmenistan's economy and ramp up energy exports.
The plant will process 1.785 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, producing 600,000 tonnes of gasoline a year among other liquid ...

Turkmenistan opens USD 1.7 billion gas-to-liquids plant

A 17-year-old harvest worker has died from heat stroke in Spain, local authorities said, in the first known death related to the record heatwave currently raging in Spain and large parts of Europe.
The youth suddenly felt dizzy and took a dip in a swimming pool but suffered convulsions when he got out and collapsed, the regional government of Andalusia in southern Spain said.
He was rushed to the emergency ward in the neighbouring town of Cordoba, where "he died after undergoing a cardiac massage", it said in a statement.
Spain is currently experiencing a heatwave of temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and more across most of the country, which is expected to last until Saturday.
Out of a total 50 Spanish provinces, 34 have issued fire warnings, notably in Catalonia where fire services are fighting to put out a blaze that has already burned 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) of land.
Some 400 firefighters tackled the fire overnight, with planes and helicopters deployed in the morning to try 

Spanish teenager collapses, dies from heat

Hundreds gathered at Istanbul's main court on Friday to support an opposition politician who faces 17 years in prison for a series of tweets criticising the government.
Canan Kaftancioglu, who heads the secular Republican People's Party (CHP)'s Istanbul branch, is accused of "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish state in tweets posted between 2012 and 2017.
The supporters gathered outside the court chanted "Down with fascism" and held signs reading "We are thirsty for justice".
Kaftancioglu's tweets include an insult directed at Erdogan, and criticism of the death of a 14-year-old boy, who was hit by a tear gas grenade during the mass "Gezi Park" protests of 2013.
She is also accused of "terrorist propaganda" for quoting a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the state since 1983.
Her supporters say another tweet, in which she appeared to deny the Armenian genocide, was fake and had been created 

Turkey politician faces 17 years for 'insulting' tweets

Jailed Chinese rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was allowed to see his wife and young son on Friday for the first time in nearly four years since he disappeared in a crackdown.
Wang, 43, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in January for "subverting state power" following a closed-door trial.
A prominent lawyer who defended political activists and victims of land seizures, Wang vanished in a sweep aimed at courtroom critics of Communist authorities known as the "709" clampdown because the arrests started on July 9, 2015.
Wang was held incommunicado for over 1,000 days without access to his family or a lawyer prior to his trial and authorities have repeatedly denied requests by his wife Li Wenzu to visit him in jail.
"My husband's health has deteriorated during the long incarceration, he had lost so much weight," Li told AFP.
"When I asked him what he had for breakfast, he kept scratching his head. But he couldn't remember," she said.
"It was really emotional. This was the ...

Jailed China rights lawyer allowed to see wife after four years

British Prime Minister Theresa May told Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday that normal relations will not be restored until Moscow ends its "irresponsible and destabilising" activity, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
The comments came as May met Putin for the first time since the row over the poisoning of a former Russian spy on British soil.
"She told the president that there cannot be a normalisation of our bilateral relationship until Russia stops the irresponsible and destabilising activity that threatens the UK and its allies -- including hostile interventions in other countries, disinformation and cyber attacks," the spokesperson said.
May also told Putin, in the talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan's Osaka, that Britain "has irrefutable evidence that Russia was behind the attack" on the former spy.
"The prime minister underlined that we remain open to a different relationship, but for that to happen the Russian government must choose a different ...

May tells Putin end 'destabilising' acts against UK, allies

A new chemical weapons investigation team has started work on identifying the culprits behind alleged attacks in Syria, the head of the world's toxic arms watchdog said.
Member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agreed one year ago to give The Hague-based body new powers to assign blame for attacks.
Syria has already blocked access to the chief of the so-called Identification and Investigation Team, while Moscow and Damascus have accused the Hague-based OPCW of becoming "politicised".
The team "has initiated its work to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic", OPCW director-general Fernando Arias said in a statement to member states issued on Monday but seen by AFP on Friday.
The team would be "identifying and reporting on all information potentially relevant to the origin of those chemical weapons" where their use has previously been identified by OPCW teams, he said.
Western states pushed through ...

New chemical weapons team starts work to find Syria culprits: OPCW

AC Milan is banned from European football next season over breaches of financial fair play rules, CAS announced Friday.
European football's governing body UEFA had accused the club of violating financial fair play (FFP) regulations over the past three seasons and the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in their favour.
"AC Milan is excluded from participating in UEFA club competitions of the sporting season 2019/2020 as a consequence of the breach of its FFP break-even obligations" for the past three seasons, the court ruled.

AC Milan banned from Europe for financial fair play violations

Former captain Michael Vaughan on Friday branded Jonny Bairstow's claim that people are waiting for England to fail at the World Cup as "negative" and "pathetic".
England opener Bairstow was responding to criticism from Vaughan and fellow ex-skipper Kevin Pietersen after the hosts suffered consecutive losses against Sri Lanka and Australia.
Pietersen said current skipper Eoin Morgan was "scared" in the 64-run defeat by Australia, while Bairstow was played a radio clip of Vaughan saying England could be heading for their worst World Cup.
Morgan's side now face an uphill task to reach the semi-finals, with tough matches to come against India and New Zealand.
"People were waiting for us to fail," said Bairstow.
"They are not willing us on to win, in many ways, they are waiting for you to get that loss, so they can jump on your throat.
"It's a typical English thing to do, in every sport." But Vaughan hit back on Friday, saying the team had huge backing.
"How wrong can @jbairstow21 be," ...

Bairstow's England comments 'pathetic', says Vaughan

A plan to revert to 2018 tyres to enliven the racing failed to gain approval at a meeting of Formula One teams on Friday.
The teams met tyre suppliers Pirelli, representatives of the sport's organisers and ruling body and several drivers ahead of this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.
The meeting considered a proposal to re-introduce last year's tyre compounds, but it did not gain majority support. The 2018 tyres were more prone to blistering and disintegrating and thus helped produce more unpredictable contests.
The plan came to the fore following last weekend's processional French Grand Prix at Le Castellet, where the dominant Mercedes team reeled off a record eighth consecutive season-opening victory with a triumphant one-two.
No other team has won any of the last 10 races as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas have turned the championship into a two-man race with Ferrari, struggling with the 2019 tyres, in pursuit.
The sport's ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), .

F1 teams reject plan to revert to 2018 tyres

Fuming Brazil coach Tite raged at the state of the Gremio Arena pitch after the Copa America hosts squeezed past dogged Paraguay on penalties to reach the semi-finals.
Brazil played more than 40 minutes with a numerical advantage following the sending off of Fabian Balbuena but couldn't find a route past Paraguay's defensive fortress, needing penalties to progress after a 0-0 draw.
And Tite blamed the pitch for the lack of flowing football from his struggling side.
"There is room for improvement," he said. "But that's also possible when you play passes on a good ground.
"All the players asked me to complain about it. It's absurd at such a high level match to have a ground that is so hard to pass the ball on.
"We needed three touches to pass the ball forward. It's absurd to have such bad quality. It's inconceivable anywhere in the world to have such a bad ground."
The pitch in Porto Alegre had already come in for harsh criticism from some of the tournament's leading lights, Argentina's 

Brazil's Tite blasts 'absurd' state of Copa surface

A Turkish soldier was killed and three others have been injured when the Syrian government fired on their observation post in the last rebel-held province of Idlib, Ankara said Friday.
The "mortar and cannon shells" launched Thursday were a deliberate attack, the Turkish defence ministry said in a statement.
Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib, in northwestern Syria, where they are trying to maintain a tenuous ceasefire.
Idlib is one of several "de-escalation zones" agreed under the Astana peace process last September that brought together Russia and Iran, who support the Syrian government, and Turkey, which backs certain rebel groups.
But Damascus has intensified its attacks since late April, leading to fears in Turkey of a mass exodus of refugees from the province, which is home to some three million people.
The Turkish ministry said it responded Thursday with its own bombardment, while its army chief summoned Russia's military attache to warn of "severe" consequences for ...

Turkish soldier killed by Syria regime: ministry

A Turkish court rejected an appeal on Friday to free a US consular staffer on bail during an espionage trial that has deepened tensions between Washington and Ankara.
Prosecutors argued that Metin Topuz, a Turkish citizen and liaison for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was a flight risk and must remain in custody in Istanbul.
His next hearing was set for September 18.
Topuz was arrested in 2017 and accused of contacts with police.
A prosecutor also suspected of ties to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says ordered an attempted coup in 2016.
"All my contacts with those in high-ranking positions of the state at the time were entirely part of my work as a translator and assistant liaison officer at the DEA. I am innocent," Topuz said during his last court appearance in May.
The US embassy says there is no credible evidence against him.  Topuz faces a separate investigation on charges of seeking to "overthrow the constitutional order".
The trial comes at .

US consular staffer to stay in Turkey detention on spy charges

US President Donald Trump on Friday struck a conciliatory tone with fellow world leaders at one of the most high-stakes G20 meetings in years, despite deep divisions on trade and climate change.
Host Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, appealed for unity among bickering world leaders at the start of Japan's new era of "Reiwa" or "beautiful harmony", with the long-running trade row between China and the United States threatening to overshadow the event.
"With your help, I hope we will realise beautiful harmony in Osaka... rather than highlight our confrontations, let us seek out what unites us," said Abe as he opened the talks.
The appeal seemed to have chimed with arguably the club's most volatile member, as Trump dialled down his previously feisty rhetoric against traditional US allies.
Fresh from describing Germany as "delinquent" for not paying enough into the NATO budget, he was effusive when meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"She's a fantastic person, a fantastic woman and ..

'Beautiful harmony': Trump plays nice as divisive G20 opens

President Vladimir Putin on Friday invited Donald Trump to Russia in May to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory over Adolf Hitler, according to top foreign policy advisor Yury Ushakov.
Trump responded in a "very positive manner," said Ushakov, according to rolling news channel Russia 24.
At the beginning of the meeting, Trump hailed a "very, very good" relationship with the Kremlin leader as they met for their first face-to-face talks since July.
Relations between the two former superpowers have been strained amid differences over Syria, Ukraine and alleged Russian interference in US elections.
Trump ran into criticism after the July meeting with Putin in Helsinki for being what was judged at home to be too conciliatory.

Putin invites Trump to Russia to mark war anniversary

Hungarian police said Friday they had identified the 26th victim of the sinking last month of a Budapest tourist boat carrying South Korean passengers.
The Mermaid capsized seconds after colliding with a bigger river cruise vessel on a busy stretch of the Danube in the heart of the Hungarian capital on May 29.
Thirty-five people, all of them South Koreans except for the Hungarian captain and a crew member, were on the boat when it sank. Only seven South Koreans survived.
The 26th victim, a female, was identified after the discovery of a body last Saturday in Budapest several kilometres south of the accident site, police said in a statement, adding that two South Koreans were still missing.
Hungarian police say the search for the missing along the Danube river from the accident site to the southern border with Serbia is the largest ever search operation mounted in Hungary.
The Ukrainian captain of the larger vessel, the Viking Sigyn which collided with the Mermaid, is under ...

Hungary boat tragedy 26th victim confirmed

An attack on a special Philippine army counter-terrorism unit left three soldiers dead and nine others wounded in the southern Philippines on Friday, military spokesmen and witnesses told AFP.
Unknown suspects targeted the unit's temporary headquarters on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants.
"It was a bomb and a firefight," army spokesman Colonel Ramon Zagala told AFP, adding the attackers' identities were not immediately known.
An AFP reporter on the scene saw a blood-soaked man slumped on a tricycle on a street also stained with blood in front of the temporary headquarters of the army's 1,500-member First Brigade Combat team.
The Philippines has renewed its campaign against the militants in Jolo this year after at least one suspected suicide bomber attacked the island's Roman Catholic cathedral, killing 21 people.
Major Arvin Arcinas, the region's military spokesman, said three army members were killed in Friday's attack, with nine other ...

Three soldiers killed in Philippines' restive south

Tunisia is not at risk of a power vacuum despite the sudden hospitalisation of President Beji Caid Essebsi, one of his advisors said Friday, describing veteran leader's condition as stable.
Essebsi, 92, was taken to hospital for a "serious illness" on Thursday, the same day that twin suicide attacks claimed by the Islamic State group killed a police officer in Tunis and wounded several other people.
"We have a president. There is no constitutional vacancy," one of his key advisors, Noureddine Ben Ticha, told the Express FM radio station.
He said the president's condition was "unchanged".
The Tunisian constitution, adopted three years after the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali,  provides two measures in the case of a power vacuum.
The prime minister can take over the president's responsibilities for a period of no more than 60 days, or if the vacancy is longer the speaker of parliament is tasked with the role for up to 90 days.
In both ...

AFP

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