A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck China's southwestern Sichuan province on Monday, leaving at least six people dead and 75 others hurt, officials and state media said.
Rescuers were rushing to affected areas in heavy rain near the epicentre, which was located outside the city of Yibin, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The quake occurred at about 10:55 pm (1455 GMT) at a depth of 16 kilometres (10 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
A series of at least four aftershocks, the largest of which had a magnitude of 5.1, took place in the following 40 minutes.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the main quake at 5.8, adding that "extensive damage is probable and the disaster is likely widespread".
The fatalities and injuries were all recorded in Changning and Gongxian counties, local officials said, according to Xinhua.
A hotel close to the epicentre collapsed, but it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from that incident, the ...

At least six dead, 75 hurt in China quake

PTI Automatic

A French court on Monday sentenced a man to eight months suspended jail after he masturbated on the Paris metro in front of a woman who filmed the offence.
The Bangladeshi man, 48, who works in the fast food industry, was ordered to pay 500 euros in damages to the woman as well as another woman who had reported the same behaviour.
He was also ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment.
The 20-year-old woman who filmed him posted the video on Twitter on December 12 and asked the Paris transport authorities to take action. She also filed a complaint for indecent exposure.
The video went viral and several women reported recognising the man and recalling similar offences. A second woman then filed another complaint.
The man gave himself up to the police.

Man filmed masturbating on Paris metro gets suspended sentence

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday blamed Egypt's "tyrants" for the death of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi who died in a Cairo hospital after fainting during a court session.
"History will never forget those tyrants who led to his death by putting him in jail and threatening him with execution," Erdogan, a close ally of Morsi, said in a televised speech in Istanbul.
Relations between Turkey and Egypt have been virtually non-existent since the Egyptian military, then led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in 2013 ousted Islamist president Morsi. Sisi has since become president.
Erdogan has strongly denounced Morsi's ouster as a "coup" and called for the release of Muslim Brotherhood prisoners in Egypt.
The Turkish leader described Morsi's death as a "symbol of persecution targeting him and his people" and called the ex-president as a "martyr." "In our eyes, Morsi is a martyr who lost his life for the sake of a case he believed in," he said.
Foreign Minister Mevlut ...

Erdogan blames Egypt 'tyrants' for Morsi's death

American heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, a designer and artist who became one of the most chronicled socialites of her era, died Monday, her son announced. She was 95 years old.
The great-great granddaughter of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, she was thrust into the spotlight as the "poor little rich girl" at the center of a sensational custody battle in the 1930s, before finding fame in her own right for her line of designer blue jeans and it-girl fashion.
"Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman, who loved life, and lived it on her own terms," her son, the popular CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, said in a tribute read on air.
"She was a painter, a writer, and designer but also a remarkable mother, wife, and friend. She was 95 years old, but ask anyone close to her, and they'd tell you, she was the youngest person they knew, the coolest, and most modern."
Artistic and glam, Vanderbilt was well-known for her tumultuous love life that included four marriages and racy escapades with a 

Heiress and legendary socialite, Gloria Vanderbilt dies at 95

Britain and China began selling shares in each others' companies on Monday under a landmark deal, Britain's Treasury announced, as London looks to remain a leading financial centre post Brexit.
The launch of the London-Shanghai Stock Connect marks "the first time that any foreign company will be able to list in mainland China", a statement said, as the UK seeks to extend close trading ties with the Asian powerhouse, despite strains caused by the fallout between Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and the US.
The announcement Monday was the "centrepiece" of the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, the Treasury said.
Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond was hosting China's Vice Premier Hu Chunhua and a delegation "to discuss multilateral and bilateral economic issues, financial services cooperation, and trade and investment", it added.
Hammond said in the statement: "London is a global financial centre like no other, and today's launch is a strong vote of confidence in the UK ...

UK shares list in China, a first for foreign firms

The United States warned Monday the world must not give in to Iranian "extortion," after Tehran said it would surpass the uranium stockpile limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Washington.
"We should not yield to nuclear extortion," said US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, adding that the United States was "unfortunately not surprised" by Iran's announcement.
"We continue to call on the Iranian regime to abide by their commitments to the international community," she said.

World must not 'yield to nuclear extortion' by Iran: US

Two explosions detonated to crush rocks in northeast China caused a small earthquake near the North Korean border on Monday, local authorities said.
The 1.3-magnitude quake with a zero-metre depth occurred at 19:38 pm (1138 GMT) in Hunchun city in northeastern Jilin province, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
The explosions were set off by Jilin Longye Blasting Company due to the "manufacturing needs" of the rock-crushing facility, said the Hunchun city government through its official Twitter-like Weibo.
There were no casualties after the blasts and no buildings were damaged, they said, adding that the details of the situation are "currently being verified."
Earthquakes at the border can raise alarm due to nuclear tests in North Korea that have caused tremors in China in the past.
Monday's earthquake was reported less than an hour after news broke about Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming trip to Pyongyang.
In September 2017, a test conducted at North Korea's ...

Rock blasts cause quake near China-North Korea border

A string of five earthquakes -- including one with a magnitude of 6.0 -- shook China's southwestern Sichuan province on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The epicenter of the largest quake was located outside the city of Yibin. It occurred at about 10:55 pm (1455 GMT) at a depth of 16 kilometres (10 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.
The subsequent smaller quakes, the largest of which had a magnitude of 5.1, took place in the following 40 minutes.
Videos circulating on social media showed chandeliers and other light fixtures swaying from the shaking.
AFP was unable to independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
State news agency Xinhua said local authorities had dispatched personnel to determine if there had been any casualties.
Earthquakes regularly strike Sichuan, where a powerful 7.9-magnitude quake left 87,000 people dead or missing in 2008.
In February, three earthquakes hit Rongxian county in the province, ...

Southwestern China rattled by series of quakes

Iraqi authorities have removed nearly 30 kilometres of concrete blast walls across Baghdad in the last six months, mostly around the capital's high-security Green Zone, a senior official said.
Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, T-walls -- thick barriers about six metres tall and one metre wide -- have surrounded potential targets of car bombs or other attacks.
When premier Adel Abdel Mahdi came to power last year, he promised to remove barriers, checkpoints and other security measures to make Baghdad easier to navigate.
"Over the last six months, we removed 18,000 T-walls in Baghdad, including 14,000 in the Green Zone alone," said Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Bayati, the PM's top military advisor.
Hundreds of the security checkpoints that contributed to Baghdad's notorious traffic jams have also been removed.
And according to the Baghdad municipality, 600 streets that had been closed off to public access have been opened in the last six months.
Among them are key ...

Iraq lifts nearly 30 km of blast walls from Baghdad: official

Iran said Monday it will surpass from June 27 a uranium stockpile limit set under the nuclear deal with world powers that the US abandoned last year, worrying EU powers who urged Tehran against ultimatums.
French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged Iran to be "patient and responsible" at a time of growing tension as Washington blames Tehran for attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
"Today the countdown to pass the 300 kilograms reserve of enriched uranium has started and in 10 days time... we will pass this limit," Iran's atomic energy organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told a new conference broadcast live on state television.
The move "will be reversed once other parties live up to their commitments," he added, speaking from the Arak nuclear plant southwest of Tehran.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the international community to immediately hit Iran with "snapback sanctions" should it violate the deal by surpassing the uranium stockpile limit set in ...

Europe anxious as Iran sets countdown to surpass uranium limit

A Frenchman charged with murdering his wife in a case that gripped France on Monday admitted to partially burning her body after brutally beating her, following a meticulous police reconstruction of the events, the prosecutor said.
Jonathann Daval, 35, had in January 2018 confessed to killing his wife Alexia in October 2017 after initially posing as a distraught husband and even organising events in her memory.
The charred body of Alexia Daval, a 29-year-old bank employee, had been found hidden under tree branches near their town of Gray-la-Ville in eastern France.
But the husband had until now not admitted to burning her body after the crime -- an omission that had continued to distress Alexia's parents -- and had shown inconsistencies in other aspects of his version.
"Faced with the urgent demand of his parents-in-law, who had implored him to tell the whole truth, he finally admitted not only killing her but then partially burning her body," said the prosecutor for the eastern ...

Frenchman 'admits burning body' of murdered jogger wife

Mohamed Morsi, who died Monday aged 67, was Egypt's first democratically elected president but spent just one turbulent year in office after the 2011 uprising before the army toppled him.
The Islamist's overthrow was followed by a brutal crackdown that killed hundreds of supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood movement and dealt a major blow to political Islam.
Morsi was sentenced to death in May 2015 for his role in jailbreaks during the uprising that ousted his predecessor, longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
He successfully appealed and was awaiting the final ruling of a retrial when he died in a Cairo hospital after fainting during an "animated" session in court, judicial and security sources said.
A veteran activist and engineering professor, Morsi was among the Brotherhood leaders detained during the 18-day anti-Mubarak revolt in 2011, escaping with thousands of inmates who broke out of prison.
The son of a farmer, he was not the Brotherhood's first choice for president.
Nicknamed ...

Morsi: from Egypt election triumph to death as inmate

Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi died on Monday in a Cairo hospital after fainting during a session in court, judicial and security sources said.
"He was speaking before the judge for 20 minutes then became very animated and fainted. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he later died," a judicial source said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong ally of the Islamist president during his brief tenure as Egypt's leader, paid tribute to Morsi and called him a "martyr".
The official Al-Ahram news website also reported the death of Morsi, 67, who was Egypt's first democratically elected president but spent just one turbulent year in office after the 2011 uprising before the army toppled him in 2013.
The Islamist leader has been in prison since his ouster on trial for several cases including for spying for Iran, Qatar and militant groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He was also accused of plotting terror acts.
Since his overthrow on July 3, 2013, his former ...

Egypt ex-president Mohamed Morsi dies: official sources

Sri Lanka's Supreme Court fined an award-winning woman police officer for illegally detaining and intimidating a teenage girl to frame a local politician for rape, officials said Friday.
Chief Inspector Waruni Bogahawatte was also ordered to pay 100,000 rupees (USD570) as compensation to the victim while the state was also ordered to pay 50,000 rupees in the hearing earlier this week.
The 15-year-old girl was forced by Bogahawatte to undergo repeated medical examinations to establish if she had been sexually attacked.
A three-judge bench held that Bogahawatte, who won the best woman officer award in 2017, had abused her authority and violated the girl's fundamental rights and also intimidated her family.
Local media had hailed her at as a "super woman" chasing child abusers and sexual offenders.
The court heard that Bogahawatte repeatedly forced the girl from the southern town of Akuressa to make a false statement against a low-level politician who faced several unrelated rape ...

Sri Lanka 'super woman' cop guilty of child abuse

China's economy showed further signs of weakness last month, with industrial output posting its slowest growth in 17 years, placing further pressure on the government as it tries to steady the ship while battling a trade war with the US.
Authorities have for years been attempting to transition the world's number two economy from a reliance on state investment and exports to a more stable model driven by consumption, with the tariffs stand-off complicating that mission of late.
Retail sales actually beat expectations, rising 8.6 per cent year-on-year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday.
That compares to an 8.1 per cent increase forecast in a Bloomberg poll of analysts.  But the NBS also said industrial output rose just 5.0 per cent, the slowest increase since 2002, and missing a 5.4 percent analyst forecast.
Fixed-asset investment growth also underwhelmed with 5.6 per cent growth.  The readings are likely to fan speculation that authorities may launch another 

More worry for China as industrial growth disappoints

The field of contenders vying to become Britain's next prime minister narrowed to six on Friday when Health Secretary Matt Hancock withdrew from the contest.
The 40-year-old, who is against leaving the European Union without a deal, pulled out saying he was not in a position to win following Thursday's first round of voting.
Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, a Brexit figurehead who insists Britain must leave the EU in October "deal or no deal", topped the secret ballot of Conservative MPs by a landslide, winning 114 of the 313 available votes.
Hancock came sixth out of the seven to make it through to a second round on Tuesday next week, when at least one more candidate will drop out.
"I have decided to withdraw from the race and work out what is the best way to advance the values that I care deeply about," he told the London Evening Standard newspaper.
"It is clear that I can't win from here," he said, having received 20 votes -- three more than the minimum threshold required to 

Field narrows to six in race to become British PM

The United Arab Emirates said Friday that twin attacks on tankers in the Sea of Oman just weeks after four ships were damaged off the UAE marked a "dangerous escalation".
"The attack against the tankers in the Gulf of Oman is a worrying development and a dangerous escalation," the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted after Thursday's blasts.
Gargash also condemned a Yemeni rebel missile attack which wounded 26 civilians at an airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
He said the "blatant attack on civilians" was only the latest in a spate of rebel assaults "undermining the UN's political work and sending a message of continuing violence and hostility".
These developments "must spur the international community to act to maintain peace and security in the region", Gargash said.
"The responsibility for avoiding an escalation is collective." The two tankers, one Norwegian-operated and one Japanese-owned, were set ablaze in the Gulf of Oman off the ...

UAE says Gulf tanker attacks 'dangerous escalation'

Regime and Russian air strikes and shelling have killed at least 28 people including seven civilians in embattled northwest Syria, a war monitor said Friday, despite a ceasefire announced by Moscow.
The civilians were killed in regime air strikes and shelling on the south of Idlib province and the north of Hama province Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Russian and regime air strikes also killed 21 jihadist and Islamist fighters in the same region the same day, the Britain-based monitor added.
The Idlib region of some three million people is supposed to be protected from a massive regime offensive by a buffer zone deal that Russia and Turkey signed in September.
But it was never fully implemented, as jihadists refused to withdraw from a planned demilitarised zone.
In January, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate extended its administrative control over the region, which includes most of Idlib province as well as adjacent ...

Regime, Russia bombardment kills 28 in northwest Syria: monitor

Iran dismissed as "baseless" on Friday US accusations it executed twin attacks that left two tankers ablaze in the Gulf of Oman, raising fears of conflict in the strategically vital waterway.
China called for all sides to "resolve the conflict through dialogue" as oil prices jumped, while the European Union and the United Nations called for restraint.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Washington would defend its regional interests after US Central Command blamed Iranian forces for the attacks -- the second in a month in the strategic shipping lane.
CENTCOM released grainy black-and-white video it said showed crew members of an Iranian patrol boat removing an "unexploded limpet mine" from the hull of Japanese-owned tanker Kokuka Courageous.
No proxy group could be responsible, Pompeo said.
But Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that the US had "immediately jumped to make allegations against Iran without a shred of factual or circumstantial evidence".
He accused ...

Iran denies tanker attacks as tensions soar

Real Madrid confirmed the signing of Japanese teenager Takefusa Kubo on Friday.
The 18-year-old joins from FC Tokyo and will play for Madrid's B team, Castilla, next season.
"Takefusa Kubo will join Castilla next season," a Real Madrid statement read.
"He is one of the most promising young players in world football, an attacking midfielder with excellent technique and great vision for the game."
Kubo, who has been dubbed the "Japanese Messi", made his full international debut against El Salvador earlier this month and was also linked with Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Premier League champions Manchester City.
Kubo earned his nickname after joining Barca's youth academy aged 10 but returned to Japan in 2015 as a result of FIFA sanctions handed to the club for breaching rules on signing under-age players.
Barcelona have kept tabs on Kubo ever since but Madrid stole a march on their La Liga rivals with an offer of two million euros ($2.25 million) a year, according to Japanese ...

Real Madrid confirm signing of 'Japanese Messi' Kubo

A British judge on Friday scheduled a full extradition hearing to begin in February next year for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges.
Assange, 47, is accused of violating the Espionage Act by releasing a vast trove of classified military and diplomatic files in 2010 about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He is currently serving a 50-week prison sentence for violating British bail conditions in 2012.

AFP

AFP

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