China said Thursday that the UN human rights chief had an open invitation to visit Xinjiang, a region where some one million mostly Muslim minorities are held in internment camps.
Beijing's new ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Chen Xu, reiterated the government's denial of the existence of camps there, insisting the region had "vocational education training", especially for youth vulnerable to extremism.
Chen added that he hoped the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, would "pay a visit" to the region.
"Seeing is believing," Chen told reporters. "The invitation to the high commissioner is always there and we hope that we can find a time which is convenient to both sides." Bachelet said in March that she had not yet been given the green light by China for a fact-finding mission to Xinjiang following a request made in December.
Her office was not immediately available to comment on whether talks on a prospective visit had progressed.
China has come under 

China says UN rights chief 'always' welcome in Xinjiang

PTI Automatic

US distance runner Gabriele Grunewald, who became an inspirational figure to thousands of fans after continuing to compete at a high level despite a decade-long battle with cancer, has died. She was 32.
Grunewald's husband Justin confirmed the news of his wife's death in a post on Instagram on Tuesday, two days after revealing her condition had deteriorated and she had entered end-of-life care.
"At 7:52 I said 'I can't wait until I get to see you again' to my hero, my best friend, my inspiration, my wife," Justin Grunewald wrote in the post, beneath a photo of the couple running.
"...I know I will never be able to fill this gaping hole in my heart or fill the shoes you have left behind," he added. "Your family loves you dearly as do your friends." Gabriele Grunewald was first diagnosed with a rare salivary gland cancer in 2009, a year before she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
However she continued to run between bouts of surgery and treatment, and narrowly missed out on a place at 

US runner Grunewald dies at 32 after cancer battle

A methanol tanker came under fire in the Gulf of Oman Thursday but all crew were saved after abandoning ship and its methanol cargo is intact, its Japanese operator Kokuka Sangyo shipping company said.
"It appears other ships also came under fire," company president Yutaka Katada told reporters in Tokyo, confirming an earlier report from its Singapore management company about a "security incident" in the busy shipping waterway.
Our crew members made evasive manoeuvers but three hours later it was hit again.
The crew assessed that it was dangerous to stay on this ship, and they used lifeboats to escape," added Katada.
Meanwhile, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko told reporters: "A tanker carrying Japan-related goods was attacked. There were no injuries among the crew members. They got off the tanker. There were no Japanese members."
BSM Ship Management, based in Singapore, had earlier said in a statement that the 21 crew of the Kokuka Courageous had been ...

Tanker abandoned after coming under fire in Gulf of Oman: operator

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammd Javad Zarif said Thursday that reported attacks on two tankers off the Iranian coast just as Japan's prime minister held Tehran talks was more than suspicious.
"Reported attacks on Japan-related tankers occurred while PM @AbeShinzo was meeting with Ayatollah @khamenei_ir for extensive and friendly talks. Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what likely transpired this morning," Zarif tweeted.

Iran says tanker 'attacks' as Japan PM visits 'suspicious'

The death toll from a Budapest tourist boat sinking rose to 25 with a man's body found about 100 kilometres from the accident site, police said Thursday.
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 so far.
The 25th body was found Wednesday about 100 kilometres (60 miles) downriver from the accident scene, police said in a statement, adding that three South Koreans were still missing.
The search for the three continues and South Korea has insisted it wants all the victims accounted for.
Rescue workers on Tuesday lifted the sunken vessel out of the Danube.
Efforts to dive to the wreck had repeatedly been called off due to the heavy current of the river swollen by weeks of rain.
The captain of the larger vessel, ..

Hungary boat tragedy toll climbs to 25

Belgium will bring six orphans home from Kurdish-controlled camps in Syria after the deaths of their jihadist parents, Finance Minister Alexander De Croo said Thursday.
"These are children who were born in our country and who today no longer have parents," the minister told VRT public radio after a cabinet decision.
Belgium is one of several European countries wrestling with the dilemma of what to do about citizens trapped in Syria following the defeat of the Islamic State group.
Some are reticent to accept captured extremist fighters, but the cases of children and non-combatant wives have proved more complicated for Western authorities.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said Belgium has a signed deal to allow returnees to transit through Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region.
The bulk of the Islamic State fighters and family members who were captured when its so-called caliphate collapsed are being held in Syria in Kurdish-run camps.
De Croo said that four of the six ...

Belgium to bring home six orphans of jihadists slain in Syria

The Norwegian tanker Front Altair was "attacked" Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, with three explosions but no injuries reported on board, the Norwegian Maritime Authority said.
Another reported attack in the same zone targeted the vessel Kokuka Courageous, the authority said in a statement.
The Front Altair, a 111,000-tonne oil tanker, is currently ablaze and emergency crews are at the scene, it added.
"Today, June 13 at 6:03 am, the Front Altair, a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, was attacked between the Emirates and Iran," the statement said.
"Three explosions on board the vessel were reported. The crew boarded a passing vessel and no injuries have been reported." Meanwhile, the US 5th Fleet, based in the region, said it had received two "distress signals" from tankers in the Gulf of Oman which had been targeted in an "attack".
The Iranian news agency Irna said Tehran had come to the aid of "two foreign tankers" that had had an "accident", citing an "informed source".
Thursday's ...

Norwegian tanker 'attacked' in Gulf of Oman, three blasts: authorities

Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday he does not consider US President Donald Trump "worthy" of exchanging messages with.
"I don't consider Trump as a person worthy of exchanging messages with. I have no response for him and will not answer him," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in footage of their meeting aired by state television in a rarity for such high-level talks.

Khamenei to Abe: Trump 'not worthy of exchanging messages'

Champions Manchester City begin the defence of their Premier League title away at West Ham, while Manchester United will host Chelsea in a blockbuster meeting to start the campaign after next season's fixtures were revealed on Thursday.
City will be confident of a fruitful start after scoring four times in each of their last three visits to the London Stadium, but face a tougher clash when Champions League finalists Tottenham Hotspur visit the Etihad on the second weekend of the season.
Runners-up and Champions League winners Liverpool begin with a home game to newly-promoted Norwich.
Last season's top two meet at Anfield on November 9 with the return at the Etihad scheduled for April 4, subject to TV confirmation.
Chelsea will begin life without the influential Eden Hazard at Old Trafford with United in need of a fast start after a dismal end to last season under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
On their return to the top-flight Aston Villa host Spurs, whilst Sheffield United are away at ...

Man City begin title defence at West Ham, Man Utd open at home to Chelsea

Oil prices spiked by about three percent on Thursday after conflicting reports of an "attack" and an "accident" involving two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
Iran's media reported that the country's navy rescued 44 crew members from the tankers, saying they caught on fire after an "accident".
However, the US Fifth Fleet said it had received two distress calls after a "reported attack on tankers" in the Gulf.
A merchant shipping information service run by Britain's Royal Navy meanwhile reported an "incident".
"UK and its partners are currently investigating," the United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on its website, without giving further details.
In early morning deals in London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil rose as high as USD 62.64 per barrel. It later stood at USD 61.41, up USD 1.44 from Wednesday's closing level.

Oil prices jump after 'incident' in Gulf of Oman

Kazakhstan on Thursday said nearly 1,000 people have been handed jail terms or other penalties for taking part in protests over the presidential election in the ex-Soviet country.
The Kazakh prosecutor-general's office said 957 were found guilty of offences, 670 of whom were jailed while others were fined or given warnings.
The country saw some of the biggest protests of recent years during Sunday's vote and following the victory of a hand-picked successor to former strongman Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
The protesters were found guilty of taking part in in illegal demonstrations and disobeying police, the statement said.
Saparbek Nurpeisov, an official at the prosecutor-general's office was quoted as saying that protesters "succumbed to provocations, began demonstrations and started attacking law enforcement officers."
On Sunday, police arrested some 500 protesters in Almaty and the capital Nur-Sultan as demonstrators urged a boycott of what they said was a fixed ...

Kazakhstan says almost 1,000 punished for vote protests

Iran's navy rescued 44 crew members from two oil tankers which caught fire after an "accident" in the Sea of Oman on Thursday, official news agency IRNA reported.
"Forty-four sailors from the two foreign oil tankers which had an accident this morning in the Sea of Oman were saved from the water by the (navy) rescue unit of Hormozgan province and transferred to the port of Bandar-e-Jask," IRNA quoted an "informed source" as saying.

Iran rescued 44 crew after tanker 'accident': state media

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday that the government was not to blame for a failed "merger of equals" between Renault and the US-Italian automaker Fiat Chrysler, denying claims by Renault's chairman.
"We did not derail the wedding between Renault and Fiat," Le Maire told France Info radio, ahead of a meeting with Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard.
Senard told shareholders at Renault's AGM on Wednesday that board directors representing the French state, which owns 15 percent of the carmaker, had demanded more time to study the tie-up, preventing a vote on the deal from taking place.
"We didn't veto the project," said Le Maire, who has focused on Renault's strained alliance with its Japanese partner Nissan.
"We simply asked, after seeing that Nissan was not going to give its backing, for five more days to study the operation." Just over a week after proposing a merger that got a warm welcome from Renault and its investors, Fiat walked away last week, with its ...

French state 'did not derail' Renault-Fiat deal: finance minister

Quiet and unassuming, Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei rose to become a modern badminton great, beloved by his fans despite his tantalising failures to bring home the biggest trophies of all.
The sinewy Lee, blessed with lightning reflexes, retired on Thursday after a 19-year career with a plot like a soap opera, including a doping ban and a frightening brush with cancer.
Lee's decision to walk away at the age of 36 robs badminton of one of its biggest draws and ends his rivalry with China's Lin Dan, his nemesis in four world and Olympic finals.
Lee, who spent 348 weeks as world number one and once held the record for the fastest smash, retired after failing to regain full fitness following his successful treatment for nose cancer last year.
The softly spoken player was long expected to land Malaysia's first Olympic gold but he repeatedly stuttered in the final, losing the 2008, 2012 and 2016 deciders to Lin and fellow Chinese Chen Long.
He had an almost identical record at the world ...

Lee Chong Wei, badminton's beloved nearly man

NASA has renamed the street outside its Washington headquarters to honour three black female mathematicians whose pioneering work on the agency's early space program was chronicled in the film "Hidden Figures".
Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson provided pivotal contributions to space flight research from the 1940s through to the 1960s, when the United States first sent men to orbit and then walk on the Moon.
Despite their achievements, all three had to confront the racial segregation of the era.
They were among dozens of African-Americans, both male and female, who worked as mathematicians and physicists for the US space program, even as they were forced to use separate bathrooms from whites, and were barred from the same restaurants and schools frequented by whites.
The trio's work was largely forgotten until they were profiled in the book "Hidden Figures" decades later by author Margot Lee Shetterly, later adapted into the 2016 blockbuster of the same ...

NASA renames street for 'hidden' black women mathematicians

Their motto has been "Asia's Finest" since colonial times, but videos of Hong Kong police beating unarmed protesters have fuelled public anger and sparked accusations of brutality.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators occupying city streets scattered when police used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds on Wednesday.  Police insisted the force was necessary to fend off protesters throwing bricks and metal bars.
But critics said officers used localised violence by small groups of hardcore activists to launch an unprecedented operation against the much larger mass of peaceful protesters who had taken over parts of the city on Wednesday.
Criticism of police tactics poured in Thursday as videos of the clashes went viral.
The Hong Kong Bar Association slammed the "deployment of wholly unnecessary force against largely unarmed protesters who did not appear to pose any immediate threat to the police or the public at large." The group said the police "may well have ...

Police face mounting brutality claims after Hong Kong clashes

The US Fifth Fleet said on Thursday that its vessels in the Middle East have received distress calls from two tankers reportedly under attack in the Gulf of Oman.
"We are aware of the reported attack on tankers in the Gulf of Oman," said a statement from the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain.
"US naval forces in the region received two separate distress calls at 6:12 am. local time and a second one at 7:00 am," the statement said.
"US Navy ships are in the area and are rendering assistance.

US navy says received distress calls from two ships in Gulf of Oman

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Thursday, seeking to ease tensions between Tehran and Washington during the first visit by a Japanese premier since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Tokyo is a key ally of Washington and has also traditionally enjoyed good ties with Tehran.
"Meeting with Mr. @AbeShinzo, the Prime Minister of Japan," said a tweet on Khamenei's official English-language Twitter account accompanied by a photograph of the two men.
Iran has been locked in a bitter standoff with the United States since US President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May last year.
Washington has since reimposed crippling unilateral sanctions -- which have forced Tokyo to halt its once-substantial purchases of Iranian oil -- and launched a military buildup in the Gulf.
There have also been rising tensions in the Gulf region, with Saudi Arabia on Thursday warning Iran of "grave consequences" after Tehran-linked Huthi Yemen ..

Japan PM meets Iran supreme leader seeking to ease US tensions

Riyadh accused its arch-foe Tehran on Thursday of ordering a Yemeni rebel missile strike which wounded 26 people at a Saudi airport and warned of "grave consequences".
"The continuation of the Iranian regime's aggression and reckless escalation, whether directly or through its militias, will result in grave consequences," deputy defence minister Prince Khaled bin Salman tweeted.
Yemen's Huthi rebels hit the civilian airport in the popular mountain resort of Abha in the southwest of the kingdom on Wednesday, damaging the arrivals hall and forcing its closure for several hours.
"We will confront the Huthi militia's crimes with unwavering resolve," said Prince Khaled, a son of King Salman.
"Their targeting of a civilian airport exposes to the world the recklessness of Iran's escalation and the danger it poses to regional security and stability." Iran and the Yemeni rebels both follow arms of the Shiite branch of Islam but Tehran has always denied providing more than moral support to the .

Saudi warns Iran over Yemeni rebel airport attack

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Thursday as he sought to ease US tensions on the first visit by a Japanese premier since the 1979 revolution.
"Meeting with Mr. @AbeShinzo, the Prime Minister of Japan," said a tweet on the leader's official English-language Twitter account accompanied by photograph of the two men.

Japan PM meets Iran leader on mission to ease tensions

A Shanghai tech fair exhibit that allowed visitors to clobber a bobble-head likeness of Donald Trump has been shut down for encouraging the "violent disrespect" of a public figure, organisers said Thursday.
The kiosk at this week's Consumer Electronics Show Asia (CES Asia) was set up by Japanese tech firm Soliton Systems as a "stress-relief" station.
Visitors were given a hammer to smash a life-sized likeness of the US president, who has angered many Chinese by launching a tariff war with China.
The US Consumer Technology Association (CTA) -- which stages the show each year -- told AFP it issued a "warning" to Soliton Systems on Tuesday.
A curtain was seen drawn across the display site on Thursday, and the Trump likenesses had been removed.
The association told AFP that exhibitors sign contracts making clear that displays cannot be "offensive".
"We will not tolerate violent disrespect of any public figure." Soliton Systems officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The ...

AFP

AFP

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