A top cardinal has said "many questions" remain despite the Vatican's diplomatic thaw with China, and that a deal paving the way to rapprochement was "only a starting point".
Cardinal Pietro Parolin's remarks -- in an interview with China's state-run Global Times, published Monday -- follow the signing in September last year of a historic bilateral agreement on the thorny issue of the appointment of bishops.
That deal came after decades of mistrust between Beijing and the Vatican.  China's estimated 10 million Catholics are split between an underground church that swears allegiance only to the pope and a state-supervised body -- the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
The September agreement allowed both sides to have a say on the appointment of bishops, and paved the way for a rapprochement between the Vatican and Beijing, which broke diplomatic ties in 1951.
Parolin -- the Vatican's number two -- called the deal "a starting point" and that there were "elements which demonstrate .

Top cardinal says 'many questions' remain despite Vatican thaw with China

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An Iranian woman who worked for the British Council was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "spying", the judiciary's news website Mizan Online reported Monday, sparking concern in London.
"An Iranian citizen in charge of the Iran desk at the... British Council was cooperating with English spying agencies," Mizan reported, quoting judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.
He did not identify the suspect, but said she had been sentenced recently after she "made a straightforward confession".
Esmaili added that the suspect, who had been tasked with drawing up and managing cultural "infiltration" projects, had been arrested by Iranian intelligence and security agencies "more than a year ago".
The United Kingdom's foreign ministry voiced concern over the sentence.
"We are very concerned by reports that an Iranian British Council employee has been sentenced to jail on charges of espionage," a spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office told AFP.
"British Embassy officials in ...

Iranian British Council employee sentenced 10 years for 'spying': judiciary

The UN's Afghanistan mission said Monday it was probing allegations of civilian casualties resulting from US air strikes against purported drug-making facilities in western Afghanistan.
The allegations centre on strikes conducted earlier this month in Farah and Nimroz provinces, where dozens of structures said to have been used to produce heroin and other illegal drugs were destroyed.
According to interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi, "150 Taliban terrorists were killed, 40 wounded" in the Farah operations.
But the Taliban have denied the facilities were used for drugs and claimed "up to 100" civilians were killed.
In a statement, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it was "actively looking into allegations of civilian casualties resulting from International Military Forces' aerial operations in Farah and Nimroz provinces against reported drug manufacturing facilities".
"The locations are not easily accessible and there are numerous operational ...

UN probes casualty claims from US strikes in Afghanistan

Sudan's army rulers and protest leaders Monday resumed crucial talks over handing power to a civilian administration after days of deadlock in negotiations, a spokesperson for the protest movement told AFP.
Protest leaders Omar al-Digeir and Satea al-Haj were among those attending the talks on behalf of the Alliance for Freedom and Change group, the movement's spokeswoman Mashar Darraj said.

Sudan army rulers, protesters resume civil rule talks: Protest movement

South Africa on Monday said it would lodge an appeal after Olympic champion Caster Semenya lost her case challenging new rules forcing female athletes to regulate their testosterone levels.
Semenya's case has provoked a furious debate across sport worldwide about gender and "hyperandrogenic" athletes, those with "differences of sexual development" (DSD).
The decision on May 1 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, means female athletes with elevated testosterone will have to take suppressive treatment if they wish to compete as women in certain events.
"We'll file the appeal as soon as we possibly can," Vuyo Mhaga, spokesman for the South African sport and recreation ministry, told AFP.
"We feel that the scientific information that has been brought has been completely ignored."
Mhaga said the appeal, to be lodged at the Switzerland Federal Tribunal, would be based on complaints over the judges' past record on similar cases, lack of clarity over how the ..

South Africa to appeal Semenya ruling: sports ministry

Somalia has for the first time used DNA evidence to obtain a criminal conviction, sentencing three men  to death Sunday for the gang-rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, the Bureau of Forensic Science said.
The country got its first-ever forensic laboratory in 2017 in the semiautonomous state of Puntland, seeking to tackle widespread sexual violence in a country where two decades of conflict and turmoil have put justice out of reach for most.
The bureau said in a statement that Somalia had "joined, for the first time, the rest of the world in utilising science to solve a heinous criminal case".
In February, the kidnapping of 12-year-old Aisha Ilyas Adan -- who was gang-raped and tortured to death, her body dumped outside her parents home -- sparked outrage and protests in the region.
Human Rights Watch has described rape as "normal" in Somalia, with police often failing to take cases seriously.
The Puntland state government enacted a Sexual Offences Act in 2016, which criminalised ..

In first for Somalia, DNA used to convict rapists

China warned Monday that it will "never surrender to external pressure" after the United States ordered tariffs on almost all Chinese exports.
The latest round of trade negotiations ended Friday without a deal, with President Donald Trump increasing tariffs on USD 200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 per cent and ordering the start of a process to impose new duties on another USD 300 billion.
China vowed last week to hit back with the "necessary countermeasures", though it has yet to specify what they will look like.
"China will never surrender to external pressure," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing Monday.
"We are determined to have the ability to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests."
"We have said many times that imposing tariffs will not solve any problems," Geng said, adding that China hoped the United States will work with Beijing to reach a "mutually beneficial and win-win agreement."
China's top trade negotiator, Liu He, said ...

China 'won't surrender' to pressure in US trade war

Pep Guardiola was eulogised on Monday for his relentless hunger for success that propelled Manchester City to a second consecutive Premier League title after a titanic battle with Liverpool.
Guardiola claimed his eighth league title in 10 seasons as a coach in charge of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City as the English champions followed up their record 100-point campaign last season with another stunning 98-point season thanks to a 4-1 victory at Brighton.
That meant Liverpool's long wait for a first league title since 1990 continued despite the Reds posting the third-highest Premier League points tally ever with 97 after they beat Wolves 2-0 on Sunday.
"Pep's party," ran the headline in the Guardian newspaper. "The only real world star in this set-up is the manager.
"They didn't go for (Cristiano) Ronaldo or (Lionel) Messi but invested in fine young players, almost all of whom have been pushed to the outer levels of their talent."
City became the first side in a decade to retain the .

Guardiola hailed as 'obsessive' genius behind Man City winning machine

Lewis Hamilton cut short his celebrations after winning the Spanish Grand Prix to warn that Mercedes' dominance could be a menace to Formula One's box office appeal.
The defending five-time world champion seized the initiative at the start of Sunday's race and then cruised to his 76th career victory ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who had started in pole position.
It was the Mercedes pairing's fifth consecutive one-two finish and left rivals Ferrari floundering in pursuit.
The two Mercedes drivers are competing against each other ... and it's not much fun for outsiders, admits Hamilton, especially for spectators.
Having hoped to see a Ferrari renaissance at the Circuit de Catalunya, where they were so dominant in pre-season testing, Hamilton was disappointed again at their lack of pace, which, almost incredibly, prompted paddock talk of the Silver Arrows winning all 21 races.
- Not as much fun -
===================
Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid and then took a ...

Mercedes dominance bad for F1 box ofice -- Hamilton

German forensic investigators were performing autopsies Monday on three people found dead in a hotel room with crossbow bolts in their heads and chests, police said.
Detectives were hoping for clues to the mysterious deaths of one man and two women in the Bavarian town of Passau near the Austrian border.
The corpses, all of German citizens, were discovered by hotel staff Saturday around noon, alongside two crossbows.
A third crossbow was later found packed inside a bag, police said.
The three were a 33-year-old woman and a 53-year-old man from Rhineland-Palatinate state and a 30-year-old woman from Lower Saxony, who had arrived Friday.
"There are currently no indications that other persons were involved," said police spokesman Stefan Gaisbauer.
Local media reported that the man and the 33-year-old woman were found dead in the bed, holding hands, with bolts in their heads and chests, while the 30-year-old woman was found lying on the floor with a bolt in her chest.
Reports said the ...

German police start autopsies in mystery crossbow deaths

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Brussels on Monday to discuss the Iran nuclear deal, as Britain issued a stark warning about the risk of conflict erupting "by accident" in the Gulf.
Pompeo is set to meet his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany -- the three European signatories to the 2015 accord that curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions relief -- on the sidelines of a regular EU foreign ministers' gathering.
Iran last week announced it was suspending some of its commitments under the agreement, a year after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord and imposed swingeing sanctions on the Islamic republic -- putting the deal in peril.
Adding a military dimension to the diplomatic tensions, Washington is sending an amphibious assault ship and a Patriot missile battery to the Gulf, having already deployed an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers.
British foreign minister Hunt called for "a period of calm" as he arrived for talks, warning ...

Pompeo visits Brussels as Europe meets on Iran

Malaysian police said Monday they have arrested four militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group who were in possession of explosives and planned to attack non-Muslim places of worship.
The suspects -- a Malaysian who led the group, two Rohingya from Myanmar and one Indonesian -- were detained last week in raids around Kuala Lumpur and in eastern Terengganu state.
Malaysia's national police chief Abdul Hamid Bador described them as an "Islamic State cell" and said they planned to "assassinate high-profile individuals and attack Hindu, Christian and Buddhist places of worship in Malaysia".
He did not give any details about who the high-profile individuals were. Police also seized six improvised explosive devices, a pistol and 15 bullets, he said.
The planned attacks were to avenge the high-profile death of a Muslim fireman during riots at an Indian temple outside Kuala Lumpur last year, police said.
One of the Rohingya admitted supporting the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a ...

Malaysia foils IS-linked plot, seizes explosives

An Iranian woman who worked for the British Council was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "spying", the judiciary's news website Mizan Online reported Monday.
"An Iranian citizen in charge of the Iran desk at the English cultural council called British Council was cooperating with English spying agencies," it said quoting judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.
He said the sentence was handed down recently and did not identify the suspect who "had made a straightforward confession and was sentenced to 10 years by the court".
Esmaili added that the suspect, who had been tasked with drawing up and managing cultural "infiltration" projects, had been arrested by Iranian intelligence and security agencies "more than a year ago".
The British Council is a cultural and educational organisation overseas but according to its website it is not "physically present" in Iran.
Iranian authorities shut down the British Council more than a decade ago for what Esmaili described as "illegal ...

Iranian British Council worker sentenced to 10 years for 'spying': Judiciary

Ever more South Koreans prefer peaceful co-existence with the nuclear-armed North to reunification of the peninsula, a survey found Monday.
Despite sharing a common language and ethnicity and centuries of history, North and South Korea have become radically different societies in recent decades.
Ruled with an iron grip by three generations of the Kim family, the North has turned itself into a nuclear power -- at the cost of international isolation -- while the South has embraced democracy and risen to become the world's 11th-largest economy.
The South's President Moon Jae-in regularly affirms unification as an eventual goal, but the picture in his country is far more nuanced, the survey by Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) showed.
A total of 65.9 percent of South Koreans saw unification as necessary, it said, down from 70.7 percent last year as inter-Korean engagement and nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington stall.
But when offered an alternative, 49.5 .

Unification support falls in S Korea as talks stall

Turkey's military launched a major naval exercise on Monday at a time of rising tensions over its plans to explore for gas off the coast of Cyprus.
The exercises, featuring 131 vessels, 57 planes and 33 helicopters, began early on Monday, a Turkish defence ministry official confirmed to AFP.
They are due to last until May 25 and take place across the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black seas.  It
follows Turkey's announcement in May that it would carry out exploratory drilling off Cyprus up to September.  The European Union has said that will encroach on Cyprus's exclusive economic zone, while the United States described the move as "highly provocative".
The international community does not recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed after troops occupied the top third of the island in 1974 in response to a coup sponsored by the Greek military junta.
The discovery of huge gas reserves in the Mediterranean has fuelled a race to tap the underwater resources.
Turkey ...

Turkey starts naval exercise amid Cyprus gas dispute

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin praised "hockey diplomacy" as he scored nine goals in a game with his allies and Russian stars but fell on his face after the match.
"It brings people closer," Putin told reporters during the hockey match, in footage broadcast on television Sunday evening.
"This always helps." Wearing his traditional No. 11 jersey, the Russian president on Friday took to the ice for an exhibition game at the Bolshoi Ice Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The sports-mad 66-year-old leader, who has done a lot to promote a healthy lifestyle in Russia, said hockey was outside of politics and helped foster ties between statesmen.
In the past, the Kremlin chief took to the ice with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and often plays with Belarusian hockey-crazed strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin said he could not even stand on ice several years ago and learned to skate by clutching a chair.
Skating alongside Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian hockey stars such as ..

Putin extols 'hockey diplomacy', falls on ice

Stock markets in the energy-rich Gulf states dived on Monday as regional tensions soared after ships and oil tankers were targeted by acts of "sabotage" off the UAE coast.
The Saudi bourse, the largest in the region, was down 2.7 percent after the kingdom's energy minister said two Saudi oil tankers were damaged in a "sabotage attack" off the coast of Fujairah on the Arabian Sea.
The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday that four commercial vessels from various nationalities had been targeted by acts of sabotage just outside its territorial waters near Fujairah.
The attacks did not result in any casualties but they caused damage to the vessels.  The UAE bourses of Dubai and Abu Dhabi dropped by 3.7 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively on Monday.
Qatar shares were down 2.1 per cent and Kuwait Bourse was 1.2 per cent lower while the small bourses of Oman and Bahrain were down 0.16 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.
The incidents came amid rising tensions in a region already ...

Gulf stocks down on rising regional tension

The reopening of a 2010 rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will give him "a chance to clear his name", the whistleblower website's editor said on Monday.
Kristinn Hrafnsson also said in a statement that there had been "political pressure" on Sweden to reopen the case into Assange, who is currently serving a 50-week sentence in Britain for breaching his bail conditions in 2012.

WikiLeaks says Swedish probe will allow Assange to clear his name

British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt on Monday issued a stark warning of the dangers of conflict erupting "by accident" in the Gulf, as tensions between the United States and Iran soar.
Saudi Arabia said Monday that two of its oil tankers were damaged in "sabotage attacks" in the Gulf, with its arch-rival Iran calling for an investigation and warning of "adventurism" by foreign players to disrupt maritime security.
The region is already on edge because of the standoff between Washington and Tehran over the Iran nuclear deal, and Hunt said he would share Britain's concerns with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brussels on Monday.
"We are very worried about the risk of a conflict happening by accident with an escalation that is unintended on either side but ends with some kind of conflict," Hunt said as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
"I think what we need is a period of calm, to make sure everyone understands what the other side is thinking and most of all we must 

Britain warns of conflict 'by accident' in Gulf

China car sales fell 14.6 percent in April, an official industry association said on Monday, extending a slump in a massive auto market that has long been a cash cow for the industry.
Sales fell to 1.98 million last month, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
Fuelled by rising incomes and government sales incentives, China in recent years has surged to become the world's largest automotive market and one of its fastest growing, prompting global manufacturers to stake their futures on it.
But after years of strong growth, car sales fell last year for the first time since the 1990s, hit by a slowing domestic economy, trade tensions with the United States, and a Chinese crackdown on shady credit practices that have crimped car-financing channels.
Sales had dipped 2.8 percent in 2018 to 28.1 million units, according to previous CAAM figures, and the decline has accelerated into 2019.
Analyst say the ongoing slump has been heightened by a ...

China auto sales slump continues in April

Crowded into "ghettos" surrounded by armed checkpoints, Pakistan's Shiite Hazara minority say they are being slaughtered by sectarian militants in the southwestern city of Quetta, with authorities seemingly unable to halt the killings.
For years, hundreds of thousands of the Shiite community's members have been hemmed into two separate enclaves cordoned off by numerous checkpoints and hundreds of armed guards designed to protect the minority from violent militants.
"It's like a prison here," said Bostan Ali, a Hazara activist, about conditions inside the enclaves.
"The Hazaras are experiencing mental torture," he added, complaining the community has been effectively "cut off from the rest of the city" and "confined" to such areas.
The Shiite community's presence is particularly strong in Quetta -- the uneasy capital of impoverished Balochistan province where sectarian violence, suicide bombings, and banditry are common.
Hazaras are technically free to roam around Quetta at their will, 

AFP

AFP

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