China, one of Iran's biggest oil export markets, on Monday criticised Washington's decision to tell Beijing and other governments to stop buying crude from Tehran or face sanctions.
China opposes Washington's "unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction," said a foreign ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang. He said Beijing's dealings with Iran are "reasonable and legitimate."
US officials told reporters the Trump administration will inform other governments they no longer will be exempt from sanctions.
China, which relies on imports for about half of its oil, could present the toughest diplomatic challenge in trying to enforce the Trump administration's ambition of driving down Iran's oil exports.
Beijing has supported global efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons technology. But it rejects unilateral US action and previously opposed linking trade to Iran's nuclear program.
The communist government will "protect the legitimate rights" of its companies, Geng said. He gave no ...

China criticizes US effort to reduce Iran oil sales

PTI Automatic

The seaside Sri Lankan fishing town of Negombo has long been called "Little Rome," a reference to its abundance of churches and its place at the center of the country's small Catholic community.
On Monday, it was a town in mourning.
Small white flags flew in house after house near St. Sebastian's Church, a sign that someone who lived there had died. Groups of people visited, paying their respects. On Easter Sunday, a bomb blast ripped through St. Sebastian's, one of a half-dozen coordinated attacks on churches and high-end hotels that killed nearly 300 people.
At least 110 were killed at St. Sebastian's, said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, making it the day's most deadly bombing.
Charles Fernando, 32, who was among the neighbourhood residents walking between houses, pointed to a home where he said nearly everyone had been killed or injured.
"We had war for 30 years but there were no bomb blasts in Negombo," he said.
"We will never forget this." During Sri Lanka's long and bloody civil war, 

A Catholic town at the center of Sri Lanka's deadly attacks

Tensions escalated Monday after talks broke down between Sudanese protesters and the country's military rulers amid indications the army could move in to break up the demonstration in the capital, Khartoum.
The protesters, who have been rallying outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, have demanded a swift handover of power to civilian rule after the military earlier this month ousted autocratic President Omar al-Bashir after four months of street protests against his 30-year rule.
A military council, which took over after al-Bashir's ouster and arrest, issued a statement Monday calling for an "immediate opening of the roads and removal of the barricades" around the sit-in in Khartoum.
It also asked that other roads, closed by similar protests across the country, be opened.
However, the Sudanese Professionals Association, which has led the months of protests against al-Bashir, vowed to carry on with their sit-in.
It also called for a march on Tuesday and mass protests on ...

Sudan tensions escalate after talks with military break down

The UN health agency says at least 34 more people have died in fighting for control of Libya's capital over the past two days, bringing the total to 254 dead so far, including civilians.
The World Health Organisation also said late Sunday that 1,228 have been wounded since the self-styled Libyan National Army launched an offensive earlier this month to take Tripoli.
The fighting pits the force, led by Khalifa Hifter, against rival militias affiliated with a weak UN-supported government in the capital.
Abdelhadi Lahouij, the top diplomat for a rival, east-based government, told The Associated Press in Tunis that Hifter's push slowed down because of the "crucial" issue of protection for Tripoli civilians.
President Donald Trump phoned Hifter last week, expressing US support for Hifter's perceived stance against terrorism.

UN says death toll from fighting over Libya's capital at 254

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Afghanistan's president over the weekend to express Washington's disappointment over the indefinite postponement of Afghan talks with the Taliban and to condemn the insurgent's latest "spring offensive," according to a statement Monday.
The Afghan-to-Afghan talks were scheduled to start on Friday in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain an office, but were scuttled after a falling out over who should attend.
The gathering would have marked the first time that Taliban and Kabul government officials sat together.
It was considered a significant first step toward finding a negotiated end to the war in Afghanistan, America's longest conflict, and the eventual withdrawal of US troops from the country.
The State Department said Pompeo called President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday over the postponement and also condemned the Taliban's recent announcement of starting another offensive this spring.
The announcement itself was just a show of strength since the ..

US tells Afghan president Qatar talks best chance for peace

An Afghan official says an explosion at a coal mine in the northern province of Samangan has killed at least seven miners.
Hashim Bayan, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, says two other miners were injured in the blast on Monday morning in the remote Dar-i-Suf district.
There has been an increase recently in such incidents in the district as miners work without proper equipment or knowledge of safety measures.
Six miners were killed and another one was injured when an explosion in a nearby coal mine earlier this month caused two tunnels to collapse.
Bayan says people in the area are very poor and have no other options but to work as best as they can in the coal mines to make a living.

Afghan official: Explosion in coal mine kills 7 miners

Four small earthquakes hit different parts of Alaska over the weekend, according to an earthquake monitoring center.
At 6:04 pm Sunday, a magnitude 3.1 earthquake hit a spot 26 miles (42 kilometers) east of Knik-Fairview, a town of about 900 people in the Anchorage metropolitan area, the Alaska Earthquake Center said.
The earthquake had a depth of 20 miles (33 kilometers).
At 11:48 am Sunday, a magnitude 3.0 earthquake hit the Prince William Sound region of Alaska, the center said.
The earthquake struck a spot about 24 miles (39 kilometers) northwest of Valdez, which has about 3,900 residents.
Residents of Valdez felt it, the center said.
The earthquake had a depth of 11 miles (18 kilometers).
At 10:31 pm Saturday, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit the Andreanof Islands region of Alaska, which is about 11,200 miles west of Anchorage. This earthquake had a depth of about 8 miles (13 kilometers).
At 7:39 pm Saturday, a magnitude 2.9 earthquake hit a spot 4 miles (7 k9ilometers) southwest ..

4 small earthquakes hit different parts of Alaska

President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted there was "nothing wrong" with the president's 2016 campaign taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller's report .
Giuliani called the Trump campaign's effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.
"There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani said Sunday, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trump's son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a lawyer linked to Russia. The Trump campaign was seeking harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The Sunday news shows offered the latest back and forth following the long-anticipated release on Thursday of Mueller's 448-page redacted report on his ..

Giuliani says not wrong to take information from Russians

Police in Sri Lanka said Monday the investigation into the Easter Sunday bombings will examine reports that the intelligence community failed to detect or warn of possible suicide attacks before the violence.
The nine bombings of churches, luxury hotels and other sites was Sri Lanka's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war in the South Asian island nation ended a decade ago.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said Monday the death toll had risen overnight to 290 dead with more than 500 wounded.
Two government ministers have alluded to intelligence failures.
Telecommunications Minister Harin Fernando tweeted, "Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. Serious action needs to be taken as to why this warning was ignored."
He said his father had heard of the possibility of an attack as well and had warned him not to enter popular churches.
And Mano Ganeshan, the minister for national integration, said the security officers ...

Possible intel failures to be examined in Sri Lanka blasts

The Alaska Earthquake Center reports that a small earthquake has hit the Prince William Sound region of Alaska.
The Fairbanks-based center says a magnitude 3.0 earthquake struck at 11:48 am Sunday about 24 miles (39 kilometers) northwest of Valdez, which has about 3,900 residents.
The center adds that residents of Valdez felt it.
The earthquake had a depth of 11 miles (18 kilometers.) The center says that at 6:04 pm Sunday, a magnitude 3.1 earthquake hit a spot 26 miles (42 kilometers) east of Knik-Fairview, a town of about 900 people in the Anchorage metropolitan area.
The earthquake had a depth of 20 miles. (33 kilometers.)
The center says that at 10:31 pm Saturday, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit the Andreanof Islands region of Alaska, which is about 11,200 miles west of Anchorage. This earthquake had a depth of about 8 miles (13 kilometers).
At 7:39 pm Saturday, a magnitude 2.9 earthquake hit a spot 4 miles (7 k9ilometers) southwest of Sterling, a town of about 5,600 people.
The ...

Small earthquake hits Alaska's Prince William Sound region

The Trump administration is poised to tell five nations, including allies Japan, South Korea and Turkey, that they will no longer be exempt from US sanctions if they continue to import oil from Iran, officials said Sunday.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to announce on Monday that the administration will not renew sanctions waivers for the five countries when they expire on May 2, three US officials said. The others are China and India.
It was not immediately clear if any of the five would be given additional time to wind down their purchases or if they would be subject to US sanctions on May 3 if they do not immediately halt imports of Iranian oil.
The officials were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Pompeo's announcement.
The decision not to extend the waivers, which was first reported by The Washington Post, was finalised on Friday by President Donald Trump, according to the officials. They said it is intended to further 

AP sources: US to sanction nations for importing Iranian oil

Thousands of demonstrators marched in Morocco's capital to condemn lengthy prison sentences given to dozens of activists, including the leader of the Hirak Rif poverty-fighting movement.
The demonstration on Sunday brought one of the main avenues of Rabat to a standstill. Security forces kept watch as participants sang, "The people want the detainees released" and "Long live Rif."
Hirak leader Nasser Zefzafi was sentenced to the maximum prison term of 20 years for threatening state security. Zefzafi, seen as the movement's public face, was arrested in 2017. An appeals court upheld his sentence and those of other activists this month.
Rif is the struggling region in northern Morocco where the Hirak movement was born in 2016, demanding development and job creation for the region. Relatives, human rights organizations and left-wing parties are demanding the imprisoned activists' immediate release.
"They know they will die in prison," Zefzafi's father told The Associated Press. "The ...

Moroccans protest prison sentences of anti-poverty activists

President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani insisted Sunday the president's 2016 campaign did nothing wrong by taking information from the Russians, as House Democrats pledged stepped-up investigations into campaign misconduct and possible crimes of obstruction detailed in the special counsel's report.
Giuliani called the Trump campaign's effort to get political help from representatives of the Russian government possibly ill-advised but not illegal.
"There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," Giuliani said, referring to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Trump's son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in which they sought from a lawyer linked to Russia harmful information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani was rebutting Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who said in a statement on Twitter Friday he was sickened by the findings from Mueller's 400-plus page report in the Russia ...

Giuliani: Trump camp did no wrong by taking Russian help

The archbishop of Paris and Catholics from around France and the world honored the firefighters who saved Notre Dame Cathedral, praying Sunday at a special Easter Mass for a swift reconstruction of the beloved monument.
Some streets around the medieval cathedral also reopened six days after the blaze, allowing tourists to get a closer look and local restaurants to reopen, after firefighters declared the last hot points extinguished. Notre Dame itself is expected to remain closed for years.
The blaze that engulfed the cathedral on Monday night forced parish members and visitors who hoped to worship at Notre Dame on Easter to find other places to attend services.
The Paris diocese invited them to join Sunday's Mass at the grandiose Saint-Eustache Church on the Right Bank of the Seine River.
The firefighters, who struggled for nine hours to contain flames that consumed Notre Dame's roof and collapsed its spire, held a place of honor at the Saint-Eustache.
Police officers and a soldier ...

Paris Easter Mass honours firefighters who saved Notre Dame

Iran's supreme leader has appointed a new head to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard, just after the U.S. designated the paramilitary force a terrorist group.
State-run Iranian media gave no reason for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's decision to replace the Guard's commander.
Taking over will be Gen. Hossein Salami, a 59-year-old who had been serving as a deputy commander in the Guard.
He replaces Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had been in charge of the Guard for over 11 years.
The Revolutionary Guard is a separate force from Iran's standing military. It also oversees the country's ballistic missile program and runs its own intelligence operations.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration designated the Guard a terrorist organisation.
Iran responded by designating the U.S. military's Central Command as a terrorist organisation.

Iran's supreme leader picks new Revolutionary Guard chief

California Sen Kamala Harris has described her experience as a student at a historically black college as "one of the most important aspects" of her life. Now, her Democratic presidential campaign is using that experience to connect with voters.
Not only is she one of only two black candidates in a field that's expected to grow to more than 20 candidates, she's also the only candidate who attended a historically black college or university, commonly called an HBCU.
And she's the first major-party candidate to have graduated from an HBCU  Washington's Howard University  since Jesse Jackson ran for president in the 1980s.
To be sure, she is not the only candidate focusing on such institutions.
Massachusetts Sen Elizabeth Warren, New York Sen Kirsten Gillibrand and former Texas Rep Beto O'Rourke have campaigned at historically black colleges. So has the other black candidate in the 2020 race, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
At a CNN town hall last month in Orangeburg, home to two of South ..

Harris' campaign focuses on black colleges for support

South Sudan's opposition is calling for a six-month extension to implement next steps in a fragile peace deal as a major deadline approaches next month to form a power-sharing government between the president and his longtime rival.
Opposition deputy chairman Henry Odwar told The Associated Press on Saturday that the extension is needed because security arrangements are not yet adequate.
South Sudan's government rejects the idea of an extension, further raising concerns among observers that the peace agreement signed in September could fall apart.
The deal ended five years of civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and sent millions fleeing.
There could be a "constitutional vacuum" if opposition leader Riek Machar does not return to South Sudan as scheduled to form the transitional government that is meant to culminate in elections, government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny said.
May 12 is the deadline for Machar to return and once again serve as President Salva Kiir's deputy, an ...

South Sudan opposition seeks 6-month extension on peace deal

Pope Francis denounced the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday slaughter of Christians and foreigners in Sri Lanka as he celebrated the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar by lamenting the bloodshed and political violence afflicting many parts of the world.
Francis skipped his homily during Easter Mass but delivered his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (To the city and the world) speech highlighting conflicts in the Mideast, Africa and the Americas and demanding that political leaders put aside their differences and work instead for peace.
"May the one who gives us his peace end the roar of arms, both in areas of conflict and in our cities, and inspire the leaders of nations to work for an end to the arms race and the troubling spread of weaponry, especially in the economically more advanced countries," Francis said from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking the flower-decked square below.
In a special appeal at the end, Francis lamented the "grave attacks" on 

Pope denounces 'cruel violence' of Sri Lanka Easter attack

Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her 93rd birthday, which this year coincides with Easter Sunday.
The queen is marking Easter by attending a service with other senior royals at St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle, west of London.
Her birthday is marked this year by an unusual sunny spell that has sent flowers blooming on the extensive castle grounds.
Sunday is the first of two birthday celebrations each year for the queen. She marks her official birthday in June with the Trooping the Color parade.
The two-birthday tradition dates back more than 250 years, when it was instituted by King George II.
Elizabeth is the longest-reigning monarch in British history. She still maintains an active schedule, although she does not travel as often as she used to.

Happy birthday: Queen Elizabeth II turns 93 on Easter Sunday

Pope Francis is denouncing the "cruel violence" of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka and is praying for all those who are suffering from the bloodshed.
Francis added an appeal at the end of his traditional Easter Sunday blessing to address the massacre which killed more than 130 people.
Speaking from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Francis said: "I want to express my loving closeness to the Christian community, targeted while they were gathered in prayer, and all the victims of such cruel violence."
He added: "I entrust to the Lord all those who were tragically killed and pray for the injured and all those who are suffering as a result of this dramatic event.

Pope denounces 'cruel violence' in Sri Lanka

The archbishop of Paris and parishioners of fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral are mourning the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka.
Archbishop Michel Aupetit tweeted: "Why so much hate on this day when we celebrate love? On this Easter day, we are in communion with our murdered brethren of Sri Lanka." Aupetit celebrated Easter Mass for worshippers displaced from normal services at Notre Dame because of Monday's fire.
A soldier and several police guarded the building. It was unclear whether the extra security was linked to the Sri Lanka attack, but parishioner Monique Pigere said "I understand why" security is needed, lamenting the "terrible" news.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has condemned the "devastating" attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka.
In a statement, Ardern referred to the March 15 shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in which 50 died.
"New Zealand condemns all acts of terrorism and our resolve has only been ...

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