Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has sent a message to a summit of Muslim countries saying they need to remain focused on the Palestinian issue.
In a letter published on the presidential website Friday, Rouhani said Muslim leaders should not let the occupation of Palestine be "marginalized" in the face of the Trump administration's forthcoming peace plan.
Glimpses of the still undisclosed plan suggest it sidelines or ignores the longstanding goal of Palestinian independence.
Rouhani, while complaining about not being invited to the summit, expressed his country's readiness to accompany and collaborate with all Muslim leaders to confront the so-called "Deal of the Century".
Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, without naming any country, also condemned some Arab leaders for siding with Israel.
The Deal of the Century is likely to include large-scale investment and infrastructure work in the Palestinian territories, much of it funded by wealthy Arab countries. Zarif's remarks ...

Iran's president says stay focused on Palestine

PTI Automatic

West Indies crushed Pakistan by seven wickets in a one-sided World Cup match at Trent Bridge on Friday, with the two-time champions showing they are a resurgent force in the one-day game.
Fast bowler Oshane Thomas took four wickets as Pakistan were bundled out for their second-lowest World Cup total of 105 in just 21.4 overs on the second day of the competition in England and Wales.
West Indies cruised to victory in just 13.4 overs, Chris Gayle top-scoring with 50. He reached his half-century off 33 balls with three sixes and six fours before he was dismissed off the next ball he faced.
During his innings Gayle, who calls himself the "Universe Boss", broke the record for the most sixes hit in World Cup history.  He now has 40 maximums, three more than retired South African batsman A B de Villiers.
Nicolas Pooran smashed paceman Wahab Riaz for a huge six over the square-leg boundary to give the 1975 and 1979 world champions an ideal start to their campaign.  "It was a good game. I ...

Thomas, Gayle lead West Indies World Cup rout of Pakistan

Pope Francis on Friday praised the "sacrifices" of Romanian emigrants on the first day of his trip to the country, where rampant unemployment and poverty have pushed millions of youngsters to seek better lives abroad.
Francis said the exodus had led to the "depopulation of many villages" in Romania, which still faces major socio-political problems despite joining the EU in 2007.
"I pay homage to the sacrifices endured by so many sons and daughters of Romania who... have enriched those countries to which they have emigrated, and by the fruit of their hard work have helped their families who have remained at home," he said in a speech broadcast on national television.
Francis arrived in Bucharest earlier Friday with a message of integration for faith communities and a post-election European Union following nationalist gains.
Thousands of people had gathered along the capital's main boulevards to wave to Francis on his way to the presidential palace, with many TV channels broadcasting ...

Pope praises 'sacrifices' of Romanians seeking fortune abroad

The lawyer representing the runaway Islamic State (ISIS) bride Shamima Begum on Friday accused the UK government of failing to protect her from grooming and radicalisation by Islamist extremists and demanded the teenager be allowed to return to her home in London.
Tasnime Akunjee, representing Begum's UK-based family, has written to home secretary Sajid Javid challenging his decision to revoke her British citizenship as "politically-driven abuse of power" to try to further his "own personal political objective" of becoming Britain's next Prime Minister.
"Your act represents the most profoundly egregious, capricious and politically driven abuse of power, the letter notes.
"It was an artifice or device to further your own personal political objective of being Prime Minister. Ms Begum was a pawn to your vanity. Her baby died," he said.
Begum was pregnant with her third child when she was discovered at the Al-Roj camp in northern Syria in February. She had pleaded through the UK media to .

SIS bride's lawyer accuses UK of failing to protect her

Iran's stocks of key nuclear materials are still within the limits set by a 2015 deal with world powers, the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report on the matter said Friday.
Despite an announcement from Iran earlier this month that it no longer considered itself bound by the agreed restrictions on stocks of enriched uranium and heavy water, stocks of both did not exceed the ceilings set in the 2015 agreement, the report said.

Iran's stocks of nuclear materials still within limits: IAEA

Rescuers were searching Friday for a four-year-old girl missing after a boating accident in eastern France that killed three people, local officials said.
The inflatable boat capsized on Thursday in the Rhine River that marks the border between France and Germany, just off the French town of Gerstheim and close to a hydro-electric power station and dam.
French and German rescuers were employing divers and using helicopters in a bid to find the missing girl.
Officials said the four people -- part of a group of seven Germans and Romanians who had come from Germany -- had taken to the water in defiance of clearly posted warnings against swimming and boating.
A man, 29, and a girl aged 6 both died when the boat capsized, while a 22-year-old man from the same group also lost his life when he jumped in to rescue them.
Two other witnesses of the accident who dived in a bid to save the victims managed to swim to safety.
Notices in the area in German and French clearly state that water ...

Three drown, 4-year-old missing in France boat accident

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personal security chief faces accusations of sexual misconduct and making racist and homophobic comments, according to a report Thursday by a business news site.
In a detailed article, Business Insider cited legal letters reportedly written by former employees of Zuckerberg's household staff.
The letters reportedly described pervasive discriminatory conduct and severe levels of sexual harassment and battery, including racist and homophobic comments about members of Zuckerberg's staff and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
The security chief, Liam Booth, is a former Secret Service officer, according to his LinkedIn profile, and has been with the family's charitable organisation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, since 2017.
A spokesman from the family office of Zuckerberg and Chan said Booth has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of unspecified misconduct allegations.
The spokesman said the office takes workplace misconduct complaints ...

Report: Zuckerberg security chief accused of misconduct

A US court on Thursday weighed the fate of the last abortion clinic in Missouri, which risks becoming the first state in 45 years without access to the procedure amid a nationwide push to curtail reproductive rights.
As a judge heard arguments, crowds of protestors took to the streets of Missouri's largest city St. Louis, warning of dire consequences if the state of six million loses its sole abortion provider.
"No one should decide what women do with their bodies," said Jane Wees Martin, a 70-year-old painter who was among the hundreds holding up signs reading "My vagina, My choice," and "Reproductive autonomy is a human right."
Denouncing a "war against women," health management student Neha Hanumanthiah, 19, said "I did not realise how conservative my state was."
The state is pursuing a case against Planned Parenthood, which provides women's reproductive services throughout the United States, arguing that the group failed to make its contract doctors cooperate with an investigation 

Protests as court weighs fate of Missouri's sole abortion clinic

China on Friday said it would release a blacklist of "unreliable" foreign companies and individuals, hitting back after the United States targeted telecom giant Huawei in their escalating trade war.
The announcement was made a day before Beijing is due to increase tariffs on USD 60 billion in US goods, capping a week marked by rising Chinese threats of retaliation after President Donald Trump blacklisted Huawei.
The US Commerce Department placed Huawei on an "entity list" on grounds of national security on May 16, a move that curbs its access to US-made components it needs for its equipment. A 90-day reprieve was later issued.
China's commerce ministry announced on Friday that it will release its own list of "unreliable entities".
Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said the list will include "foreign enterprises, organisations or individuals that do not comply with market rules, deviate from a contract's spirit or impose blockades or stop supplies to Chinese enterprises for non-commercial ...

China to create company blacklist as US trade war escalates

The Trump administration has exuded confidence that the US-India strategic relationship, which enjoys bipartisan support, will see a very positive trajectory during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's second term.
Modi on Thursday took oath of office, heading a 58-member ministry. He led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) towards a resounding victory, winning 303 seats in the 542-member Lok Sabha.
"This is really a resilient partnership. It enjoys bipartisan support. It has the structures and it has the strategic commitment in place to take advantage of our leaders' vision. I anticipate a very positive trajectory moving forward," a senior State Department official said Thursday.
As was evident in the tweets, statements and phone calls from the US President, Vice President and Secretary of State after the Indian elections, the US looks forward to working with Prime Minister Modi and his government in the second term, the official said.
"We do expect that our strategic partnership will ...

US confident of very positive trajectory in ties with India under Modi2.0: Official

A plastic bag ban comes into force in Tanzania on Saturday, as Africa leads efforts to stem the tide of plastic blighting the farthest reaches of the globe, and depths of the ocean.
Tanzania is banning the importation, production, sale and use of plastic bags, becoming the 34th African country to implement such restrictions, according to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
"Let me be clear on this, once it reaches June 1, the government is not planning to add any more days and we will not tolerate anyone who will be caught using them. No plastic bag will be allowed in the country," Tanzania's vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan said when announcing the move in April.
Tanzania -- whose wildlife is a popular tourist draw -- has also issued a notice to travellers that they will have to "surrender" plastic bags in their possession before entering the country.
"The government expects that, in appreciation of the imperative to protect the environment and keep our country clean 

Tanzania latest African nation to ban plastic bags

Iranians in the capital Tehran set fire to effigies of US President Donald Trump, while in the Iraqi capital, Iran-backed militiamen marched over a large Israeli flag as part of rallies Friday marking Quds, or Jerusalem Day.
The annual protests come as the Trump administration tries to market its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, Iran has marked Quds Day since the start of its 1979 Islamic Revolution by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem, and Iran says the day is an occasion to express support for the Palestinians.
Israel views Iran as its archenemy in the Mideast. Iran does not recognise Israel and supports the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
This year's protests took place as the White House is promoting the June 25-26 meeting in the Gulf state of Bahrain as the first phase of its Mideast peace plan.
That plan, whose specifics have yet to be ...

Protesters in Iran, Iraq burn Israel, US flags on 'Quds Day'

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte voiced rare frustration with China Friday, urging progress on a code of conduct for the contested South China Sea, which he warned was becoming a "flashpoint".
Duterte was delivering a speech at an economic forum in Tokyo, but veered off script with remarks about the resource-rich sea, over most of which China claims sovereignty despite competing claims from the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam.
"I love China... but it behooves upon us to ask, 'is it right for a country to claim the whole ocean?" he said.
Beijing and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have for years tried to hammer out a code of conduct to govern the disputed waters, but the process has been slow.
"I am sad and bewildered -- not angry, because I cannot do anything," Duterte said. "I just hope China will come up with this 'conduct' soon."
"The longer it takes," he said, the greater the chance the sea would be a "flashpoint of troubles", ...

Philippines' Duterte warns over South China Sea 'flashpoint'

Honda Racing India riders Rajiv Sethu and Senthil Kumar Friday completed a positive opening day of practice in Round 3 of FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) here.
Clocking his best practice lap time of 1:55:146, Rajiv Sethu has recorded his new fastest lap time at the Chang circuit. Shaving off 3 seconds from his lap times between the 3 practice sessions, Rajiv's gap with the fastest rider has now reduced to just 2 seconds. This puts him in the top 15 bunch after the practice.
His teammate Senthil - the rookie 18-year-old rider -- reduced his lap time by more than 1 second between FP1, FP2 and FP3. Combined practice result saw Senthil finish 20th with lap time of 1:57:766.

Rajiv in top 15 at ARRC third round practice

Thousands of Iranians joined annual rallies in support of the Palestinian cause on Friday, rejecting a US peace plan President Donald Trump has dubbed the "deal of the century".
The Quds (Jerusalem) Day commemorations, which are held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, were launched by Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and are held by pro-Iranian groups across the region.
Demonstrators burnt US and Israeli flags and effigies of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They held up posters reading "Quds, the eternal capital of Palestine" and "no to the deal of the century." The long-awaited "deal", which has yet to be unveiled by its architect, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, has already been rejected by the Palestinians, who say Trump's policies have shown him to be blatantly biased in favour of Israel.
High-ranking officials attended the Tehran rally, including President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Javad ..

Iran rejects US Mideast peace plan at Quds Day rally

Oshane Thomas took four wickets as West Indies skittled Pakistan for their second-lowest World Cup total of 105 at Trent Bridge on Friday.
Thomas finished with four for 27 while Jason Holder 3-42 and Andre Russell 2-4 shared the spoils as Pakistan, sent in to bat, were demolished in just 21.4 overs.  Opener Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam were the joint top-scorers with 22 each in an abysmal display of batting.
The only other batsmen to reach double figures were Wahab Riaz, who scored 18, and Mohammad Hafeez (16).
Riaz put on 22 for the last wicket -- the highest stand of the match -- with Mohammad Amir, who made three not out.
Pakistan's lowest World Cup score was 74, made against England at Adelaide on the way to their only World Cup title in 1992.
"New experience for me, this being my first World Cup," Thomas told Sky Sports.
"I was confident of running in and doing my job. Andre Russell started the job for us, I just followed his footsteps today. Lot of guys tried to mix it up with ...

West Indies bowl out Pakistan for 105 in World Cup opener

India's Divij Sharan and his Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner made an early exit from the French Open, losing their second round match in straight sets here Friday.
Up against eighth seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers, the unseeded Indo-Brazilian pair lost 3-6 4-6 in exact one hour.
Divij and Demoliner could convert none of the two break chances they got besides dropping their serve twice.
It is the fourth tournament together for Divij and the Brazilian. Ending runners-up at the BMW Open in Munich has been their best result.
Divij had began the season by teaming up with compatriot Rohan Bopanna but split after losing four first round matches in seven tournaments in a three-month partnership.
The Indians had won the season-opening Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune.

Sharan-Demoliner pair exit from French Open

Reaffirming the dominance of Indian-Americans, a record six Indian-origin students were among eight who jointly won the prestigious 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee, taking home more than USD 50,000 in cash and prizes in an "unprecedented" competition.
It is the first time in the 94-year history of the contest that more than two co-champions have been named.
Rishik Gandhasri, 13, of California; Saketh Sundar, 13, of Maryland; Shruthika Padhy, 13, of New Jersey; Sohum Sukhatankar, 13, of Texas; Abhijay Kodali, 12, of Texas; Rohan Raja, 13, of Texas; Christopher Serrao, 13, of New Jersey and Erin Howard, 14, of Alabama were named as co-champions.
For Rishik Gandhasri, the winning word was "auslaut." Erin Howard, spelled "erysipelas" correctly. Saketh Sundar, won on "bougainvillea." And Shruthika Padhy, won with "aiguillette." Sohum Sukhatankar, spelled "pendeloque" correctly. Abhijay Kodali, spelled "palama" right. Christopher Serrao, won with "cernuous." Rohan's winning word was ...

Record 6 Indian-origin students among 8 winners at 'unprecedented' US National Spelling Bee

Tonnes of garbage sent to the Philippines years ago was shipped back to Canada on Friday after a festering diplomatic row, as Asian nations increasingly reject serving as dumping grounds for international trash.
After a long campaign to urge Canada to take back the rotting waste, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at Ottawa last week and ordered the refuse returned immediately.
The 69 shipping containers of garbage were loaded onto a cargo vessel at Subic Bay, a former US naval base and shipping port northwest of Manila, and began the lengthy trip to Canada.
"Baaaaaaaaa bye, as we say it," Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin wrote on Twitter, along with images of the vessel leaving.
Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna welcomed the news of the trash being returned, telling reporters on Thursday: "We committed with the Philippines and we're working closely with them."
Just days earlier Malaysia announced it was shipping 450 tonnes of imported plastic ...

Philippines ships dumped trash back to Canada

A new artificial-intelligence (AI) based algorithm may help people store more pictures and share videos faster, scientists say.
The world produces about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, said researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the US.
Storing and transferring all of this enormous -- and constantly growing -- number of images, videos, Tweets, and other forms of data is becoming a significant challenge, they said.
It threatens to undermine the growth of the internet and thwart the introduction of new technologies, such as the Internet of Things.
The new algorithm, that uses a machine learning technique based on the human brain, could ease that data clog by reducing the size of multimedia files, such as videos and images, and restoring them without losing much quality or information.
Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence, or AI.
The algorithm, called the iterative refinement algorithm was able to produce restored images that had better quality than ..

AI algorithm may allow storing more pics, sharing videos faster

China Friday strongly dismissed a US official's comment that the Chinese government's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square 30 years ago was "a full-on massacre, terming it as an "unfounded accusation" and asked Washington to stop interfering in its internal affairs.
US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus on Thursday said that the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen incident shouldn't be forgotten and that it was "a full-on massacre of peaceful protestors".
Tiananmen Square here witnessed brutal massacre of students rebelling against the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1989, demanding democracy. Thousands were believed to have been killed in the protests.
The massive square became famous all over the world with an iconic picture of a young man standing before a row of battle tanks in a bid to stop them.
As to what the US spokesperson said is an unfounded accusation against China and interference in its internal affairs. China deplore that and firmly opposes ...

Page 2722 - PTI Stories National