WorldNews

[attach=full]20637[/attach] By Katharine Houreld ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - China and Pakistan launched a plan on Monday for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan worth $46 billion, linking their economies and underscoring China's economic ambitions in Asia and beyond. China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements aimed at establishing a Pakistan-China Economic Corridor between Pakistan's southern Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea and China's western Xinjiang region. Continue reading...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies launched 36 air strikes targeting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since early Sunday, the Combined Joint Task Force leading the operations said on Monday. Ten strikes in Syria hit targets near al Hasaka and Kobani. In Iraq, 26 strikes hit tactical units, vehicles and buildings near Ramadi, Mosul, Falluja and other locations, the joint task force said in a statement. (Reporting by Emily Stephenson) Continue reading...

[attach=full]20636[/attach] An Egyptian court sentenced 22 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death on Monday over an attack on a police station in a district outside Cairo in 2013, judicial sources said. The assault was part of a wave of violence that rocked the country after the army removed elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi from power following mass protests against his rule in June 2013. Egyptian authorities have jailed thousands of suspected members of the Brotherhood and the courts have sentenced hundreds to death. The government says the outlawed Brotherhood is a major security threat, but the Brotherhood says it does not condone violence. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20629[/attach] SHANGHAI (AP) — The Shanghai Auto Show banned female models and automakers responded with dancers and fresh-faced young women holding tablet computers. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20628[/attach] The European Union denounced Monday the slaughter of at least 28 Ethiopian Christians in an Islamic State (IS) video as a 'criminal' effort to create religious divisions. The video released Sunday by the jihadist group shows militants in Libya shooting and beheading captives, who are described in text captions as "followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church". "The EU stands together with the growing number of countries in Africa, which are battling terrorism and radicalisation," the statement said. Awash with weapons since its 2011 revolt and torn between rival governments and parliaments, Libya is on the edge of all-out civil war as armed groups do battle for its cities and oil wealth. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20627[/attach] MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester City says playmaker David Silva did not fracture any bones in Sunday's Premier League victory over West Ham. Continue reading...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and its European partners need to move swiftly to agree new measures to avert more deadly boating disasters in the Mediterranean, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said on Monday. The spokesman Steffen Seibert denied that there was a difference of opinion in Berlin about how to proceed after officials sent different signals on Sunday about whether to revive the so-called 'Mare Nostrum' rescue mission that Italy ended late last year. ... Continue reading...

Kenmare Resources has repatriated 62 South Africans working at its titanium mine in Mozambique for their safety after anti-immigrant attacks back home, the Irish mining firm said on Monday. Kenmare, which has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and a secondary listing on the Irish Stock Exchange, said in a statement it was sending the workers back home temporarily for their safety in case of reprisal attacks. At least seven people have been killed in a wave of anti-immigrant violence that started this month in Durban, a key port on South Africa's Indian Ocean coast. Kenmare said operations at its Moma Mine located on the north east coast of Mozambique to continue without significant disruption if the situation is resolved "in the near future." Kenmare is the second firm to repatriate South African workers from Mozambique after Sasol sent 340 employees back home for their safety last week. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20626[/attach] ROME (AP) — A smuggler's boat crammed with hundreds of people overturned off Libya's coast as rescuers approached, causing what could be the Mediterranean's deadliest known migrant tragedy and intensifying pressure on the European Union Sunday to finally meet demands for decisive action. Continue reading...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — All Blacks flyhalf Aaron Cruden will likely miss this year's Rugby World Cup after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a Super Rugby match on Friday. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20625[/attach] TOKYO (AP) — Japan's top trade negotiator met with U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman on Monday, seeking to resolve differences on autos and farm exports that are hindering progress toward a Pacific Rim trade deal. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20624[/attach] As Europe struggles to deal with a surge in migrants pouring across the Mediterranean, Australia has gone nearly 18 months with virtually no asylum-seeker boat arrivals and no deaths at sea. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Monday said he would not be lecturing Europe on what to do. Soon after it came to power in September 2013, Australia's conservative government launched the military-led Operation Sovereign Borders to halt a flood of boatpeople arriving almost daily under the previous Labor administration. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20623[/attach] SAN LORENZO, Puerto Rico (AP) — In Puerto Rico's misty, bamboo-studded mountains, elementary school students are studying a nearly extinct language, beating on drums and growing native crops like cassava and sweet potato as they learn about the indigenous people who lived on the island before Christopher Columbus. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20618[/attach] Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Rome would be seeking the extraordinary meeting after up to 700 people were feared to have drowned when a boat carrying them towards Italy capsized off Libya. The Italian initiative came as the EU came under fire over what NGOs termed a tragedy that may have been avoided if Italy had maintained its large-scale search-and-rescue operation off its southern shores. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20617[/attach] BERLIN (AP) — Defending champion Real Madrid faces familiar foe Atletico Madrid for a place in the Champions League semifinals while Barcelona appears to have its place already booked. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20616[/attach] An ex-intelligence officer under the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was "the strategic head" behind the Islamic State group and drew up the blueprints for the jihadists' capture of northern Syria, German weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday. Former colonel Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, who was better known as Haji Bakr and was killed by Syrian rebels in January 2014, "had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years", according to the magazine. The weekly said it had been given exclusive access to 31 documents by Bakr, including handwritten lists and charts, after lengthy negotiations with a rebel group in Aleppo, northern Syria, which came in possession of the pages after IS fled the area. The trove "was nothing less than a blueprint for a takeover", according to Spiegel, detailing the creation of a caliphate in northern Syria, complete with meticulous instructions for espionage activities, murder and kidnapping. Continue reading...

BOSTON (AP) — Relatives of some of the 43 students who vanished in Mexico last September rallied with supporters in Boston on Sunday as part of a national tour to call attention to their plight. Continue reading...

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — The International Tennis Federation is considering playing future Davis Cup finals at a neutral venue. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20609[/attach] Ethiopia condemned Sunday the reported killing of Ethiopian Christians captured in Libya, and vowed to continue its fight against Islamist extremists. "We strongly condemn such atrocities, whether they are Ethiopians are not," Ethiopian Minster of Communications Redwan Hussein told AFP. Ethiopia's embassy in Egypt was working to verify if those killed were indeed Ethiopians, he added. The Islamic State jihadist group on Sunday released a video purportedly showing the executions of some 30 Ethiopian Christians captured in Libya. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20608[/attach] The United Nations on Sunday called on the Democratic Republic of Congo to respect its citizens' civil liberties as the political climate has turned tense ahead of key elections next year. "Political space must be guaranteed, space for the opposition, space for civil society, for the defenders of human rights," Martin Kobler, head of the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO in DRC, said in an interview with AFP. Tensions have been rising in DR Congo since dozens of people died in violent protests in January against a new electoral law that critics say could allow President Joseph Kabila to hold on to power beyond the end of his mandate. "(MONUSCO's) mandate is (also) to defend human rights," said Kobler. Continue reading...

ITAJAI, Brazil (AP) — American boat Team Alvimedica led the Volvo Ocean Race fleet out of Itajai on Sunday as it left Brazil and headed toward Newport, Rhode Island, on the sixth leg of the around-the-world sailing competition. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20607[/attach] Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta announced Sunday he will resign from parliament for a job heading up the international affairs school at the elite Sciences-Po university in Paris. "Starting September 1 I will run the Sciences-Po international affairs school in Paris and I will step down from my functions as an MP," he said on Italian public TV. Letta led Italy's government for 10 months, but was pushed to resign in February 2014 by current Prime Minister Matteo Renzi amid political and economic crisis. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20606[/attach] 10:20 p.m. (2020 GMT, 4:20 p.m.) Continue reading...

Bangladesh said on Sunday it had brought back 337 of its citizens from strife-torn Yemen with the help of India, with the total number of Bangladeshis evacuated so far reaching 500. The ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement the Bangladeshis had arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by special flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. India conducted an air and sea evacuation operation late last month to bring back its nationals stranded in Yemen. "We requested India to help bring home back our citizens stranded in the Middle Eastern country and it responded friendly," Shahriar told reporters. Continue reading...

[attach=full]20602[/attach] Finland's opposition Centre Party came out on top in Sunday's general election, far ahead of the parties in Prime Minister Alexander Stubb's left-right coalition, partial results showed. If the results were to be confirmed, Centre Party leader Juha Sipila, a 53-year-old IT millionaire and newcomer to politics, would become Finland's next prime minister. More than a third of the electorate cast their ballots in advance voting and with most of those counted, the Centre Party had 23.2 percent of votes. Public radio and television YLE projected that the Centre Party would have 51 out of 200 seats in parliament. Continue reading...