AFP, Washington
The first meeting in a much-touted new diplomatic and defense dialogue between the United States and China will take place in Washington on June 21, the State Department announced Thursday.
North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is likely to top the agenda for next week’s talks, which follow Pentagon chief Jim Mattis’s assurances to Asian allies that the initiative will not compromise US opposition to China’s activities in the South China Sea.
Macron holds meetings with European leaders
in Paris
AP, Paris
French president Emmanuel Macron is holding a series of meetings with European leaders in Paris, as Brexit negotiations are due to start next week.
Macron successively meets Friday with Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte, Estonian Prime minister Juri Ratas and has a working lunch with Spanish head of government Mariano Rajoy.
6 convicted in 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts
AP, Mumbai
An Indian court on Friday convicted six people of involvement in an attack in Mumbai in 1993 in which 12 powerful bombs packed in cars, scooters and suitcases killed 257 people and injured hundreds of others.
The court found the six Muslims guilty on charges of criminal conspiracy, transporting weapons and murder, which are punishable by a maximum penalty of death. The court is to announce sentences next week.
6 killed in an attack at Shia mosque in Kabul
AFP, Kabul
Six people were killed after an attack at a mosque in Kabul which was targeted late on Thursday.The in Interior Ministry termed it as a “terrorist attack”.
Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said police had been sent to the scene of an apparent suicide attack and that there were casualties.
Venezuela protest death toll rises to 72
AFP, Caracas
Two protesters, both aged 20, died Thursday during anti-government demonstrations in separate regions of Venezuela, bringing the total deaths in more than two months of protests to 72, officials said.
Prosecutors said they were investigating the death of Jose Perez, a student in the western town of Rubio who was “shot in the face” during a demonstration.
Two killed in suicide bombing in Cameroon
AFP, Yaoundé
Two civilians have been killed in a suicide attack in Cameroon’s restive Far North, an area regularly targeted by Boko Haram jihadists, local sources told AFP early Friday.
The incident, which took place on Thursday evening, saw a female bomber entering Limani on the border with Nigeria and blowing herself up “behind the town’s public school,” a source close to the security services said.
