Beijing Criticizes US Report on China's Military Development and other top stories.

• Beijing Criticizes US Report on China's Military Development

  

  China's defense ministry expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" with the United States, criticizing an annual report by the U.S. Department of Defense as misrepresenting the country's military development. The Defense Department report to the U.S. Congress, issued Friday, said that China was focused on developing and weaponizing the islands it has built in the disputed waters of the South China Sea so it will have greater control over the maritime region without resorting to armed conflict. On ..

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• Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin Lock Lips in Lithuanian Street Art

  

  Despite the icy relationship between the U.S. and Russia, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have publicly praised one another throughout the real estate mogul's presidential campaign — and now, in a new piece of graffiti in Lithuania, they appear to be closer than ever. Artist Mindaugas Bonanu depicted the two locking lips in the artwork featured on the side of a barbecue restaurant in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Next to the painting is the phra..

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• US officials concerned about possible coup in Venezuela

  

  Venezuela is descending into a deepening crisis that could end in violence, including the possibility of a coup against that country’s embattled leftist government, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Friday. There is a “potential for real violence,” one of two officials said in a briefing with a small group of reporters. “It’s hard for me to see how this ends easily.” The officials, who have extensive experience in the region, said that they and others in the intelligence community increas..

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• 5 dead in ISIS attack on Baghdad gas plant, police say

  

  Another 13 people were injured in the attack, which occurred in the Taji area of Iraq's capital.The assault began with a suicide car bomb attack at the entrance of the plant, according to Iraqi police. Then a second suicide bomber detonated a bomb inside the facility.Six ISIS militants tried to storm inside after the twin bombings, but security forces were able to repel them. Two Iraqi military helicopters were deployed from Taji military base to fight the ISIS fighters, police said.The assault ..

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• Johnson compares EU's aims to Hitler's

  

  Image copyright Getty Images Boris Johnson has compared the EU's aims to Hitler's, saying both involved the intention to unify Europe under a single "authority". The pro-Brexit Tory MP said both the Nazi leader and Napoleon had failed at unification and the EU was "an attempt to do this by different methods".Labour MP Yvette Cooper, from the Remain campaign, accused the ex-London Mayor of playing "nasty, nasty games".Meanwhile, UKIP leader Nigel Farage has backed Mr Johnson to be the next P..

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• We cry with Palestinians as they mark the Nakba

  

  Today, Palestinians observe 68 years of occupation, dispossession and oppression - referred to as the Nakba, writes Imraan Buccus.Johannesburg - Had we not defeated apartheid, this year would have marked 68 years of oppression in the country. But, with incredible mobilisation and international solidarity, the evil system of racial capitalism was toppled, and in 1994 we had our first democratic election.The euphoria of liberation was overwhelming. This year, we celebrate our democracy again with ..

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• 'Spectacular evening' in store for Queen's birthday show

  

  Anthony McPartlin (left) and Declan Donnelly aka Ant and Dec, who have promised a spectacular evening of entertainment, ahead of the televised celebration of the Queen's 90th birthday. Presenters Ant and Dec have promised a spectacular evening of entertainment, ahead of the televised celebration of the Queen's 90th birthday. The duo will host the ITV show from the grounds of Windsor Castle in the presence of the Queen. It will feature more than 900 horses and 1500 performers, as w..

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• Strict security gets stricter at rare North Korean congress

  

  Thomson ReutersNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un has a photo session with the participants in the Seventh Congress of the WPKBy James Pearson PYONGYANG (Reuters) - North Korea may be the world's most closely controlled society, but security during a week when thousands of Workers' Party delegates were in town along with 128 foreign journalists was even tighter than usual. North Korea's Guard Command, an elite corps charged with protecting leader Kim Jong Un, and members from the feared state secu..

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