News in brief
May meets Trump with eye on Brexit future
AFP, LONDON: Britains Prime Minister Theresa May will this week be the first foreign leader to meet with Donald Trump since his inauguration, aiming to discuss a key post-Brexit trade deal with the US.
The visit has been presented as a diplomatic coup in Britain, where the idea of the special relationship still holds strong, and is being closely watched in Washington as Trumps foreign policy takes shape.
Trump has offered rare support for Brexit among global leaders, seeing parallels with his own election campaign, and saying Britain was smart to vote to leave an EU that he believes is now falling apart.
Lavrov to meet Syria oppn in Moscow
AFP, MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold talks with Syrian opposition representatives Friday, Moscow said, but there were no details on which groups will attend.
The meeting comes after two days of Russian-brokered talks between the Syrian regime and armed rebel groups in Kazakhstan ended Tuesday without a major breakthrough.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry confirmed the meeting but could not say which groups from Syrias dizzying array of opposition would be represented there.
A rebel negotiator from the armed opposition delegation that attended the Astana talks said they had not yet been invited to attend the meeting with Lavrov, but did not rule out heading to Moscow if they were asked.
Frances Fillon pressured to explain wifes work
AFP, PARIS: French presidential frontrunner Francois Fillon criticised a campaign of mudslinging Wednesday as he came under pressure over allegations he employed his wife as a parliamentary aide for more than a decade.
The Canard Enchaine newspaper, which mixes satire and investigative reporting, alleged Tuesday that British-born Penelope Fillon had been paid from money available to her husband as a longstanding MP for the northern Sarthe region.
The newspaper alleged that she had earned around 500,000 euros ($538,000) over three periods, but said its reporters had not been able to find witnesses to her work.
Six years after uprising, Sisi says Egypt on right track
AFP, CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that Egypt was on the right track six years after the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
Speaking in a televised address commemorating the revolution, Sisi called on young activists who took part in mass protests in 2011 to work for the countrys future.
An objective assessment of developments in Egypt in recent years makes clear that we are moving on the right track, Sisi said. Addressing young people who took part in the uprising, Sisi said Egypt needed their efforts to continue on the road of reform, construction and development.
Kuwait hangs 7 including royal
AFP, KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait on Wednesday hanged seven people including a member of the ruling family and three women after they were convicted of premeditated murder, the KUNA state news agency reported.
They are the first executions in the oil-rich Gulf state since mid-2013.
Those executed included two Kuwaitis, two Egyptians and one each from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Ethiopia, KUNA said citing a source at the public prosecution.
