News in Brief (12-6-2018)

Harry, Meghan will visit Australia later this year
LONDON, June 11: Prince Harry and his new wife Meghan will visit Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand later this year for their first overseas tour as a married couple, Kensington Palace announced Monday. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who were married at Windsor Castle last month, have timed their trip to coincide with the Invictus Games in Sydney in October. Harry, the second son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, set up the global sports championship for wounded personnel after a decade in the army. All four countries on the tour are members of the Commonwealth, the 53-nation grouping for which Harry is a youth ambassador. Harry is following in his parents' footsteps, after Charles and his then wife Diana visited Australia and New Zealand in their first tour as a married couple. — AFP
Myanmar president to visit Thailand
YANGON, June 11: Myanmar President U Win Myint will pay an official visit to Thailand soon at the invitation of Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, said an official announcement Monday. U Win Myint will also attend the Eighth Ayeyawady-Chao Phyra Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS) Summit and the Ninth Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV) Summit to be held in Bangkok. — Xinhua
Pope accepts resignation of three Chilean bishops
VATICAN CITY, June 11: Pope Francis has accepted the resignations of three Chilean bishops following sex abuse scandals, including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, the city at the center of the uproar, the Vatican said on Monday. In an unprecedented move, all Chile's 34 bishops offered to resign en masse last month after attending a crisis meeting with the pope over allegations of a cover-up of sexual abuse in the South American nation. — Reuters
15 militants die in Philippines airstrike
MANILA, June 11: Philippine security forces launched on Sunday airstrikes and ground assault on Islamist militants' lair in Maguindanao province in Philippines, killing 15 militants and wounding eight others. Brig Gen Cirilito Sobejana, an army commander in charge of the operations, said the pre-dawn assaults on Liguasan marsh destroyed a bomb-making "factory" of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a splinter group of the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front. — Xinhua
UK to offer Stephen Hawking Fellowships
LONDON, June 11: Exceptional students in mathematics and physics can compete for research fellowships in honour of the late British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in March, the government announced on Monday. Up to 10 fellowships will be awarded each year for the next five years to candidates completing doctoral studies in mathematics, physics and computer sciences, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. — AFP