News in Brief -(17-07-2019)

Pak journalists denounce censorship
KARACHI, July 16: Pakistani journalists are holding nationwide protests to denounce rampant censorship by the country's powerful security services, massive layoffs due to budget cuts and months-long delays in payments of their wages. Tuesday's rallies, dubbed Day of Protests, are spearheaded by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists. It says journalists, who face the roughest phase in the country's history, have decided to "fight the unprecedented censorship." Afzal Butt, president of the union, says the rallies are only the "beginning of a protest movement." — AP
Ballistic missile talks possible: Zarif
DUBAI, July 16: Iran's foreign minister has for the first time suggested his country's ballistic missile program could be on the table for negotiations with the U.S. - if America stops selling arms to its Gulf allies in the Mideast. Mohammad Javad Zarif's comments came in an NBC News interview that aired Monday night. Iran long has maintained its ballistic missile program, under the control of its Revolutionary Guard, is for defensive purposes only. The 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran struck with world powers did not include its missile program. Zarif says American weaponry "is going into our region, making our region ready to explode. So if they want to talk about our missiles, they need first to stop selling all these weapons." — AP
Thousands flee forest fire on Croatia island
ZAGREB, July 16: Some 10,000 tourists were evacuated from a popular party beach on a Croatian island after a forest fire erupted early Tuesday, police said. Police ordered visitors to night clubs on Zrce beach on the northern island of Pag to leave after the blaze erupted in a pine forest at around 1:00 am (2300 GMT Monday), a police statement said. No one was injured in the fire which was brought under control, the mayor of the nearby town of Novalja, Ante Dabo, told national radio. — AFP
Mushroom poisoning kills five in southern Mexico
MEXICO CITY, July 16: Authorities in southern Mexico say five people have died and two more were sickened after gathering wild mushrooms and eating them. The health department in southern Chiapas state said on Monday the deaths occurred in two separate incidents. The first case killed three members of a family in the town of Huixtan, near the colonial town of San Cristobal de las Casas, last week. Another relative survived and is being treated. — AP
El Chapo may get life sentence from US judge
NEW YORK, July 16: After a dramatic decades-long run as one of the world's most notorious druglords, there is little suspense about what will happen in a New York courtroom on Wednesday: Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is expected to be sentenced to life in prison. The hearing is more or less a formality: Guzman, the 62-year-old former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, was convicted in February of crimes spanning a quarter of a century including trafficking. — AFP