CAIRO, May 15 (Xinhua): Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attended on Wednesday the opening of Rod al-Farag Axis Bridge, the widest suspension bridge in the world, state-run Nile TV reported.

"Egypt is seeking to carry out public projects in the shortest possible time to save money and effort," al-Sisi said in his address at the inauguration ceremony.

The construction of the bridge was implemented by the Armed Forces Engineering Authority (AFEA) in cooperation with a number of national companies.

16 May 2019; DW: Austria has passed a law intended to ban Muslim girls from wearing a headscarf in primary schools. The Jewish yarmulke and Sikh patka are not included in the new measure.

BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua): China has developed a number of new-generation carrier rockets to take the country's space industry to the next level.

LONG MARCH-7

The Long March-7 is a medium-sized carrier rocket with high reliability and safety. It is designed to launch cargo vehicles during the construction of China's manned space station project and meet the long-term demand for upgrading manned carrier rockets in service.

MADRID, May 16 (Xinhua): A former leader of armed Basque separatist militant group ETA has been arrested in France, the Spanish Interior Ministry confirmed on Thursday.

Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea Bengoetxea, also known as Josu Ternera, 69, who has spent 17 years on the run, was arrested "in the early hours of the morning in Sallanches in the French Alps," said the ministry in a communique.

It is reported that Ternera was arrested on his way to a hospital appointment, and that he is seriously ill.

CHANGSHA, May 16 (Xinhua): A leading saline soil rice research center in eastern China's Shandong Province made the decision to expand its experimental land to over 666 hectares early this month.

The Saline-Alkali Tolerant Rice Research and Development Center in the coastal city of Qingdao said the move aims to speed up research and development and optimize the types of saline soil rice.

The center said one other important purpose of the expansion is to seek the best cultivation methods.

16 May 2019; AFP: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres raised concerns Thursday that a concrete dome built last century to contain waste from atomic bomb tests is leaking radioactive material into the Pacific.

Speaking to students in Fiji, Guterres described the structure on Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands as "a kind of coffin" and said it was a legacy of Cold War-era nuclear tests in the Pacific

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/: Russian scientists have proposed that Russia should start building astrophysical observatories on the Moon in the late 2020s and the early 2030s, Scientific Head of the Space Research Institute within Russia’s Academy of Sciences Lev Zelyony told TASS on Thursday.

Singapore, May 15 (AFP/PTI) The US navy chief said Wednesday he did not want maritime tensions with China to "boil over", a week after Washington's latest challenge to Beijing's territorial claims in contested waters.

Beijing said last week two American warships sailed near disputed islands in the South China Sea without permission, prompting the Chinese Navy to ask them to leave.

The ships entered waters adjacent to Gaven and Chigua reefs in the Spratly Islands, which Beijing calls Nansha, on May 6, China's foreign ministry said.

16 May 2019; AFP: President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned disgraced British media mogul Conrad Black, who served more than three years in prison in the US for fraud and obstruction of justice.

"In 2007, prosecutors alleged that Lord Black had committed several acts of mail fraud and obstruction. The Supreme Court of the United States, however, largely disagreed and overturned almost all charges in his case," the White House said in a statement announcing the pardon.

16 May 2019; AFP: Saudi-led coalition warplanes bombed Yemeni rebel targets including in the capital on Thursday following insurgent drone strikes on a key oil pipeline that Riyadh said were ordered by its arch-rival Tehran.

The new bombardment came after the UN envoy, who has been spearheading efforts to end more than four years of conflict in the Arab world's poorest country, warned it still faced the threat of plunging into all-out war.

16 May 2019; DW: Inhabitants of Fürstenfeldbruck, a refugee processing center near Munich, told DW of overcrowding, filth and bureaucratic limbo, leading to at least one suicide attempt. Bavarian officials say conditions are adequate.

Asylum-seekers at one of Germany's refugee processing centers are spending months living in what they claim are inhumane conditions, struggling to get access to adequate health care while in bureaucratic limbo as they wait for their applications to be processed.

16 May 2019; DW: Just days before a federal election in Australia, the country's longest-serving Labor prime minister has died. Bob Hawke served from 1983 to 1991 and oversaw the floating of the Australian dollar.

Former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke died on Thursday at the age of 89. The Labor party lawmaker gained a reputation as a transformative and charismatic lawmaker during his time in office.