News brief: Big stories of the day

The Chinese military will be handed prime Hong Kong waterfront land on Saturday, even as the city isrocked by anti-Beijing protestsand just days before the anniversary of its return to China.

France recorded its all-time hottest temperature of 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday as the country and much of Europe basked in anearly summer heatwave, state weather forecaster Meteo-France said.

After PM Modi lashed out atCongress in Parliament, Home minister Amit Shah today hit out at Congress over the Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) issue in Lok Sabha. "Congress weakened democracy in J&K," India's home minister said, adding, "separatists have hurt democracy".

Even by diplomatic standards,the first day of the G20 Summitwas not only hectic but showed how India was a sought after country at the event in Osaka. The two trilaterals - JAI - between Japan, America, India and RIC - between Russia, India, China showed how India was the common factor in the two groupings.

This year is on track to be among the hottest ever and that would make 2015-2019 the world's hottest five-year period on record, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday.