Hong Kong police storm subway with batons as protests rage

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AUG 31, 2019 1730 GMT | A protestor throws back an exploded tear gas shell at police officers in Hong Kong, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019. While other protesters marched back and forth elsewhere in the city, a large crowd wearing helmets and gas masks gathered outside the city government building. Some approached barriers that had been set up to keep protesters away and appeared to throw objects at the police on the other side. Others shone laser lights at the officers. (AP Photo)

HONG KONG (AP) — Protesters in Hong Kong threw gasoline bombs at government headquarters and set fires in the streets on Saturday, while police stormed a subway car and hit passengers with batons and pepper spray in scenes that seem certain to inflame tensions further in a city riven by nearly three months of pro-democracy demonstrations.

Police had denied permission for a march to mark the fifth anniversary of a decision by China against fully democratic elections in Hong Kong, but protesters took to the streets anyway, as they have all summer. They provoked and obstructed the police repeatedly but generally retreated once riot officers moved in, avoiding some of the direct clashes that characterized earlier protests.

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Asian markets mixed after Wall Street slide

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AUG 28, 2019 1400 GMT | Seoul, South Korea | Currency traders watch their computer monitors near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as uneasy investors watched for signs of progress on U.S.-China trade after Wall Street slid. (AP Photo)

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks were mixed Wednesday as uneasy investors watched for signs of progress on U.S.-China trade after Wall Street slid.

Shanghai retreated, Tokyo advanced and Hong Kong was unchanged.

Investors who worry the U.S.-Chinese tariff war will drag the global economy into recession were left guessing after President Donald Trump’s conflicting comments on trade talks.

Markets rose after Trump said Monday that Beijing was ready to negotiate seriously following two weekend phone calls. But a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman couldn’t confirm any exchange had taken place.

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Powerful, obscure law is basis for Trump ‘order’ on trade

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AUG 24, 2019 1400 GMT | U.S President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive in Biarritz, France, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2019, for the G-7 summit. World leaders and protesters are converging on the southern French resort town of Biarritz for the G-7 summit. President Donald Trump will join host French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Britain, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy for the annual summit in the nearby resort town of Biarritz. (AP Photo)

BIARRITZ, France (AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to use the emergency authority granted by a powerful but obscure federal law to make good on his tweeted “order” to U.S. businesses to cut ties in China amid a spiraling trade war between the two nations.

China’s announcement Friday that it was raising tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports sent Trump into a rage and White House aides scrambling for a response.

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Former Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dies at 66

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AUG 24, 2019 1800 GMT | FILE– In this Oct. 7, 2016 file photo, India’s then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks during a panel discussion at the World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings at IMF headquarters in Washington. Jaitley, India’s former finance minister and a key member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term in office, has died in a New Delhi hospital. He was 66. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Former Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a key member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first-term Cabinet, died in a New Delhi hospital on Saturday after a prolonged illness. He was 66.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences announced Jaitley’s death in a statement, but did not give any details. He was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness.

Jaitley held the finance portfolio in Modi’s nationalist-led government from 2014 through this year but chose not to run for reelection because of poor health.

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Indian court orders ex-finance minister held for questioning

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AUG 22, 2019 1600 GMT | New Delhi, India | Palaniappan Chidambaram leaves the Central Bureau of Investigation headquarters to be produced before a court in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019. Chidambaram was taken into custody on suspicion of conspiring with a Mauritius-based firm to illegally obtain money for his son’s company while he was India’s finance minister in 2006. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court on Thursday ordered that a former finance minister belonging to the opposition Congress party be held for four days for questioning by investigators in suspected bribery and money laundering cases.

Palaniappan Chidambaram appeared before Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar a day after he was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s FBI, at his New Delhi home.

Government Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta asked for five days’ custody for a detailed questioning of Chidambaram, but the judge agreed to four days.

Prosecutors say Chidambaram as the country’s finance minister in 2007 facilitated 3 billion rupees ($43 million) in foreign investment in an Indian media company, which allegedly paid kickbacks to his son, Karti Chidambaram. His son has been named as a defendant in the case.

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Islamic State claims bombing at Kabul wedding that killed 63

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AUG 18, 2019 1700 GMT | Kabul, Afghanistan | An Afghan police men stand guard outside the wedding hall after an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug.18, 2019. An explosion ripped through the wedding hall on a busy Saturday night in Afghanistan’s capital and dozens of people were killed or wounded, a government official said. Hundreds of people were believed to be inside. (AP Photo)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The suicide bomber stood in the middle of the dancing, clapping crowd as hundreds of Afghan children and adults celebrated a wedding in a joyous release from Kabul’s strain of war. Then, in a flash, he detonated his explosives-filled vest, killing dozens — and Afghanistan grieved again.

The local Islamic State affiliate claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack in the capital this year, with 63 killed and 182 wounded, while outraged Afghans questioned just how safe they will be under an approaching deal between the United States and the Taliban to end America’s longest war.

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Ebola patients in Congo “cured” with drugs, say doctors

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AUG 13, 2019 1500 GMT | Kinshasa, Congo | Esperance Nabintu and her one-year-old son, Ebenezer Fataki, after the two had been declared cured of Ebola, in Goma, Congo Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019. The two were treated with new anti-Ebola drugs by top doctors who said that the disease can be cured if people seek proper care. (AP Photo)

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Two Ebola patients who were treated with new drugs in the city of Goma in eastern Congo have been declared “cured” and returned to their home.

Top doctors fighting Ebola quickly used the case on Tuesday to press the message that people can recover from the potentially deadly disease if they seek proper care.

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Key events in Kashmir since British rule ended in 1947

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AUG 9, 2019 1500 GMT | FILE – In this Aug. 12, 1965, file photo, two blindfolded and chained men, identified as Pakistani officers, are led away by an Indian soldier after they were captured during fighting in Kashmir. In Sept. 1965 India and Pakistan agreed to U.N.-mandated cease-fire, ending a stalemated war. (AP File Photo)

KASHMIR (AP) – Flashback of Some key events in Kashmir since Indian Independence and birth of Pakistan after British rule ended in 1947.

— August 1947: With the end of British colonial rule, the Indian subcontinent is divided into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. A mass migration follows, with Hindus and Muslims moving to their country of choice, and more than a million people are killed in communal violence.

— October 1947: India and Pakistan fight their first war over control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, a kingdom ruled by Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh. The war ends in 1948 with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, leaving Kashmir divided between the nations, with the promise of a U.N.-sponsored referendum.

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Mozambique peace accord signed, paves way for elections

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AUG 7, 2019 1300 GMT | Maputo, Mozambique | Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, centre left, and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade hug as they exchange documents, at a signing agreement in Maputo, Mozambique, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. Mozambique’s president and the leader of country’s main opposition group have signed a new peace accord in the capital. By signing the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement in Maputo Tuesday afternoon, President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade pledged to end years of armed violence and to peacefully participate in Mozambique’s elections on Oct. 15. (AP Photo)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Mozambique’s president and the leader of the country’s main opposition group signed a new peace accord Tuesday, pledging to end years of violence and facilitate elections in the fall.

In signing the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement, President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade said they would peacefully participate in Oct. 15 elections.

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US jobs report shows solid gains added 164K Jobs amid trade frictions

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AUG 2. 2019, 1500 GMT | Washington, USA | FILE – In this July 2, 2019, file photo a construction worker walks atop a building as a crane lifts a load over head in Miami. On Friday, Aug. 2, the U.S. government issues the July jobs report. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers slowed their hiring in July but still added a solid 164,000 jobs to an economy that appears poised to extend its decade-long expansion.

The unemployment rate remained at 3.7% for a second straight month, the government said Friday. Average hourly earnings rose 3.2% from a year ago, up from a 3% year-over-year gain in June.

Though the pace of hiring has slowed this year, one reason is that a growing share of Americans already have jobs. Unemployment is near a half-century low. The overall U.S. economy remains on firm footing, and last month the expansion became the longest on record.

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