Philippine ‘Friendly Fire’ Kills 11 Soldiers in Marawi Fight

MARAWI, PHILIPPINES — 

A Philippine military official says an air force airstrike killed 11 soldiers and wounded seven others in a “friendly fire” incident as government forces struggled to rout the remaining Islamic extremists who laid siege to a southern city for a week.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said Thursday a Marchetti S-211 jet was on a bombing run over militant positions in Marawi city Wednesday when one bomb hit an army position locked in close-range combat with the extremists.

Padilla says the plane made three successful bombing runs before the wayward bombing happened. He added the military has ordered an investigation.

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World Ignores Displaced Africans, Aid Agency Protests

DAKAR, SENEGAL — 

The world pays the least attention to humanitarian crises when they force Africans from their homes, dashing hopes of peace, hindering reconstruction and increasing the risk of radicalization, an aid agency said Thursday.

Central African Republic topped the Norwegian Refugee Council's (NRC) annual list of neglected displacement crises.

It was followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen, the Palestinian territories, Ukraine, Myanmar and Somalia.

"The fact that most of these people do not turn up at our doorsteps gives us no right to close our eyes to their suffering, and does not remove our responsibility to assist," NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland said in a statement. "Economic support to alleviate humanitarian crises must be given based on needs, and not ... geopolitical interests."

Limited political will to achieve peace, scant media attention and a lack of aid funding mean crises are likely to worsen and trigger even more displacement, the NRC said.

Chronic conflict involving militias in countries such as Central African Republic and Congo could drive more and more people into armed groups, said Richard Skretteberg of the NRC.

"When you combine limited state presence in much of these countries, mass displacement, and a lack of protection and aid for civilians, this creates a fertile breeding ground for radicalization," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Rebuilding and working towards peace are difficult when so many people are displaced," the NRC senior adviser added.

1 million people displaced

One in five Central Africans — about a million people — is displaced, and at least 100,000 were newly uprooted last month in some of the worst violence between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias since conflict began in 2013.

Spreading ethnic violence in Congo has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes within the country this year — more than triple the number uprooted within Syria and five times the number within Iraq, according to the NRC.

The United Nations has received just a fifth of the $812.5 million sought in the humanitarian appeal for Congo this year,and 25 percent of the $400 million requested for Central African Republic, the U.N.'s Financial Tracking Service shows.

Africa's arid Sahel belt, which stretches from Senegal to Eritrea and lies south of the Sahara desert, topped the NRC's index last year, followed by Yemen and Libya.

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As US Retreats, EU and China Seek Climate Leadership at Summit

BRUSSELS — 

China and the European Union on Friday will seek to save an international pact against climate change that U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be set to pull out of.

As China emerges as Europe's unlikely global partner on areas from free trade to security, Premier Li Keqiang will meet top EU officials at a summit in Brussels that will also discuss North Korea's missile tests.

In a statement backed by all 28 EU states, the European Union and China will commit to full implementation of the Paris Agreement, EU and Chinese officials said.

The joint statement, the first between China and the EU, commits to cutting back on fossil fuels, developing more green technology, and helping raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer countries cut emissions.

"The EU and China consider climate action and the clean energy transition an imperative more important than ever," the statement, by European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and China's Li, will say. "The increasing impacts of climate change require a decisive response."

China asked that the annual summit, normally held in mid-July, be brought forward to press home President Xi Jinping's defense of open trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, in response to Trump's protectionist stance.

But Trump's plan to follow through on a campaign pledge to withdraw from the Paris accord, agreed on by nearly 200 countries in 2015, is now dominating, diplomats said.

China, which overtook the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007, is ready to support the European Union, despite tensions on other issues from human rights to trade, according to China's ambassador to the EU, Yang Yanyi.

"China and the EU need to steadfastly adhere to the Paris agreement," Yang said in a written briefing to reporters.

The warmer EU-China relationship, partly spurred by Trump, is despite a long-running spat with Beijing on what Europe sees as China's dumping of low-cost goods on European markets.

"No one should be left behind, but the EU and China have decided to move forward," Miguel Arias Canete, the European commissioner who has led climate talks with Beijing, said of the Paris accord.

Free-trade forerunner?

While China needs the EU's technical know-how to fight the pollution blighting its cities, the European Union is looking to Beijing to take action against emissions blamed for increased droughts, rising seas and other effects of climate change.

Still the European Union remains cautious about the direction of its second-largest trading partner, concerned by China's steel exports, its militarization of islands in the South China Sea and a turn toward authoritarianism under Xi.

EU officials say they will bring up the South China Sea in the talks on Friday, but they will be wary to avoid a repeat of last year's tense EU-China summit in Beijing, which failed to agree to a joint statement because of the maritime issue.

China's claims in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The EU also wants an investment treaty with China to open the huge Chinese market to European companies and remove onerous rules forcing them to share know-how.

A senior Chinese official said China is determined to open up and reach a deal, which is seen as a forerunner to a possible future free-trade accord.

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Big Data Maps India's Human Traffic Hot Spots

NEW DELHI — 

An Indian charity is using big data to pinpoint human trafficking hot spots in a bid to prevent vulnerable women and girls vanishing from high-risk villages into the sex trade.

My Choices Foundation uses specially designed technology to identify those villages that are most at risk of modern slavery, then launches local campaigns to sound the alarm.

"The general Indian public is still largely unaware that trafficking exists, and most parents have no idea that their children are actually being sold into slavery," said Elca Grobler, the founder of My Choices Foundation.

"That's why grass-roots awareness and education at the village level is so important to ending the human traffic trade," Grobler said in a statement released late Tuesday.

The analytics tool — developed by Australian firm Quantium — uses a range of factors to identify the most dangerous villages.

It draws on India's census, education and health data and factors such as drought risk, poverty levels, education and job opportunities to identify vulnerable areas.

Red alert

There are an estimated 46 million people enslaved worldwide, with more than 18 million living in India, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index. The Index was compiled by the Walk Free Foundation, a global organization seeking to end modern slavery.

Many are villagers lured by traffickers with the promise of a good job and an advance payment, only to find themselves or their children forced to work in fields or brick kilns, enslaved in brothels and sold into sexual slavery.

Almost 20,000 women and children were victims of human trafficking in India in 2016, a rise of nearly 25 percent from the previous year, according to government data.

While India has strengthened its anti-trafficking policy in recent years, activists say a lack of public awareness remains one of the biggest impediments.

In 2014, My Choices Foundation launched "Operation Red Alert," offering educational programs to inform parents, teachers, village leaders and children about traffickers.

But with more than 600,000 villages across India and limited resources, the charity teamed up with Quantium to build the new data tool and use methods old and new to fight the criminals.

"We are helping to banish human trafficking, one village at a time, through a combination of highly sophisticated technology and grass-roots ... education," said Grobler.

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Activist Seeks Trumps' Help in Freeing Labor Investigators in China

The head of a New York-based advocacy group has called on President Donald Trump and his older daughter to help secure the release of three men who reported labor violations at a Chinese company that makes shoes bearing the Ivanka Trump brand.

"We appeal to President Trump, Ivanka Trump herself, and to her related brand company to advocate and press for the release of our activists," Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch, the men's employer, said Wednesday.

The Ivanka Trump brand has declined to comment. The White House and Ivanka Trump's lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Calls to provincial police in China were not answered. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was unaware of the situation and declined to make further comments.

Hua Haifeng and two other labor activists, Li Zhao and Su Heng, had been covertly investigating labor conditions at two Chinese factories that make shoes for Trump and other brands, in the cities of Ganzhou and Dongguan. They disclosed preliminary findings to China Labor Watch, indicating workers at the factories had been subject to extremely long hours.

Hua was arrested in Jiangxi province on suspicion of illegally using eavesdropping equipment; he and the other two men disappeared Saturday and were last seen in Ganzhou, in southern Jiangxi province, China Labor Watch reported Tuesday.

The arrest and disappearances came amid Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on the country's advocacy groups and civil society. In the past year, dozens of human rights activists have been detained in China.

The global human rights group Amnesty International called for the release of the three men if they are being held only for investigating possible labor abuses at the factories, which are owned by Huajian International.

"Activists exposing potential human rights abuses deserve protection, not persecution," said Amnesty International spokesman William Nee. "The trio appear to be the latest to fall foul of the Chinese authorities' aggressive campaign against human rights activists who have any ties to overseas organizations, using the pretense of 'national security.' "

The relationship between the Trump family and China has received widespread attention since last year's presidential campaign. While Trump has accused China of taking coveted manufacturing jobs from the U.S., the Trump family has sought to benefit financially from the Chinese market.

Trump recently obtained more than 75 trademarks in China. The family of Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump's husband, is attempting to raise money from Chinese investors for a real estate venture.

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Nowhere to Go for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh After Cyclone Wrecks Camps

COX'S BAZAR, BANGLADESH — 

Left drenched and near destitute by a cyclone that hit Bangladesh a day earlier, thousands of Rohingya refugees hunkered down in the ruins of their camps on Wednesday, waiting for help after a night in the rain.

At least seven people were killed and 50 injured by Cyclone Mora, according to Mohammad Ali Hussain, the chief administrator of Cox's Bazar district, a sliver of land in southeast Bangladesh bordering Myanmar.

The border area that bore the brunt of the storm is home to refugee camps for Muslim Rohingyas who have fled from their homes in northwest Myanmar to escape communal violence and Myanmar army crackdowns.

"Initial reports suggest damage to shelter in camps sheltering Rohingya refugees, is severe," the Office of the U.N. Resident Coordinator for Bangladesh said.

350,000 evacuated ahead of storm

The Bangladeshi government has estimated that in all, there are about 350,000 Rohingyas in Bangladesh following a new influx last October, when the Myanmar army launched an offensive in response to insurgent attacks.

Authorities in Cox's Bazar and neighboring Chittagong district evacuated 350,000 people from low-lying areas before the storm roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday.

But most Rohingyas remained in their flimsy shelters in the camps when the storm struck, with priority given to evacuating only the most vulnerable, like heavily pregnant women.

Omar Farukh, a community leader in Kutupalong camp — one of several camps for Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar — described the misery of those left behind.

"We have passed a difficult time. We had no tin or plastic sheets above our heads and almost all of us passed the night in the rain," Farukh told Reuters by telephone. "We tried to save our belongings, whatever we have, with pieces of plastic sheet."

A senior U.N. official working in Cox's Bazar said there had been no reports of deaths in the camps, only some injuries.

Floods, landslides in Sri Lanka

The cyclone formed after monsoon rains triggered floods and landslides in Sri Lanka, off India's southern tip, killing 202 people in recent days, authorities said, adding 96 people were missing.

An Indian navy boat rescued 33 Bangladeshis at sea off Chittagong, and recovered one body, the Indian mission in Dhaka said. It was not clear if the people had been on a boat that sank or were washed into the sea by a storm surge.

Further south, 10 fishermen were rescued and taken to hospital on the island of Kutubdia, said Sojan Chowdhury, officer-in-charge at the island's police station, but 134 fishermen and nine fishing boats are still missing, Mostaque Ahmed, head of the Cox's Bazar Mechanized Fishing Boat Owners Association, told Reuters.

Airports, ports reopened

Transport and communications were in chaos in northwest Myanmar, state media there said.

Camps for internally displaced Rohingya in Myanmar suffered extensive damage, and there were pockets of damage in the broader community, but no reports of casualties, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

When the storm hit Bangladesh it brought wind gusting up to135 kph (85 mph) and heavy rain.

By daybreak on Wednesday the storm had died down with only a steady rain falling. Airports and ports reopened.

Most 'rickety houses' damaged

Rohingya community leader Farukh said aid agency officials had visited the Kutupalong camp to see what was needed.

A relief worker who had visited the Balukhali camp estimated that one in four huts there had been damaged but there were no serious injuries and people had begun repairs.

Beyond the camps, officials were also assessing the damage elsewhere in Cox's Bazar. The chief administrator said 17,500 houses had been completely destroyed and 35,000 partially damaged in the district.

“Almost all rickety houses in the district were completely or partially destroyed by the cyclone. Not only Rohingya houses,” Hussain said.

Communications, power lost in India

The cyclone lost some of its force as it moved inland and across the eastern border into India.

Strong wind and heavy rain battered houses, brought down electricity lines, and damaged telecommunication towers in India's Mizoram state, cutting communications and power.

The Meteorological Department said the weather system was very likely to continue to move north-northeast and weaken into a cyclonic storm and later into a depression.

Other northeastern Indian states had received heavy to very heavy rainfall since Tuesday evening.

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Questions Linger in Wake of Kabul Attack

A massive suicide truck bombing rocked a highly secured diplomatic area of Kabul on Wednesday morning, killing 90 people and wounding as many as 400. The attack left a scene of mayhem and destruction in the Afghan capital.

A look at some of the lingering questions after the attack:

How was this possible?

Investigators will seek to understand how insurgents managed to get an explosives-packed tanker truck into one of the best-protected areas of Kabul. The Wazir Akbar Khan district is home to most of the capital's foreign embassies as well as several major government institutions, including the Presidential Palace.

"No one could even imagine that would take place in Wazir Akbar Khan," said General Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, a former deputy interior minister. "I would call it a security and intelligence error."

Can the government protect the capital?

The bombing raises serious questions about the Afghan government's ability to provide basic security. Insurgent groups have been on the offensive ever since the drawdown of NATO troops from the country in 2014.

The first half of 2017 has seen a particularly successful string of terrorist attacks in the capital, including a twin suicide bombing March 1 that killed 22 people and a coordinated March 8 assault on a military hospital that killed 50 people.

Who did it?

As of late Wednesday night in Kabul, no one had claimed responsibility. The vast majority of such devastating attacks recently have been undertaken by either the Taliban or the local affiliate of the Islamic State group.

The Taliban has been waging a guerrilla war against Kabul for more than a decade — ever since being ousted from power by a U.S. invasion in 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11. The Islamic State group is a more recent development, forming in the last few years and largely made up of dissident former Taliban militants. IS has been battling the Taliban for control of certain parts of Afghanistan while also regularly targeting the government.

Yarmand said he didn't think the Taliban were behind it, saying they "don't have the ability to carry out such big attack, and if they did, they would have claimed responsibility."

The former Interior Ministry official repeated a common belief among Afghan government officials: The Pakistani intelligence services have played a role in the string of terrorist attacks plaguing Kabul. Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied such accusations.

Is there a diplomatic solution?

So far, it doesn't appear likely.

There have been multiple attempts to launch peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but all have faltered. The most recent initiative, brokered by Pakistan, collapsed and spawned even more public distrust and animosity between Kabul and Islamabad.

What's more, as long as the Taliban and other insurgent groups can demonstrate the ability to strike deep in the heart of the most secure parts of Kabul, the impetus to negotiate will likely be reduced. Yarmand said there doesn't appear to be much desire to negotiate on the part of the Taliban leadership or its rank and file.

"For now, their supporters need them to be in fight with the Afghan government," he said.

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Disruptive Passenger Tries to Enter Cockpit of Malaysia Airlines Flight

A Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpur safely landed back in Melbourne, where it had taken off, after a passenger attempted to enter the cockpit late Wednesday.

In air traffic control audio posted online, a male voice can be heard saying a passenger "claiming to have an explosive device, tried to enter the cockpit, has been overpowered by passengers."

The disruptive passenger, a Sri Lankan national, was apparently drunk and claimed to have a bomb, but it was a powerbank charging device, Malaysia's Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi told the French News Agency.

The passenger was apprehended at the airport and the incident will be investigated by Australian authorities along with Malaysia Airlines, the company said, apologizing for any inconvenience.

"Malaysia Airlines would like to stress that at no point was the aircraft 'hijacked,'" said a statement released by the airline. The airline gave no further details of the incident.

Both incoming and outgoing flights at Melbourne Airport were disrupted.

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Trump's Loss is Li's Gain as Berlin Rolls Out Red Carpet for China's PM

BERLIN — 

China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang arrived in Berlin on Wednesday at the start of a European tour, poised to jump into the global climate change leadership gap left by U.S. President Donald Trump's impending withdrawal from the Paris climate pact.

China's number two official was received with military honors at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, becoming the second leader of a rising Asian giant to visit in as many days after India's Narendra Modi.

The flurry of visits comes as concern grows in traditionally Atlanticist Germany at Trump's forthcoming announcement on the Paris Climate Accord, designed to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions scientists blame for rising sea levels and droughts.

One source briefed on the decision said Trump would pull out of the pact.

At the G-7 summit of wealthy nations this weekend, European and Canadian officials warned Trump that the U.S. risked ceding global leadership on combating climate change to China if it withdrew from the pact.

China, long recognized as the world's dominant trading power, now hopes that by showing leadership on the fight against climate change it can translate its economic might into yet greater political influence.

"With the One Belt One Road initiative, China has promoted itself as the country leader in environmental topics and multilateralism," said one senior adviser to a G-7 government, referring to China's newly-created Eurasian cooperation forum.

Under Merkel, a passionate fan of the United States as a teenager growing up in communist East Germany, Europe's richest country has been steadfast in its Atlanticism, even during the presidency of George W. Bush, which was marked by unilateral U.S. actions.

By contrast, relations between the world's two exporting giants have often been tense, with China's plans to introduce a minimum quota for electric vehicle sales a thorny current issue that Germany is expected to raise at this visit. A quota would hurt Germany's still internal combustion-focused car industry.

But since the G-7 summit, Merkel and other senior German politicians have signaled that they do not see a Trump-led U.S. as a reliable partner on a host of issues from free trade to climate change.

On Tuesday, she congratulated Modi for India's "intensive" commitment to the climate pact during his visit, which was seen as a sign of Berlin shifting its focus toward Asia in response to Trump's stance.

After Berlin, Li will continue to Brussels, where, at a China-European Union summit, both sides are expected to make a declaration on their commitment to tackling climate change — a proclamation designed to send a strong message to Trump.

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From Home Help to Driver, New Class of Indian Homeowner

MUMBAI — 

When Rajnish Dhall's driver wanted to borrow money to buy a home, Dhall suggested he go to a bank. But without proof of income or tax returns to show his credentials, the driver said no bank would lend to him.

It was the start of a whole new business for Dhall, a former banker whose firm aims to help the hundreds of millions of informal workers who make up the bulk of India's labor force.

They are the newly emerging home-owning class.

"My driver was earning a steady income and could have paid back the loan easily, yet none of the banks would lend to him because he didn't have the necessary paperwork," Dhall told Reuters. "The housing problem is very real and visible, especially in a city like Mumbai. There is certainly aspiration to own a home, but without finance, there is no way to realize the aspiration."

Dhall lent his driver the money, then looked more closely at home loans for a host of other workers in the informal sector.

Of India's 470 million-strong workforce, about 90 percent is in the informal sector. They include domestic help, street vendors, daily wage earners and small business operators, who may have no collateral and whose incomes are irregular.

They have few options besides borrowing from money lenders and employers, Dhall found. So he set up Micro Housing Finance Corp. to give home loans to low-income and informal workers.

Housing for all

More homes are desperately needed.

Already, one in three Indians live in cities, many in crowded slums and other informal settlements. Every year, tens of thousands of villagers migrate to cities in search of jobs, and the pace of urbanization is set to rise.

India has a shortage of about 20 million urban homes; the shortfall disproportionately affects families earning less than 16,000 rupees ($248) a month, according to consultancy KPMG.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made affordable housing a priority, offering incentives such as subsidized loans to meet a 2022 target of "Housing for All," even as critics say the plan bypasses the homeless.

The government plan aims to create 20 million new urban homes and 30 million rural homes.

An affordable home is typically about 250 square feet (23 square meters) in size, and can cost up to 1.2 million rupees ($18,600). It is aimed at families earning 8,000-25,000 rupees a month, and is usually located in the outskirts of the city where land is cheaper.

In recent years, developers including the Tata group, Mahindra and TVS group have entered the affordable housing market, enticed by government incentives and future potential.

These big firms have enhanced the quality and reputation of affordable homes, which were once described as "vertical slums."

About 15 micro home finance companies have also launched, with reputable builders and more ready finance combining for better results for low-income earners.

Increasingly, it is a choice between "owning a good-quality, formal home in the periphery of the city over a badly made or informal home in the city," said Vikram Jain, director of social consultancy FSG, which has studied the segment.

"With more developers and better access to finance, they are well designed, quality constructions that residents take pride in owning," he told Reuters.

From chalk to pigeons

India's micro housing finance companies have a loan portfolio of more than $160 million, with near-zero defaults, Jain estimates.

But micro home loans of up to 1 million rupees for low-income clients only account for a quarter of home loans.

Micro home finance companies lend up to 90 percent of the value of the property, at slightly higher interest rates of about 13 percent, on average. The repayment term can be up to 25 years.

Since its founding, MHFC has dispensed about 14,000 home loans, Dhall said.

Its customers represent 600 diverse professions — from a man selling grains to feed pigeons, to one making marking chalk for tailors, and a grass seller for people with cows at home.

At Aadhar Housing Finance — owned in part by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation — more than three-quarters of customers did not have a credit history when they asked for a loan, said Chief Executive Deo Shankar Tripathi.

Aadhar has given more than 50,000 home loans, mostly in India's poorest states where customers typically buy a plot of land and build a modest home, Tripathi said.

The high cost of land needed to build homes can be a challenge to affordable housing. Rising construction costs and limited financing for developers are other constraints.

But Tripathi said nobody should be deterred.

"Owning a home is a dream for everyone. For the low-income segment, a home means security, empowerment and greater inclusion in society," Tripathi said.

"We cannot give them a big bungalow like Mukesh Ambani's [India's wealthiest man], but we can make a decent home within the reach of everyone," he said.

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USS Vinson, USS Reagan Carrier Strike Groups Conduct Dual Exercises in Sea of Japan

PENTAGON — 

Two U.S. aircraft carriers have started military exercises together in the Sea of Japan, U.S. Navy officials tell VOA.

"The USS Carl Vinson Strike Group and USS Ronald Reagan Strike Group are conducting routine operations in the Western Pacific," Navy spokesman Lt. Loren Terry said.

Officials said the carriers, along with the ships and aircraft assigned to each, began dual operations in international waters within the sea on Wednesday.

The dual-carrier exercises come days after North Korea launched another missile into the Sea of Japan.

The multi-day, multi-carrier exercises provide "combatant commanders with significant operational flexibility should these forces be called upon in response to regional situations," Terry told VOA.

"This unique capability is one of many ways the U.S. Navy promotes security, stability and prosperity throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific," he added.

The dual-carrier operations mark the end of the USS Vinson strike group's tour in the Western Pacific, according to a Navy official.

The USS Reagan strike group includes cruiser USS Shiloh and destroyers USS Barry and USS McCampbell.

The USS Vinson strike group includes destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy along with cruiser USS Lake Champlain.

American ships and aircraft routinely operate in international waters throughout the Western Pacific, which includes waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula.

U.S. Pacific Command said the short-range ballistic missile North Korea launched on May 28 posed no threat to North America, adding that the U.S. military stands behind its "ironclad commitment to the security of our allies in the Republic of Korea and Japan."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to work with the United States to "take specific action to deter North Korea."

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A Timeline of Major Attacks in Kabul Over the Last Year

May 31, 2017: More than 90 people are killed and 300 wounded when a truck filled with explosives detonates near the German embassy in Kabul.

March 8, 2017: Thirty-one people are killed and 87 wounded when insurgents disguised as doctors attack a military hospital with a suicide bomb, automatic weapons and grenades.

January 10, 2017: Twin suicide bombings near parliament in Kabul kill more than 30 people and injure some 80 others.

November 21, 2016: At least 32 people are killed and more than 80 wounded in a suicide bombing of a Shiite mosque in Kabul.

July 23, 2016: At least 80 people are killed and 200 more wounded when a bomb claimed by Islamic State explodes during a peaceful protest rally.

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China Postpones Portion of Cybersecurity Law

BEIJING — 

China has postponed enforcement of part of a cybersecurity law that companies warn violates Beijing's free-trade pledges but says most of it will take effect Thursday as planned.

Communist authorities say the measures are needed to prevent crime and terrorism and to protect privacy. Companies and foreign governments complain the law will hamper market access and is being rushed into force before Beijing has told companies how to comply.

“This certainly will be a huge impact,” said Michael Chang, a vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

“The situation is still a lot of uncertainty and unclarified terms,” Chang said. “We still see a lack of tangible rules for business to follow.”

The latest version of measures sent to companies on regulation of cross-border movement of data says they take effect Thursday but enforcement is postponed for 18 months to Dec. 31, 2018.

It gave no explanation for the postponement. But it followed appeals by a coalition of dozens of global business groups for a delay until the rules could be made consistent with World Trade Organization regulations.

Other measures including how to define important data and security standards for computer equipment take effect Thursday, according to the Cyberspace Administration of China, the agency responsible for enforcing them.

The law will “protect the broad masses of people and effectively safeguard national cyberspace sovereignty and security,” the agency said Wednesday on its website.

A measure on how to define important data takes effect Thursday, five days after it was released Saturday for a 30-day comment period.

Beijing has issued a series of measures over the past decade to tighten control over data, minimize reliance on foreign security technology and promote China's fledgling providers. Business groups and China's trading partners complain that violates its market-opening pledges.

President Xi Jinping's government has cast itself as a public defender of global free trade in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's promises to limit imports. But business groups say Beijing appears to be trying to squeeze foreign competitors out of promising fields including agriculture-related biotechnology, health products and data security.

In a report Thursday, the European Union Chamber said 30 percent of information technology and telecoms companies that responded to a survey believed they were discriminated against under national security-related legislation. The American Chamber of Commerce in China said in April a survey found only 10 percent of companies in technology-intensive industries were optimistic about their regulatory environment.

That has fueled trade strains with the United States and Europe at a time of anemic global economic growth.

China's top economic official, Premier Li Keqiang, is due to meet Friday with European Union leaders in Brussels for talks on political and economic relations amid mounting European frustration about Chinese market barriers.

Chinese leaders have resisted the notion of a borderless internet and free movement of information. Beijing blocks access to foreign websites deemed subversive and Xi has called on other governments to respect “cyber sovereignty,” or the right of countries to restrict online activity.

The Cybersecurity Law would require computer equipment and security systems to pass government tests. Companies would be required to store any data about Chinese citizens within the country.

Business groups warn that would hamper the ability of foreign e-commerce and other companies to compete in China. They say security might be weakened if they are required to shift data storage to China, where security technology might be weaker.

Trade groups also have warned a portion of the Cybersecurity Law requiring technology to be “secure and controllable” might obligate providers to disclose how products work, raising the risk trade secrets might be leaked.

Authorities tried Thursday to defuse complaints about potential business disruption.

“The review will not discriminate against foreign technology,” the Cyberspace Administration said. “On the contrary, the security review will increase consumer confidence in the use of products and expand the enterprise market.”

It said measures on cross-border data flow were not meant to disrupt email, e-commerce or other commercial activity.

“We are willing to cooperate with other countries on this issue so as to jointly promote the flow of data in an orderly and free manner,” the Cyberspace Administration said.

Still, companies are uneasy that they have yet to be given details of how the law will be implemented, said Jake Parker, vice president of China operations for the U.S.-China Business Council.

“It greatly affects business confidence in the China market because companies are unable to faithfully obey the law,” Parker said.

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Deadly Truck Bomb Rocks Kabul

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A massive truck bomb exploded Wednesday morning in the diplomatic section of Afghanistan's capital, killing at least 90 people and wounding more than 300 others. Read More Deadly Truck Bomb Rocks Kabul : http://ift.tt/2smKjp6

Philippines' Duterte Denounces Chelsea Clinton Over Rape Criticism

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte denounced Chelsea Clinton in a vulgar speech Wednesday for her criticism of remarks he made last week about rape.

Duterte made the rape comment in a speech aimed to show his full support for soldiers enforcing martial law in the southern Philippines. Duterte said he would take responsibility for any abuses committed by troops, even if they rape three women.

In response to Duterte's remarks about rape, Clinton, daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, wrote on Twitter, "Not funny. Ever."

In lashing out at Chelsea Clinton, Duterte said that he was simply being sarcastic. Using a string of expletives, he asked if Clinton had reacted in the same way when her father had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Duterte also said American forces had raped women in the Philippines and Japan.

President Duterte declared martial law in the southern Philippines last week after militants laid siege to the city of Marawi, on Mindanao island. The trouble started after the militants clashed with troops who were pursuing wanted terrorist Isnilon Hapilon, the Philippine head of the Islamic State group. Duterte has vowed to take harsh measures against militants and warned that he might expand martial law nationwide.

Duterte’s use of martial law has raised concerns among human rights groups, who have accused him of ordering security forces to kill thousands of people as part of his crackdown on illicit drugs.

The southern Philippines, particularly the resource-rich but poverty-wracked Mindanao region, has long been a hotbed of activity by fundamentalist groups.

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Myanmar to Probe Video That Appears to Show Soldiers Beating People

YANGON — 

Authorities in Myanmar will investigate a video that appears to show members of the armed forces beating, kicking and violently interrogating several people, the government said on Wednesday.

Human rights advocates urged the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to investigate after the footage, showing soldiers kicking men in the face as well as holding a machete to a man's throat, went viral over the weekend.

Myanmar's armed forces have often been accused of abuses by human rights groups and Western governments during decades of conflict with myriad ethnic armed groups.

The clip surfaced on social media as some of Myanmar's armed rebel groups gathered last week in the capital, Naypyitaw, for peace talks with the military and Suu Kyi, following her tough first year in power that saw the worst rebel fighting in years.

"We have found a 17-minute-long video on social media showing four civilians mistreated by some soldiers. International human rights organizations released statements about that on May 28," Suu Kyi's office said in a statement.

"The government will now necessarily investigate the violations according to the current rules and regulations."

Some of the handcuffed men were questioned whether they belonged to the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group based in Myanmar's eastern Shan State which recently clashed with the military.

Reuters could not independently verify the identity of the people involved in the video. It was not clear when and where it was taken.

A coalition of four rebel groups comprising some of Myanmar's most powerful militias, including the TNLA, staged attacks on security forces in northern Myanmar in November.

Myanmar this year investigated policemen after footage of villagers being treated violently emerged online, amid tension over a government crackdown on suspected insurgents.

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Crackdowns Have Indonesian Gay Community on Edge

JAKARTA — 

A string of high-profile crackdowns on gay rights in Indonesia has the country’s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community on edge.

There were several high profile raids of saunas and "sex parties" this month, including one in Jakarta where 141 men were arrested. Last week, a gay couple was publicly caned in conservative Aceh province, in the first-ever application of a 2015 sharia statute against homosexuality. And in West Java, Indonesia’s most populous province, officials have announced the creation of an anti-LGBT "task force.”

It is not illegal to be gay in Indonesia, but the last two years have borne witness to unprecedented attacks on LGBT citizens.

Last year, there was an acute “gay panic” where, among other things, a transgender boarding school was shut down, a former minister called on the public to kill gay people, and the Vice President personally attacked a UN program focused on LGBT rights.

Those sentiments never completely died down, and this year’s reaction to gay rights seems even more virulent. And the issue is impossible to disentangle from the overall rise in intolerance towards minorities that was exemplified by the racially charged campaign that unseated Jakarta’s Chinese-Christian governor last month.

Echo chamber effect

“Generally speaking, conservatives have found the perfect target in the LGBT community,” said Dede Oetomo, a veteran gay rights activist based in East Java. “The increased frequency of actions is alarming.”

With regards to the raids on sex clubs in Jakarta and Surabaya, Oetomo said, “police usually know what’s going on. The question is, why do they choose to act at a certain time?” He conjectured that morality policing before the holy month of Ramadan, which started last week, was one potential factor.

Last week in Bandung, the capital of West Java, provincial police chief Charliyan told reporters that LGBT people suffered a "disease of the body and soul.”

But a spokesman for the national police, Setyo Wasisto, said there were no plans to scale up the West Java task force on a national level.

“The duty of the police to enforce the rules and laws so that everyone has the same rights,” said Yuli Rustinawati, chair of the LGBT activist group Arus Pelangi. “Not to be moral police.”

A checkered history

Last October, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo gave an extremely qualified defense of LGBT rights after months of anti-gay rhetoric. He denounced discrimination against gay Indonesians after asserting that “in Indonesia, beliefs [generally] do not allow [homosexuality], Islam does not allow it.”

Gay rights are an uncomfortable topic in Indonesian public life, said Oetomo. “There is no advocacy at the highest level in Jakarta. My sense is that if the rights of governors and chief of police are willing to do something, they’ll do it quietly.”

The spike in anti-LGBT attacks follows the rising profile of one of the most virulent anti-gay voices in Indonesia, the Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI), the hardline group that organized the rallies against Jakarta’s governor last year. FPI-associated vigilantes filmed the gay couple who was caned in Aceh, and FPI has promised to “help” Indonesian police conduct further raids like the ones in Jakarta and Surabaya.

But a sexting scandal involving its leader, Habib Rizieq Shihab, degrades some of the authority by which FPI has unofficially acted as Indonesia’s morality police since its founding in 1998. It is not clear if his recent arrest will lead to a respite in the LGBT crackdown.

An uncertain future

“This feels like a repeat, in a way,” said Fajar Zakhri, a 25-year-old gay man who lives in Jakarta and who lived through last year’s LGBT crackdown. “But it's a worse repeat. Because the [recent] events sort of overlapped with one another and you can just sense this overall spirit of... they want to criminalize us.”

It hasn’t always been so in Indonesia. Transgender people, including the waria “third-gender” people, have long been a part of Indonesian societies. One Sulawesi group, the Bugis people, historically recognize five genders.

The worst development for LGBT rights, meanwhile, is still on the table: a Constitutional Court petition banning homosexual acts between consenting adults. It was filed last May and remains an open question.

In the same week that Taiwan became the first Asian country to move towards formal recognition of same-sex marriage, the proposed anti-gay ban is a sobering prospect for Indonesia’s LGBT community.

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Philippines' Duterte Denounces Chelsea Clinton Over Rape Criticism

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte denounced Chelsea Clinton in a vulgar speech Wednesday for her criticism of remarks he made last week about rape.

Duterte made the rape comment in a speech aimed to show his full support for soldiers enforcing martial law in the southern Philippines. Duterte said he would take responsibility for any abuses committed by troops, even if they rape three women.

In response to Duterte's remarks about rape, Clinton, daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, wrote on Twitter, "Not funny. Ever."

In lashing out at Chelsea Clinton, Duterte said that he was simply being sarcastic. Using a string of expletives, he asked if Clinton had reacted in the same way when her father had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Duterte also said American forces had raped women in the Philippines and Japan.

President Duterte declared martial law in the southern Philippines last week after militants laid siege to the city of Marawi, on Mindanao island. The trouble started after the militants clashed with troops who were pursuing wanted terrorist Isnilon Hapilon, the Philippine head of the Islamic State group. Duterte has vowed to take harsh measures against militants and warned that he might expand martial law nationwide.

Duterte’s use of martial law has raised concerns among human rights groups, who have accused him of ordering security forces to kill thousands of people as part of his crackdown on illicit drugs.

The southern Philippines, particularly the resource-rich but poverty-wracked Mindanao region, has long been a hotbed of activity by fundamentalist groups.

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Myanmar to Probe Video That Appears to Show Soldiers Beating People

YANGON — 

Authorities in Myanmar will investigate a video that appears to show members of the armed forces beating, kicking and violently interrogating several people, the government said on Wednesday.

Human rights advocates urged the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to investigate after the footage, showing soldiers kicking men in the face as well as holding a machete to a man's throat, went viral over the weekend.

Myanmar's armed forces have often been accused of abuses by human rights groups and Western governments during decades of conflict with myriad ethnic armed groups.

The clip surfaced on social media as some of Myanmar's armed rebel groups gathered last week in the capital, Naypyitaw, for peace talks with the military and Suu Kyi, following her tough first year in power that saw the worst rebel fighting in years.

"We have found a 17-minute-long video on social media showing four civilians mistreated by some soldiers. International human rights organizations released statements about that on May 28," Suu Kyi's office said in a statement.

"The government will now necessarily investigate the violations according to the current rules and regulations."

Some of the handcuffed men were questioned whether they belonged to the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an ethnic armed group based in Myanmar's eastern Shan State which recently clashed with the military.

Reuters could not independently verify the identity of the people involved in the video. It was not clear when and where it was taken.

A coalition of four rebel groups comprising some of Myanmar's most powerful militias, including the TNLA, staged attacks on security forces in northern Myanmar in November.

Myanmar this year investigated policemen after footage of villagers being treated violently emerged online, amid tension over a government crackdown on suspected insurgents.

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Read More Myanmar to Probe Video That Appears to Show Soldiers Beating People : http://ift.tt/2rUclvw

Crackdowns Have Indonesian Gay Community on Edge

JAKARTA — 

A string of high-profile crackdowns on gay rights in Indonesia has the country’s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community on edge.

There were several high profile raids of saunas and "sex parties" this month, including one in Jakarta where 141 men were arrested. Last week, a gay couple was publicly caned in conservative Aceh province, in the first-ever application of a 2015 sharia statute against homosexuality. And in West Java, Indonesia’s most populous province, officials have announced the creation of an anti-LGBT "task force.”

It is not illegal to be gay in Indonesia, but the last two years have borne witness to unprecedented attacks on LGBT citizens.

Last year, there was an acute “gay panic” where, among other things, a transgender boarding school was shut down, a former minister called on the public to kill gay people, and the Vice President personally attacked a UN program focused on LGBT rights.

Those sentiments never completely died down, and this year’s reaction to gay rights seems even more virulent. And the issue is impossible to disentangle from the overall rise in intolerance towards minorities that was exemplified by the racially charged campaign that unseated Jakarta’s Chinese-Christian governor last month.

Echo chamber effect

“Generally speaking, conservatives have found the perfect target in the LGBT community,” said Dede Oetomo, a veteran gay rights activist based in East Java. “The increased frequency of actions is alarming.”

With regards to the raids on sex clubs in Jakarta and Surabaya, Oetomo said, “police usually know what’s going on. The question is, why do they choose to act at a certain time?” He conjectured that morality policing before the holy month of Ramadan, which started last week, was one potential factor.

Last week in Bandung, the capital of West Java, provincial police chief Charliyan told reporters that LGBT people suffered a "disease of the body and soul.”

But a spokesman for the national police, Setyo Wasisto, said there were no plans to scale up the West Java task force on a national level.

“The duty of the police to enforce the rules and laws so that everyone has the same rights,” said Yuli Rustinawati, chair of the LGBT activist group Arus Pelangi. “Not to be moral police.”

A checkered history

Last October, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo gave an extremely qualified defense of LGBT rights after months of anti-gay rhetoric. He denounced discrimination against gay Indonesians after asserting that “in Indonesia, beliefs [generally] do not allow [homosexuality], Islam does not allow it.”

Gay rights are an uncomfortable topic in Indonesian public life, said Oetomo. “There is no advocacy at the highest level in Jakarta. My sense is that if the rights of governors and chief of police are willing to do something, they’ll do it quietly.”

The spike in anti-LGBT attacks follows the rising profile of one of the most virulent anti-gay voices in Indonesia, the Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI), the hardline group that organized the rallies against Jakarta’s governor last year. FPI-associated vigilantes filmed the gay couple who was caned in Aceh, and FPI has promised to “help” Indonesian police conduct further raids like the ones in Jakarta and Surabaya.

But a sexting scandal involving its leader, Habib Rizieq Shihab, degrades some of the authority by which FPI has unofficially acted as Indonesia’s morality police since its founding in 1998. It is not clear if his recent arrest will lead to a respite in the LGBT crackdown.

An uncertain future

“This feels like a repeat, in a way,” said Fajar Zakhri, a 25-year-old gay man who lives in Jakarta and who lived through last year’s LGBT crackdown. “But it's a worse repeat. Because the [recent] events sort of overlapped with one another and you can just sense this overall spirit of... they want to criminalize us.”

It hasn’t always been so in Indonesia. Transgender people, including the waria “third-gender” people, have long been a part of Indonesian societies. One Sulawesi group, the Bugis people, historically recognize five genders.

The worst development for LGBT rights, meanwhile, is still on the table: a Constitutional Court petition banning homosexual acts between consenting adults. It was filed last May and remains an open question.

In the same week that Taiwan became the first Asian country to move towards formal recognition of same-sex marriage, the proposed anti-gay ban is a sobering prospect for Indonesia’s LGBT community.

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Senate Democrats Ask Trump for Answers on China Trademarks

SHANGHAI — 

A group of Senate Democrats has sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump requesting information about a raft of trademark approvals from China this year that they say may violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on gifts from foreign governments.

"China's rapid approvals after years of court battles have raised questions as to whether the trademarks will prevent you from standing up to China on behalf of American workers and their businesses," the eight senators, led by Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow and Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, wrote in the letter Tuesday.

China's most recent nod for a Trump trademark, covering clothing, came on May 6, bringing to 40 the number of marks China has granted or provisionally granted to the president and a related company, DTTM Operations LLC, since his inauguration. If there are no objections, provisional approvals are formally registered after 90 days. China has also rejected or partially rejected nine Trump trademarks since the inauguration.

Trademarks give the holder monopoly rights to a brand in a given market. In many jurisdictions, like China, they can also be filed defensively, to prevent squatters from using a name. Because trademarks are granted at the discretion of foreign governments and can be enormously valuable, they can be problematic for U.S. officials, who are barred by the emoluments clause of the constitution from accepting anything of value from foreign states without congressional approval.

In their letter, the senators were particularly interested in any special efforts Trump, his Chinese lawyers, or the U.S. Embassy in China, which sometimes advocates for U.S. firms, may have made to secure approval for the president's trademarks. They cited an Associated Press report quoting one of Trump's lawyers in China, Spring Chang, who said that "government relations are an important part of trademark strategy in China."

Concern about favoritism is particularly sharp in China, where the courts and bureaucracy are designed to reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party. China has defended its handling of Trump's intellectual property interests, saying it followed the law in processing his applications, though some trademark lawyers viewed the pace as unusually quick and well-coordinated. In addition, China approved one trademark for Trump-branded construction services after a 10-year legal battle that turned in his favor only after he declared his candidacy.

Alan Garten, chief legal officer of The Trump Organization, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. He has previously said that Trump's trademark activity in China predates his election and noted that Trump has stepped away from managing his company. However, the president retains an ownership stake in his global branding and real estate empire.

In April, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, added "gratuitous Chinese trademarks" to its lawsuit against the president for alleged emoluments violations. Trump has dismissed the suit as without merit.

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Tech Show Displays Ways VR, AI Edging into People’s Lives

TAIPEI — 

Inside the sprawling Acer stall at Computex Taipei, Asia’s largest tech show, staff displayed a laptop computer that’s ready for virtual reality play yet thinner than most PCs for gaming. At the same exhibition, the Taiwanese tech hardware maker showed how its internet cloud uses artificial intelligence to predict what customers will do when shopping and allow the shop to make decisions accordingly.

VR and AI usher in a new world of technology

Acer was riding two major new themes at the annual show: virtual reality, often abbreviated to VR, and artificial intelligence, or AI.

Demand from gamers, a lucrative market of people willing to pay more than $10,000 for a personal computer (PC), is driving the VR side, compelling Acer and its peers to install new lines of processors that support immersive, 3D play with headgear and hand controls.

“You can see that the company is moving into more gaming centric, VR, new experience innovation,” said Vincent Lin, senior director of Acer's global product marketing. “Not all gaming notebooks or not all notebooks are VR ready. There are certain requirements needed to be VR ready. VR, certainly it’s a growth area. It’s supposed to like grow five times or something over next 3 years.”

Revenue is forecast to rise quickly

Silicon Valley investment advisory firm Digi-Capital forecasts a surge in global revenue from $20 billion this year to $108 billion in 2021 in virtual reality technology and a similar technology known as augmented reality.

The anticipation of growth inspired 60 Computex exhibitors to show games, gear or PCs that support virtual reality. The technology that first popped into public view in the 1980s is normally aimed now at computer gamers, though scientific researchers have used VR as well as the related augmented reality to model processes they can’t duplicate in real life.

Near Acer’s stall, Computex visitors donned thick, black head-mounted goggles to race cars or fire at things, yelling in excitement through the dimly lit booths as they tested new products.

PCs will be thinner, quieter and quicker to support VR

Developers were excited about Nvidia’s newly announced graphics processors that are designed to make PCs thinner and quieter. They also noticed the seventh update of Intel’s Core i5 processor, which stands to make PCs faster.

At one stall, Hong Kong developer Zotac showed off backpacks that can hold a gamer’s VR hardware system to prevent any tripping over wires – which might happen to someone immersed in a 3D scenario and unable to see the real floor.

“Right now the way the virtual reality equipment is made, you’re tethered to a system. That means you have to worry about tripping over cables, wrapping them around yourself as well,” Zotac product marketer Buu Ly said. “With our VR backpack, that removes those barriers so you are more free to experience VR the way it was supposed to be experienced.”

AI attracting much interest this year

Artificial intelligence also made its way into the show, where about 1,600 exhibitors occupied 5,010 booths, this year as companies test a relatively new technology that teaches computers to make decisions based on patterns they detect through analysis of user commands.

Voice-activated assistants on mobile phones use artificial intelligence by searching the phone for requested information, even sending commands across apps to get answers.

Computex organizers have not tallied the number of exhibitors showing AI technology, but analysts in Taipei say a number are pursuing servers that can speed up development of AI functions allowed by the likes of Nvidia’s Jetson TX computer processing module.

With a compound annual growth rate of 63 percent from 2016 to 2022, the artificial intelligence market should be worth $16.06 billion by 2022, according to forecasts by the research firm Markets and Markets.

“AI has caught much of the spotlight in various exhibitions around the world and has become one of major deployment highlights for many companies in recent years,” said Ray Han, industry analyst with the Marketing Intelligence & Consulting Institute in Taipei. “The next battlefield will lie on platforms or chips.”

Internet of things

One contender is Socionext, a Japanese developer that has developed a processor partly for AI and the Internet of things, or IoT, which means using phones or PCs to control other electronic objects. Five customers are evaluating whether to install the chip, said Fumitaka Shiraishi, a Socionext business project management group member.

“Our chip is a processor chip, so not too specific for AI but also suitable for AI because of the low power,” Shiraishi said.

Artificial intelligence can help the Internet of things by picking the most relevant points from vast fields of data collected.

“In the future five years, I think IoT devices also need to judge some information -- not just sensing,” Shiraishi said.

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US Successfully Tests Missile Defense System Amid North Korea Tensions

Days after the latest North Korean missile test, the United States successfully conducts its own test involving a simulated attack by an intercontinental ballistic missile. U.S. officials call the drill a critical milestone in U.S. defense. Jesusemen Oni reports.

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Vietnam to Sign Deals for Up to $17B in US Goods, Services

WASHINGTON — 

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said Tuesday that he would sign deals for U.S. goods and services worth $15 billion to $17 billion during his visit to Washington, mainly for high-technology products and for services.

"Vietnam will increase the import of high technologies and services from the United States, and on the occasion of this visit, many important deals will be made," Phuc told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce dinner.

Phuc, who is due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday at the end of a three-day visit to the United States, did not provide further details of the transactions.

GE Power Chief Executive Officer Steve Bolze told the dinner that General Electric Co. would sign deals worth about $6 billion with Vietnam, but also offered no details.

Phuc's comments came after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern about the rapid growth of the U.S. trade deficit with Vietnam, saying this was a new challenge for the two countries and that he was looking to Phuc to help address it.

"Over the last decade, our bilateral trade deficit has risen from about $7 billion to nearly $32 billion," Lighthizer said. "This concerning growth in our trade deficit presents new challenges and shows us that there is considerable potential to improve further our important trade relationship."

Reducing deficits

Lighthizer and other Trump administration trade officials have pledged to work to reduce U.S. bilateral deficits with major trading partners. The $32 billion deficit with Vietnam last year — the sixth-largest U.S. trade deficit — reflects growing imports of Vietnamese semiconductors and other electronics products in addition to more traditional sectors such as footwear, apparel and furniture.

The trade issue has become a potential irritant in a relationship where Washington and Hanoi have stepped up security cooperation in recent years, given shared concerns about China's increasingly assertive behavior in East Asia.

Phuc's meeting with Trump makes him the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the White House under the new administration.

It reflected calls, letters, diplomatic contacts and lower-level visits that started long before Trump took office in Washington, where Vietnam retains a lobbyist at $30,000 a month.

Vietnam was disappointed when Trump ditched the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, in which Hanoi was expected to be one of the main beneficiaries, and focused U.S. trade policy on reducing deficits.

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Man Probing Ivanka Trump Brands in China Is Arrested; Two Others Missing

SHANGHAI — 

A man investigating working conditions at a Chinese company that produces Ivanka Trump-brand shoes has been arrested and two others are missing, the arrested man's wife and an advocacy group said Tuesday.

Hua Haifeng was accused of illegal surveillance, according to his wife, Deng Guilian, who said the police called her Tuesday afternoon. Deng said the caller told her she didn't need to know the details, only that she would not be able to see, speak with or receive money from her husband, the family's breadwinner.

China Labor Watch Executive Director Li Qiang said he lost contact with Hua Haifeng and the other two men, Li Zhao and Su Heng, over the weekend. By Tuesday, after dozens of unanswered calls, he had concluded: "They must be held either by the factory or the police to be unreachable."

China Labor Watch, a New York-based nonprofit, was planning to publish a report next month alleging low pay, excessive overtime and the possible misuse of student interns. It is unclear whether the undercover investigative methods used by the advocacy group are legal in China.

For 17 years, China Labor Watch has investigated working conditions at suppliers to some of the world's best-known companies, but Li said his work has never before attracted this level of scrutiny from China's state security apparatus.

"Our plan was to investigate the factory to improve the labor situation," Li said. "But now it has become more political."

Disney decision

Walt Disney Co. stopped working with a toy maker in Shenzhen last year after the group exposed labor violations. China Labor Watch has also published reports on child labor at Samsung suppliers and spent years investigating Apple Inc.'s China factories. In the past, the worst thing Li feared was having investigators kicked out of a factory or face a short police detention.

That has changed.

The arrest and disappearances came amid a crackdown on perceived threats to the stability of China's ruling Communist Party, particularly from sources with foreign ties such as China Labor Watch. Faced with rising labor unrest and a slowing economy, Beijing has also taken a stern approach to activism in southern China's manufacturing belt and to human rights advocates generally, sparking a wave of critical reports about disappearances, public confessions, forced repatriation and torture in custody.

Another difference is the target of China Labor Watch's investigation: a brand owned by the daughter of the president of the United States.

White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks referred questions to Ivanka Trump's brand. The Ivanka Trump brand declined to comment for this story.

Abigail Klem, who took over day-to-day management when the first daughter took on a White House role as presidential adviser, has said that the brand requires licensees and their manufacturers to "comply with all applicable laws and to maintain acceptable working conditions."

No reply from police

Li said China Labor Watch asked police about the three missing investigators on Monday but received no reply. Li added that a friend had tried to file a missing-person report on Li Zhao in Jiangxi, where the factory is located, but was told he had to do so in the man's hometown.

AP was unable to reach the other investigators' families. China's Ministry of Public Security and police in Ganzhou city and Jiangxi province could not be reached for comment Tuesday, which was a national holiday in China.

All three men were investigating Ganzhou Huajian International Shoe City Co.'s factory in Jiangxi province, just north of Guangdong province. Su Heng had been working undercover at the factory since April, Li said. The parent company is known as Huajian Group.

In January, Liu Shiyuan, then spokesman for the Huajian Group, told AP the company makes 10,000 to 20,000 pairs of shoes a year for Ivanka Trump's brand — a small fraction of the 20 million pairs the company produces a year. A current spokeswoman for the company, Long Shan, did not reply to questions Tuesday. "I told you I could not check until tomorrow," she said. "If your official letter contains a stamp and signature, we can confirm whether the media is real or not."

Li said investigators had seen Ivanka Trump-brand shoes in the factory, as well as production orders for Ivanka Trump, Marc Fisher, Nine West and Easy Spirit merchandise.

"We were unaware of the allegations and will look into them immediately," a spokeswoman for Marc Fisher, which manufactures Ivanka Trump, Easy Spirit and its own branded shoes, said in an email. Nine West did not respond to requests for comment.

Li Zhao and Hua Haifeng were blocked from leaving mainland China for Hong Kong in April and May — something that had never happened to his colleagues before, Li said. Hua Haifeng was stopped at the border Thursday and later questioned by police, Li said. During their final phone conversation on Saturday, Hua told Li that police had asked him to stop investigating the Huajian factory — another turn of events that Li said was unprecedented.

Excessive overtime, low wages

Li said the men had documented excessive overtime, with working days sometimes stretching longer than 18 hours, and a base salary below minimum wage. They were working to confirm evidence suggesting that student interns, some of whom allegedly quit in protest, were putting in excessive hours on work unrelated to their field of study, in violation of Chinese law, Li said.

The use of student workers in China is legal, but meant to be strictly regulated. Rights groups and journalists have documented widespread abuse of the system over the years.

"It is the role of the police to prevent that kind of independent investigation," said Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director for Amnesty International. "The threshold is much lower today than it was one year ago, two years ago, and if this is something that has a foreign diplomacy dimension, that would make national security personnel even more willing to stop it."

Hua's wife, Deng, meanwhile, has yet to tell the couple's children, ages 3 and 7, about their father's plight. But they seem to know anyway, she said.

"My son suddenly burst into tears. He said he missed Papa," Deng said by phone from her home in central China's Hubei province. "I said Papa would come home soon and buy you toys."

She said the child looked at her and answered: "Papa was taken away by a monster."

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Sri Lanka Battles to Get Relief to Stranded Flood-hit Villages

COLOMBO / NEW DELHI — 

Heavy rains and highway obstructions are hampering efforts to get food, water and medicine to thousands of flood survivors in Sri Lanka, government officials and aid workers said Tuesday.

Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains in recent days have killed 200 people and disrupted the lives of over half million others. Over 80,000 people have been forced into temporary shelters, and about 100 people remain missing.

Government and military officials said the army and air force, using boats and helicopters, had managed to reach most of those affected, but persistent rains and inaccessible roads were hampering efforts to airdrop and distribute aid in some areas.

"The military was able to facilitate access to three landslide areas only yesterday. Hundreds of army personnel were deployed to remove the soil mounts from the landslides," military spokesman Roshan Seneviratne told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The deluge, the worst Sri Lanka has witnessed in more than a decade, has forced the island to call for international assistance. The U.N., aid agencies, India, China, Pakistan, Australia and Japan have rallied to offer support.

Farmland swamped

The flooding has swept away hundreds of buildings and homes and inundated major roads, bridges and vast tracts of farmland, including tea and rubber plantations.

Military officials said that they were still trying to access some remote villages in the worst-affected districts of Galle, Matara, Kalutara and Rathnapura in the island's south, but that local communities had come forward to help.

"There were some areas which we could not reach in the first 36 hours. Local people helped a lot in the aftermath of the disaster. There were also committed officials at a grass-roots level who managed to cope with the situation," Law Minister Sagala Ratnayake told reporters.

Aid workers said the focus was slowly shifting from search and rescue to relief and recovery, where people were returning to their homes from the temporary camps and would need help to rebuild their homes and livelihoods.

"They are returning to significantly damaged property where they have lost many of their belongings, where the water may be contaminated and where the crops they had in the ground have been destroyed," said Save the Children's country director Chris McIvor.

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Self-proclaimed Peacemongers Push India, Pakistan to Talk

ISLAMABAD — 

More than 900 people, most of them from India and Pakistan, have signed a resolution calling on the two governments to decrease hostilities and resolve their differences through dialogue.

Drafted by Boston-based Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar and Indian academic Anish Mishra, who is based in Singapore, the resolution aims to reduce the increased tensions between the two South Asian nuclear-armed rivals that have already fought five wars since their independence from the British in 1947.

Signatories include well-known artists, authors, journalists, politicians, activists and even retired armed forces personnel. Names like internationally renowned linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, Bollywood stars Naseeruddin Shah and Nandita Das, famous Indian film producer Mahesh Bhatt, poets such as Gulzar and Kishwar Naheed, and historians like Ayesha Jalal and Romila Thapar join the ranks of retired generals Mahmud Durrani and Talat Masood and admiral L. Ramdas as "peacemongers," a name they have chosen for themselves.

Endorsements from other regional countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, indicated how people in the region "feel impacted by relations between the two South Asian giants," stated a web post announcing the resolution.

"The peace constituencies on both sides have to raise their voices," said Pakistani politician Afrasiab Khattak, who has endorsed the resolution. "If they're silent, they leave the field open for warmongers and no one challenges the stereotypes they create."

Short-lived efforts at peace

Hostilities between India and Pakistan have been high ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014. He had campaigned on a platform of creating a "muscular India" that was tough on its rival, Pakistan. New Delhi often accuses Pakistan of harboring anti-India militants who carry out cross-border attacks on Indian targets.

Several apparent attempts by both sides at breaking the ice have been frustrated by subsequent events.

A surprise visit by Modi, for example, to attend the wedding ceremony of the granddaughter of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in December of 2015 was supposed to act as a reset button. The euphoria was short lived.

In January 2016, heavily armed militants attacked an air force base in Pathankot in the Indian state of Punjab. India blamed Pakistan-based militants and the relationship soured.

More recently, India sent back 50 Pakistani students who had been invited to the country by a nongovernmental organization after accusing Pakistan of killing and mutilating the bodies of two Indian soldiers on the Line of Control or LoC, a de-facto border in the disputed territory of Kashmir. Pakistan denied the allegation.

Taking account of such instances, the resolution notes, "Whenever it seems that relations might improve, some form of disruption takes place ranging from jingoistic statements to militant attacks."

For this reason, the peacemongers have demanded that the two countries design a framework for dialogue that is "uninterrupted and uninterruptible," words first used by Indian diplomat-turned-politician Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Aiyar signs, but remains skepical

The former diplomat was less enthusiastic about the resolution's prospects for success.

"The bureaucracy completely closes its ears to anything that does not come out from within," he said. He added that the Bharatiya Janta Party of Prime Minister Modi was increasing its vote bank as a result of hostilities with Pakistan.

"I don't think they'll even read the resolution, let alone be influenced by it," he added.

Still, Aiyar endorsed the resolution because he believed "peace lovers on both sides should stand by their convictions," no matter what.

The organizers admit the resolution might not affect policy, but say they are hoping for a ripple effect of "a pebble thrown in a pond."

Sarwar, one of the initiators, maintained the peace constituencies on both sides were large but not represented in mainstream media.

"When Indians and Pakistanis meet in a third country, they mostly become good friends," she pointed out.

"Even the soldiers at the Wagah border who put up a show of hostility rehearse that show together," she said, referring to a flag-lowering ceremony at the India-Pakistan border in which soldiers from both sides growl and wave fists at each other but do it in unison.

The media, she said, represented voices that were loud, even if they were a minority.

The resolution also calls on both sides to "[r]enounce all forms of proxy wars, state-sponsored terrorism, human rights violations, cross-border terrorism, and subversive activities against each other, including through non-state actors or support of separatist movements in each other's state."

The initiative comes at a time when fears of Indian-Pakistani hostilities leading to a wider conflict are high. In testimony in the United States before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the director general of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, expressed fears of a further strain in ties between the two South Asian nations.

India has sought and continues to move to isolate Pakistan diplomatically and is considering punitive options to raise the cost to Islamabad for its alleged support of cross-border terrorism, he said.

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Senate Democrats Ask Trump for Answers on China Trademarks

SHANGHAI — 

A group of Senate Democrats sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, requesting information about a raft of trademark approvals from China this year that they say may violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on gifts from foreign governments.

"China's rapid approvals after years of court battles have raised questions as to whether the trademarks will prevent you from standing up to China on behalf of American workers and their businesses," the eight senators, led by Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow and Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, wrote.

China's most recent nod for a Trump trademark, covering clothing, came on May 6, bringing to 40 the number of marks China has granted or provisionally granted to the president and a related company, DTTM Operations LLC, since his inauguration. If there are no objections, provisional approvals are formally registered after 90 days. China has also rejected or partially rejected nine Trump trademarks since the inauguration.

Trademarks give the holder monopoly rights to a brand in a given market. In many jurisdictions, like China, they can also be filed defensively, to prevent squatters from using a name. Because trademarks are granted at the discretion of foreign governments and can be enormously valuable, they can be problematic for U.S. officials, who are barred by the emoluments clause of the constitution from accepting anything of value from foreign states without congressional approval.

In their letter, the senators were particularly interested in any special efforts Trump, his Chinese lawyers, or the U.S. Embassy in China, which sometimes advocates for U.S. firms, may have made to secure approval for the president's trademarks. They cited an Associated Press report quoting one of Trump's lawyers in China, Spring Chang, who said that "government relations are an important part of trademark strategy in China."

Concern about favoritism is particularly sharp in China, where the courts and bureaucracy are designed to reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party. China has defended its handling of Trump's intellectual property interests, saying it followed the law in processing his applications, though some trademark lawyers viewed the pace as unusually quick and well-coordinated. In addition, China approved one trademark for Trump-branded construction services after a 10-year legal battle that turned in his favor only after he declared his candidacy.

Alan Garten, chief legal officer of The Trump Organization, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. He has previously said that Trump's trademark activity in China predates his election and noted that Trump has stepped away from managing his company. However, the president retains an ownership stake in his global branding and real estate empire.

In April, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group, added "gratuitous Chinese trademarks" to its lawsuit against the president for alleged emoluments violations. Trump has dismissed the suit as without merit.

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Court Blocks India's Cow Slaughter Ban

A high court in Southern India temporarily blocked a government ban on the sale of cows for slaughter that was imposed last week.

The Madras High Court in the state of Tamil Nadu gave federal and state governments four weeks from Tuesday to respond to an appeal to the new law, based on the grounds that an individual has the basic right to choose his food.

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu Nationalist government passed a law requiring sellers and buyers of cattle to pledge in writing that the animals, which are considered sacred by Hindus, will not be slaughtered for food.

The slaughter of cows is banned in most states in India, but beef is consumed fairly commonly in a number of states in the South and in the Northeast.

Young people in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala organized "beef fests" over the past few days, cooking and eating the meat in protest of the ban.

A number of state governments have criticized the ban on economic terms, claiming that hundreds of thousands of beef and leather exporters could be jobless.

Radical Hindu groups have called on Modi to institute a nationwide ban on cow slaughter since he came to power in 2014. At least a dozen people, mostly Muslims, have been killed by such groups over accusations that they had been eating or smuggling beef.

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3 Indian Ruling Party Leaders Charged with Criminal Conspiracy

NEW DELHI — 

Three senior leaders of India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, including a cabinet minister, have been charged with criminal conspiracy in connection with the demolition of a 16th century mosque 25 years ago.

Appearing in a special court Tuesday in Lucknow city, former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani, cabinet minister Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi pleaded not guilty to charges of inciting a Hindu mob that tore down the mosque in December 1992. They were granted bail.

The destruction of the mosque in the small, sleepy town of Ayodhya in northern India triggered some of the worst Hindu-Muslim violence witnessed in the country. About 2,000 people were killed.

The three leaders say although they were present when the mosque was destroyed, they did not incite the mob that brought down the stone structure with pickaxes and crowbars.

Hindus believe the mosque stood on the birthplace of one their most revered gods, Lord Rama and that Muslim invaders had built it after destroying a temple standing there.

The BJP led a massive movement in 1992 demanding that Hindus be allowed to build a temple on the spot. Although a quarter century has passed, it continues to be one of India’s most contentious disputes between Hindu groups that want a temple built in Ayodhya and Muslim groups who insist the mosque must be rebuilt.

Not guilty plea

As she entered the courtroom, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti told reporters, “I contributed to the movement with complete faith, I don’t consider myself guilty.” She said that in a manner concerning God, “My hopes also rest on God.”

The ruling BJP is throwing its weight behind the three stalwart leaders. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh state, where the mosque was located, met the three outside the courtroom in a show of solidarity.

Several senior party leaders appeared on television to maintain the three are innocent.

New trial

Charges of criminal conspiracy against the three had been dropped by a lower court in 2001, but India's Supreme Court ordered a fresh trial last month.

The trial is expected to conclude in two years and the three leaders have been told to appear personally in court.

Political analysts say as the case is heard on a day-to day basis in the coming months, it will revive debate on what critics call the Hindu nationalist agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. They say the agenda includes issues such as erecting a grand temple on the disputed site and protecting cows, which Hindus consider holy.

A BJP member of parliament, Sakshi Maharaj said Tuesday as he emerged from the courtroom that “no power on earth” could stop the construction of the temple.

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Report: Banned Islamist Groups in Pakistan Freely Operate on Social Media

ISLAMABAD — 

Dozens of banned militant, sectarian, terrorist and anti-state groups in Pakistan reportedly operate freely on social media, particularly on Facebook, spreading hate speech without being confronted by authorities.

In an investigative article published Tuesday, the English-language DAWN newspaper reports 41 of the 64 extremist organizations banned by the government are accessible to social network users in the form of hundreds of pages, groups and individual profiles.

While Pakistan's counter-extremism officials have long remained under fire for being selective, critics say the reported unchecked extremist activity strengthens widespread opposition fears a recently unleashed government crackdown on social media in the name of "national security" is meant only to stifle political dissent and demands for accountability of state institutions.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has not immediately commented on the newspaper report and has previously rejected allegations its social media crackdown is targeting political opponents.

‘Hate roams free’

The Federal Investigation Agency that is coordinating the anti-social media campaign has mostly detained and probed social media activists linked to Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and other opposition parties.

Khan has been staging street protests and holding public rallies to pressure Sharif to step down for alleged corruption. His opposition party, analysts note, has effectively used social media to highlight governance issues and mobilize public support in Pakistan.

Critics say that pressuring political opponents and "selectively" moving against extremist forces will fuel religious fanaticism.

“The increasing curbs on freedom of expression in the so-called name of national security will not permit the construction of an intellectual edifice which is needed to for countering terrorism,” observed opposition Senator Farhatullah Babar.

The DAWN story also prompted a flood of criticism of the government on social media for suppressing free speech instead of moving against those promoting violent extremism in the country.

“Hate roams free while the state chases poets, artists and journalists,” read one Twitter comment.

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