World briefs

US-CHINA President Donald Trump is warning Chinese President Xi Jinping that China “will be hurt very badly” if they don’t agree to a trade deal.

CHINA has announced it is raising tariffs on USD60 billion in U.S. goods in retaliation for the latest penalties on its exports announced by the Trump administration.

TAIWAN Terry Gou, head of the world’s largest contract assembler of consumer electronics, stepped closer to running for president of Taiwan yesterday by announcing that he would not accept a vice presidential slot on the ticket of the opposition Nationalist Party.

PHILIPPINES Filipinos voted yesterday in midterm elections highlighted by a showdown between President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies who aim to dominate the Senate and opposition candidates fighting for checks and balances under a leader they regard as a looming dictator.

MALAYSIA Police yesterday have detained four men who were planning to assassinate “’high-profile targets” and bomb places of worship and entertainment centers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

INDIA Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Indian-controlled Kashmir to protest the alleged rape of a 3-year-old girl by a neighbor who lured her to a school bathroom.

SAUDI ARABIA Arabia said yesterday two of its oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in attacks the previous day that caused “significant damage” to the vessels, one of them as it was en route to pick up Saudi oil to take to the United States.

SUDAN Sudanese protesters resumed negotiations with the army yesterday while calling for renewed demonstrations to press the generals to hand over power to a civilian government.

SWEDEN Prosecutors said they are reopening a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and will seek his extradition after he has served his 50-week prison term in Britain for jumping bail.

POLAND A new documentary about pedophile priests has deeply shaken Poland, one of Europe’s most Roman Catholic societies, eliciting an apology from the church hierarchy and prompting one priest to leave the clergy.

USA Doris Day, the honey-voiced singer and actress whose film dramas, musicals and innocent sex comedies made her a top star in the 1950s and ‘60s and among the most popular screen actresses in history, has died. She was 97.