World Briefs

CHINA-US Top Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators have agreed to talks on a preliminary deal for resolving the tariff war between the world’s two largest economies, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said. Vice Premier Liu He and other senior officials spoke by phone with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

CHINA Zhu Hailun played a key role in planning and executing a campaign that has swept up a million or more Uighurs into detention camps. Now revealed, the documents were signed by Zhu, as then-head of the powerful Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Communist Party in Xinjiang.

PHILIPPINES A communist guerrilla leader and spokesman has been arrested while being secretly treated for high blood pressure in a hospital in an upscale residential district in suburban Manila. Military officials said that army troops and police arrested Jaime Padilla (pictured), who uses the nom de guerre Ka Diego.

AUSTRALIAN police said that they have found the body of British backpacker who ran away from his campsite last weekend. Aslan King’s body was found yesterday morning in a creek close to the campground and was identified by friends. King was camping with four British friends in the Victorian town of Princetown along the southeast coast when he disappeared early Saturday.

MALAYSIA An Australian grandmother, Maria Exposto (pictured), escaped the death penalty and was released yesterday after Malaysia’s top court acquitted her of drug trafficking, a rare ruling that could bolster calls for an end to capital punishment in the country.

US A federal judge sentenced a Chinese businesswoman to eight months in prison for trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and lying to Secret Service agents. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman also ordered that 33-year-old Yujing Zhang be turned over to immigration officials for deportation upon her release.

WEST BANK Thousands of Palestinian protesters took part in a “day of rage” across the occupied West Bank, with some groups clashing with Israeli forces to protest the U.S. announcement that it no longer believes Israeli settlements violate international law. Around 2,000 people gathered in Ramallah by midday, where they set ablaze posters President Trump as well as Israeli and American flags. Schools, universities and government offices were closed and rallies were being held in other West Bank cities.