World briefs

CHINESE President Xi Jinping is promising USD40 billion to help Asian nations improve trade links in a new effort to assert Beijing’s ambitions as a regional leader. Xi made the pledge in a meeting with leaders of Pakistan, Bangladesh and five other Asian nations ahead of this week’s Asia-Pacific economic summit, state media reported yesterday.

YEMEN has sworn in a new government despite objections from the ruling party, led my former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and allied Shiite rebels who control the capital. Thirty ministers were sworn in yesterday. Another three rejected their appointments, and three were outside Yemen. After weeks of wrangling, a U.N.-brokered deal saw Khaled Bahah nominated as prime minister and tasked with forming a government.

NORTH KOREA Two Americans released from captivity in North Korea return to the United States after their departure was secured through a secret mission by the top U.S. intelligence official to the reclusive nation.

AFGHANISTAN Afghan authorities are investigating how a man wearing an explosives-packed vest was able to infiltrate the heavily guarded police headquarters in central Kabul yesterday and attempt to assassinate the city’s chief of police. The suicide bomber’s ability to pass through heavy security and make his way to within meters of Gen. Mohammad Zahir Zahir’s office has revived concerns that insurgents have penetrated Afghanistan’s security and intelligence forces.

IRAN  US Secretary of State John Kerry says there is ‘no linkage whatsoever’ between the West’s nuclear talks with Iran and potential cooperation between Washington and Tehran on fighting Islamic State militants.

MEXICO An off-the-cuff comment by the attorney general to cut off a news conference about the apparent killing of 43 missing college students is taken up by protesters as a rallying cry against Mexico’s corruption and drug trade-fueled violence. More on p15

USA President Barack Obama introduced his choice for attorney general Saturday as an accomplished prosecutor from New York City who will carry on a “fierce commitment to equal justice.” Loretta Lynch, 55, would be the first African-American woman to serve as attorney general. She would replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder as the first black head of the Justice Department.