Beijing / AFP Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping pledged to enhance trust and deepen cooperation on Thursday, Chinese officials said, as Manila’s new leader seeks to rebalance his country’s diplomacy away from the US. China welcomed Duterte—who donned a suit and tie for the occasion—with an official ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People ...

  Edinburgh / AFP Scotland’s government published a draft independence referendum bill on Thursday as a fallback plan if it is not able to keep strong ties with the EU and win more powers from London as part of Brexit talks. The bill would give non-British EU citizens living in Scotland, who were not allowed to take part in the EU ...

  Jakarta / AFP An Indonesian IS group supporter was jailed for 10 years on Thursday for helping make a bomb used in a deadly attack in Jakarta, as the country faces an increase in IS-linked assaults. Dodi Suridi, 23, was found guilty of committing an act of terror over his links to the attack in the Indonesian capital in January, ...

  Seoul / AFP North Korea on Thursday conducted what appeared to be a failed test—its second in a week—of a powerful medium-range missile that experts warn could be deployed as early as next year. South Korean and US military monitors said the missile—believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan—exploded shortly after take-off at around 6:30 am Pyongyang time. The attempted launch ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia Airlines Bhd. said it will use six surplus Airbus Group SE A380 superjumbos to form the core of a fleet of 700-seat jets dedicated to transporting Muslim travelers on the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Peter Bellew, the carrier’s chief executive officer, met Airbus’s senior management in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday to hammer out details of the ...

  Bloomberg Nestle SA forecast the slowest full-year sales growth in more than a decade as food companies worldwide struggle against consumer resistance to price increases. Revenue will gain about 3.5 percent on an organic basis in 2016, the Vevey, Switzerland-based maker of Nespresso coffee said in a statement on Thursday, abandoning a goal for an increase of about 4.2 ...

  New York / AFP US apparel group Gap Inc. will close its Banana Republic stores in Britain as it streamlines its brick-and-mortar presence outside North America in response to weak sales. Gap will shut all eight Banana Republic stores in Britain, a Gap spokeswoman said. The majority of closures will take place by the end of January. The apparel ...

  Bloomberg UK retail sales stagnated for a second month in September as soaring prices and warm weather hit demand for clothing. The figures, from the Office for National Statistics Thursday, also showed that sales excluding auto fuel were unchanged from August. Small increases on both measures had been expected by economists. Clothing and footwear sales fell 2.8 percent after ...

  Aleppo / AFP A “humanitarian pause” began on Thursday in the Syrian army’s Russian-backed assault on rebel-held areas of Aleppo but clashes continued and there were no signs residents were heeding calls to leave. The unilateral ceasefire took effect at 8:00 am 0500 GMT) and was to last at least 11 hours, with the aim of allowing civilians and fighters ...

  Kabul / AFP The UN on Thursday warned anew of a deteriorating crisis of displacement in Afghanistan as the conflict escalates, imploring the government and international donors to step up support especially for a “lost generation” of children. More than 323,000 Afghans were internally displaced across the country in the first 10 months of this year, according to UN ...