Manila / AFP A pilot of a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight accidentally pressed a hijack alarm, triggering a major security response at Manila airport on Tuesday, authorities said. Police isolated and surrounded the Saudia flight after it landed on Tuesday afternoon just after one of its pilots released a distress signal indicating a hijack incident was underway, the Philippine ...

  New York / AFP Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton met Egypt’s president in New York as the two US presidential candidates tried to bolster their diplomatic credentials at the United Nations. Democratic standard-bearer Clinton said last week that she would meet Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along with leaders from Japan and Ukraine on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. ...

  Abuja / AFP Two suspected Boko Haram attacks in northeast Nigeria have left up to 14 people dead and three soldiers wounded, the army and local residents said. On Monday afternoon, six people were killed in an ambush of a commercial convoy escorted by the military in the Sanda district of Borno state. “Suspected elements of the remnants of ...

  Amman / AFP Jordanians voted on Tuesday in an election that could see opposition Islamists re-emerge as a major parliamentary force in the key Western ally. The focus will be on turnout and the performance of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the political arm of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood. Experts expect the party to clinch around 20 seats in the ...

  Shanghai / AFP Two of China’s top steelmakers announced plans Tuesday to merge,creating the world’s second-largest manufacturer of the commodity as markets struggle with a glut caused by Chinese overcapacity. The world’s second largest economy is trying to overhaul its lumbering state sector and especially its steel industry, by using mergers and restructuring to cut chronic overproduction and create ...

  Bloomberg At a time when a surplus is forcing steel mills to close around the world, India’s debt-laden producers are ramping up to supply more of the metal than ever. Steel Authority of India Ltd., Tata SteelBSE 1.02 % Ltd. and JSW SteelBSE -0.69 % Ltd. — which all posted losses last year — are targeting record output in ...

  Seoul / AFP Shares in South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping plunged more than 10 percent on Tuesday on worries its parent will not stump up promised cash to prevent it from going under, while a court told it to return chartered vessels to their owners. The world’s seventh largest shipper is seeking bankruptcy protection at home and in the US ...

  JAKARTA / Reuters Congress potentially has small window to ratify trade deal Vietnam is set to delay ratifying a massive U.S.-led Pacific trade pact until next year, as anxiety rises over the fate of the deal in Congress with America’s presidential election campaign exacerbating an anti-free trade mood. Ha Ngoc Chien, head of a parliamentary committee, suggested the National ...

  Singapore / AFP Ride-hailing startup Grab said on Tuesday it has raised $750 million from investors to expand in burgeoning Southeast Asian markets including Indonesia, as it aims to build its lead over US-based rival Uber in the region. The new investments led by Japan’s SoftBank Group raised the Singapore-based firm’s total capital to more than $1.0 billion, it ...

  JAKARTA / Reuters Harvard and Columbia university research showing smoke from land fires in Southeast Asia led to more than 100,000 premature deaths last year “makes no sense at all,” an official at Indonesia’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Indonesian government records show only 24 deaths related to forest fires in 2015, but the disaster was estimated to have ...