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  BEIJING / AP China said on Saturday that its military was in contact with its American counterparts on “appropriately handling” the Chinese navy’s seizure of a US Navy unmanned underwater glider, one of the most serious incidents between the two militaries in years. The one-sentence comment by the foreign ministry offered no details on what discussions were underway or ...

  Sydney / AFP A major 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said, but no immediate casualties were reported and an initial tsunami threat was later deemed to have passed. The earthquake struck 60 km to the east of Taron, New Ireland, at 8.51 pm local time (1051 GMT) at a depth of ...

  Seoul / AFP Tens of thousands of protestors turned out in Seoul for the eighth straight week on Saturday, pushing for the immediate and permanent removal of impeached South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. Unlike previous weeks, the demonstrators didn’t have the streets of the capital all to themselves, with a sizeable rally by Park loyalists seeking to buttress support for ...

  United Nations/ AFP Ban Ki-moon left the door open to possibly running for president of South Korea in his final press conference as United Nations secretary general, noting that the country is “in turmoil”. Ban, a South Korean citizen who leaves his current post at the end of the year, was at first evasive when asked Friday about his ...

  The news media have been abuzz for a few weeks about the proliferation and effect of fake news. Facebook Inc. is changing how it handles news from dubious sources, while Twitter Inc. is rethinking how to respond to bots promoting fabricated articles. Alphabet Inc. (Google) has rejiggered its algorithms to fight phony stories. All of which raises some very ...

  Hong Kong property investors thought they could pick up pennies in front of the steamroller called the Federal Reserve. No longer. US short-term rates were climbing hard even before Donald Trump’s victory. Interbank liquidity in the city was more than abundant, however, thanks to capital fleeing a weakening Chinese currency to the safety of the pegged Hong Kong dollar.All ...

  The unemployment rate is down to 4.6 percent, which sounds pretty good. But the unemployment rate doesn’t count people who’ve given up looking for jobs, which is why the employment-to-population ratio, especially the ‘prime-age’ ratio for those 25 through 54, may be a better measure of the health of the labor market. After I wrote about this metric, several ...

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Etihad Airways PJSC of Abu Dhabi agreed to share seat sales in the first step of what could be deeper cooperation between the former adversaries. The two airlines will initially code-share on Etihad’s twice-daily flights linking Abu Dhabi with Frankfurt and Munich, and the German carrier’s services connecting Frankfurt with Rio de Janeiro and ...

  London / AFP German discount supermarket group Lidl announced plans to create 5,000 new jobs in London as part of a major investment programme in Britain, where it is enjoying rapid growth. The food retailer said it will open 250 shops in the capital after unveiling a three-year, £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion, 1.8 billion-euro) investment plan last year that ...

  Bloomberg Deliveries to China by Boeing Co., the largest U.S. exporter, support approximately 150,000 American jobs every year, Vice Chairman Ray Conner said. Chinese customers are expected to take delivery of 30 percent of all its top-selling 737 models and about 25 percent all aircraft produced in Washington State and South Carolina, Conner said Thursday at a National Committee ...