Wire News

• AP

BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping said Friday that Beijing wants to work for a trade deal with the United States but is not afraid to “fight back” to protect its own interests.

• AP

CAMBRIDGE, England (AP) — The chamber hushed as the debate got underway at the Cambridge Union and the teams launched into their carefully crafted opening statements.

• AP

ABOARD A US GOVERNMENT AIRCRAFT (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said he initially had his own suspicions about financier Jeffrey Epstein’s death while behind bars at one of the most secure jails in America but came to conclude that his suicide was the result of “a perfect storm of screw-ups.”

• AP

BANGKOK (AP) — Pope Francis ministered to Thailand’s tiny Catholic community Friday, urging Thais young and old to practice their faith with joy and with “a Thai face and flesh” in an overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

• AP

LONDON (AP) — Two amateur British treasure-hunters were sentenced Friday to long prison terms for stealing a hoard of 1,100-year-old Anglo-Saxon coins and jewelry valued at millions of pounds (dollars).

• AP

LONDON (AP) — Claims of ruinous spending sprees and twisted truths are flying in during campaigning for Britain’s Dec. 12 election, in which all 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs. The main parties are touting ambitious spending plans while warning of the alleged economic damage that would be wrought by their rivals.

• AP

HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court that had struck down a ban on face masks at protests said Friday that the government could enforce it for one week, as police readied for any unrest during keenly contested elections this weekend.

• AP

BEIJING (AP) — World stocks rose Friday as upbeat comments by Chinese President Xi Jinping helped quell anxiety over the state of trade talks with the U.S.

• AP

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand jury on Friday found a man guilty of murder in the death of 22-year-old British backpacker Grace Millane.

• AP

BEIJING (AP) — Stocks logged modest gains Friday in Asia after a lackluster overnight session on Wall Street ended with the market’s third straight drop.

• AP

BAGHDAD (AP) — Eight people died and at least 90 were wounded on Thursday in renewed clashes in central Baghdad, in the most violent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in recent days, Iraqi officials said.

• AP

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — The United States has begun carrying out a landmark policy shift on asylum that’s a top priority of President Donald Trump, returning a Honduran immigrant to Guatemala to pursue his asylum case.

• AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s murder rate inched up 2% in the first 10 months of the year, but the latest violence has included much more brazen challenges to authorities.

• AP

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Around 1,000 people protested outside a government building in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo after an opposition lawmaker published shocking photos of special needs children tied to beds and radiators in a nearby government facility.

• AP

HONG KONG (AP) — More than 20 protesters inside a Hong Kong university campus surrendered to police on Thursday as the city’s largest pro-Beijing political party urged voters to “kick out the black force” in upcoming elections seen as a key gauge of public support for anti-government demonstrations.

• AP

BANGKOK (AP) — Pope Francis urged more efforts to combat the “humiliation” of women and children forced into prostitution as he began a busy visit Thursday to Thailand, where human trafficking and poverty help fuel the sex tourism industry.

• AP

LONDON (AP) — Lawyers for the victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein say Prince Andrew should speak to U.S. investigators immediately, after the senior British royal withdrew from public duties over what he called his “ill-judged association” with the convicted pedophile.

• AP

BEIJING (AP) — World shares dropped Thursday as anxiety mounted over the possibility the U.S. and China may not reach a trade deal before next year.

• AP

BEIRUT (AP) — On one of Beirut’s main commercial streets, store owners are cutting salaries by half or considering shutting down. Shops advertise sales, but still can’t draw in customers. The only place doing a thriving business: the store that sells safes, as Lebanese increasingly stash their cash at home.

• AP

HONG KONG (AP) — Pale and thin, a teenager wandered the nearly deserted campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University at about 1 a.m. Wednesday. He wrapped his arms around his body — although it was unclear whether it was to ward off the cold or to reassure himself.

• AP

LONDON (AP) — Following days of turmoil that have damaged the British royal family’s reputation, Prince Andrew announced Wednesday that he will step back from public duties “for the foreseeable future” because of his association with a notorious American sex offender.

• AP

JERUSALEM (AP) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival announced Wednesday that he had failed to form a new government, dashing his hopes of toppling the long-time Israeli prime minister and pushing the country closer toward an unprecedented third election in less than a year.

• AP

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Maltese authorities arrested a prominent businessman Wednesday who appears to be a “person of interest” in the assassination of a prominent investigative reporter on the Mediterranean island.

• AP

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As a cold rain fell on a suburb of Iran’s capital on Wednesday, women swallowed by black chadors and men in green military-style jackets walked alongside the flag-draped coffin of a Revolutionary Guard member, one of over 100 people reported to be killed in protests across the country.