Thousands of Vietnam’s ethnic Cham people met under rainy late September skies for their annual “Kate” festival that, according to the multi-faith community’s calendar, marks the end of one harvest season and the beginning of another. The Cham are descendants of a powerful ancient kingdom that once spanned large parts of central and southern Vietnam a millennium ago. They are a traditionally matriarchal society, which worships a female goddess and expects the youngest daughter to inherit family assets. Vietnam’s ethnic Cham religious leaders take part in a procession to the Po Klong Garai temple during the ‘Kate’ festival which marks the end of harvesting season in Phan Rang, Vietnam, Sept. 28, 2019. A rich history of trading and movement across Asia have made the Cham a uniquely multi-faith group, divided into predominantly Hindu and Muslim branches, all of whom come together to celebrate “Kate.” The week-long festival, which began last Friday, marks the Cham calendar’s de facto new year, at the onset of a new harvest. At the Po Klong Garai temple in the southern town of Phan Rang – a Vietnamese rendering of Panduranga, the Cham Kingdom’s ancient capital – dozens of men in bright red and white traditional …

The U.S. Secretary of Interior has extended the tenure of the Trump administration’s top steward of public lands, rebuffing Democrats’ calls for his termination. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Monday extended William Perry Pendley’s role as Bureau of Land Management Acting Director to Jan. 3. Pendley has been in the post since July. Senate Democrats, including presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, had called for Pendley’s ouster over his longstanding support for selling public lands. He previously worked as a property rights attorney with clients including mining, energy and agriculture interests. Earlier this month Pendley recused himself from work involving dozens of former clients following conflict of interest allegations. Benhardt also extended the tenures of the acting heads of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.   …

China warned on Monday of instability in international markets from any “decoupling” of China and the United States, after sources said the Trump administration was considering delisting Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges. The move would be part of a broader effort to limit U.S. investment in Chinese companies, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters last week, in what would be a radical escalation of U.S.-China trade tensions. The news had earlier been reported by Bloomberg. A third source said the delisting idea was motivated by growing security concerns within the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over Chinese companies’ activities. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday dismissed the reports as “fake news.” “That story, which appeared in Bloomberg: I’ve read it far more carefully than it was written,” Navarro told CNBC. “Over half of it was highly inaccurate or simply flat-out false.” Shares of U.S.-listed Chinese stocks reversed direction on Monday after a sharp fall on the delisting reports. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.Com Inc rose 2% each in early trading after tumbling more than 5% on Friday. Also on Monday, e-learning firm Youdao Inc became the latest Chinese company to file for an …

South Korea showcased newly acquired F-35 stealth fighter jets to mark Armed Forces Day on Tuesday as President Moon Jae-in tries to allay concerns that his policy of engagement with North Korea may be weakening the South’s commitment to defense. North Korea has criticized the South’s weapons procurement and its joint military drills with the U.S. military as undisguised preparations for war that were forcing it to develop new short-range missiles. Moon has thrown his support behind dialogue to end the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, urging that working-level negotiations between the North and the United States be held soon. No new dates or locations have been set. Moon marked the founding of the South Korean military at a ceremony at an airbase in the city of Taegu that highlighted four of the eight Lockheed Martin F-35A jets delivered this year. Forty of the aircraft are to be delivered by 2021. FILE – This handout photo taken on Aug. 31, 2017 and provided by South Korean Defense Ministry in Seoul shows South Korean F-15K fighter jets and U.S. F-35B stealth jet fighters flying over South Korea during a joint military drill. Analysts have said the F-35 stealth jets put …

Scientists who gave fruit flies a triple drug combination treatment and found that it extended their lives by almost 50% say their work offers clues on how to fight aging in people. The researchers said their aim is not to find the secret of eternal life, but to figure out the mechanism of the aging process to find ways to help people stay healthy for longer. “We are not trying to cheat death, but help people be healthy and disease-free in their final years,” said Linda Partridge, a professor at University College London’s Institute of Healthy Ageing and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing who co-led the work. The three drugs – the mood stabilizer lithium, a cancer treatment called trametinib and an immune regulator called rapamycin – target different cellular processes and had a “quite remarkable” impact on the flies’ lifespans, the scientists said. And since the three drugs are all already in use as medical treatments, they are known to be safe to use in people, we have found that a combination drug treatment … may be an effective way to slow down the aging process,” said Jorge Castillo-Quan, who co-led the research. Partridge said the …

Authorities in El Salvador say they have broken up a criminal network involving police officers — including some elite forces — that allegedly carried out more than two dozen contract killings. Justice Minister Rogelio Rivas says 11 people were arrested in connection with the group, which is said to have operated in the eastern departments of Usulutan and San Miguel. Thirty-nine warrants were issued. The alleged crimes include 20 individual murders plus multiple killings of up to five people as well as three kidnappings, all committed in 2016-2017. Chief Prosecutor Raul Melara said Monday the suspects are accused of aggravated homicide and illicit association. He added that the suspects are “people who were supposed to protect the life of Salvadorans (and) do not deserve to call themselves police.”   …

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday rejected exercising his right to semi-open prison conditions after spending a year and a half in a cell. Prosecutors who led the corruption case against the Brazilian politician requested last week that he now be given more flexible conditions, which could include house arrest. But da Silva ruled that possibility out in a letter posted on his website, saying he wants to leave imprisonment with a decision of Brazil’s top court on his case. “I want you to know that I won’t accept bargaining with my rights and my freedom,” the former president wrote. The man who governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010 has been jailed since April 2018 after being convicted of corruption and money laundering. The once hugely popular left-leaning leader denies any wrongdoing and claims he was politically targeted by investigators. Several other cases are still pending against him. Da Silva’s suit in Brazil’s Supreme Court argues that the judge in the case that put him in a cell, current Justice Minister Sergio Moro, was biased against him.   His letter had a defiant tone against Moro, now a top Cabinet minister under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, …

Thousands of Indonesian students resumed protests Monday against a new law they say has crippled the country’s anti-corruption agency, with some clashing with police. Authorities blocked streets leading to the Parliament building in Jakarta, where 560 members of the House of Representatives whose terms ended Monday held their last session.  A police officer fires his tear gas launcher during a clash with student protesters in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, Sept. 30, 2019. Clashes between rock-throwing students and riot police broke out in the evening when police tried to disperse the protesters, ranging from high school to university students, who attempted to reach Parliament after calm had largely returned to the country’s capital over the past four days. Protesters set fires to tires and pelted police with rocks, gasoline bombs and firecrackers near blocked streets. Riot police responded by firing tear gas and water cannons.  Similar clashes also occurred in other Indonesian cities, including in West Java’s Bandung city and in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, where a student was badly injured Friday after being hit by anti-riot armor. A protest also turned violent in President Joko Widodo’s hometown of Solo city in Central Java, where an angry mob …

Italy’s coalition parties said on Monday they were in favor of reducing the minimum voting age to 16, in a move which analysts said would increase the electorate by about 1 million people. Italy would be the second EU country after Austria to lower the minimum age to participate in national elections below 18, according to the U.S. CIA’s “World Factbook.” Former Prime Minister Enrico Letta triggered the debate on Monday when he called for the voting age to be immediately lowered after young people flooded the streets of cities around the world to demand political action to counter climate change. “It is a way to tell those young people … that we take them seriously,” Letta, an academic and member of the co-ruling Democratic Party (PD), told daily newspaper la Repubblica. Currently Italians have to be 18 to elect representatives to the lower house of parliament and be 25 to vote in elections for the upper house, the Senate. His call was supported by PD chief Nicola Zingaretti and Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the other governing party, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. “Young people should be respected, listened to and put at the center of politics,” Di Maio …