WORLD

Shanghai, China | AFP | China Construction Bank, one of the country’s “big four” financial institutions, reported a moderate first-half profit rise and improving asset quality as a government crackdown on bad debt kicked in. The bank’s earnings were posted Wednesday night, hours after China’s three other big state-owned lenders announced …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | Ordering pizza from the sofa without lifting a finger has joined the list of modern-day conveniences thanks to a hot trend in voice-commanded smart speakers. Amazon, Apple and Google are duking it out with devices designed to sit out of sight in homes, awaiting …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis launches an emotionally charged visit next week to Colombia, to call for reconciliation as the country emerges from Latin America’s longest civil war in a contested peace process. In his fourth visit to his native region of the world since becoming pope …

Venice, Italy | AFP | US actress Annette Bening said Wednesday she believes women are making progress in the movie industry, despite only one female-directed film making it into the competition selection at Venice, where she is chairing the awards jury. “There is sexism of course, no question. But I think …

Miami, United States | AFP | The United States approved the first gene therapy against cancer on Wednesday — a treatment that uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight leukemia — opening a new era in the fight against one of the world’s top killers. The treatment is made …

Paris, France | AFP | Parisian nudists will finally have a spot to take it all off — for the next few weeks at least — at a secluded zone in the Bois de Vincennes park east of the city. “The creation of an area in the Bois de Vincennes where …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Princes William and Harry paid tribute to their late mother Princess Diana on Wednesday for the 20th anniversary of her death as wellwishers left candles and flowers outside the gates of her former London residence. The princes inspected the dozens of bouquets left in front …

In smartphone age, the hajj is for sharing Mecca, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Arm outstretched, Abdul Rahman sweeps his mobile phone across the vista of Mecca, the Great Mosque dazzling in the sun, so his son in Tanzania can experience the pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites. He may be thousands …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Wednesday confirmed that the Kremlin last year received an email from a lawyer working for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump about building a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that the Trump Organization’s chief counsel at the …

Buñol, Spain | AFP | Extra police were deployed at Spain’s annual “Tomatina” tomato throwing festival in the eastern town of Bunol on Wednesday in the wake of the deadly twin vehicle attacks in Catalonia. A total of 740 security forces were on duty, including police officers, firefighters and ambulance workers, …