At least 22 killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 22 people have been killed and 117 have been wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit two different areas in central Beirut. An Associated Press photographer who went to the scene on Thursday evening said the first strike, in the area of Ras al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an eight-story apartment building, and that explosions were ongoing inside the building. The second strike, in the area of Burj Abi Haidar, collapsed an entire building, which was engulfed in flames. There was no immediate statement from the Israeli military on the strikes. Earlier in the day, a strike on a central Gaza school-turned shelter killed 27 people.

Indonesia arrests a suspect wanted by China for running a $14B investment scam

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Immigration officers in Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali have arrested a Chinese suspect sought by Beijing for helping run over $14 billion investment scam to clients in China. Officials said on Thursday that the 39-year-old man, identified only by his initial, LQ, was arrested on Oct. 1, when an immigration auto-gate in Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport denied him departure for Singapore as the biometric data identified him as a suspect wanted by Beijing and listed on an Interpol warrant. The suspect arrived in Bali from Singapore with a Turkish passport as Joe Lin on Sept. 26, just a day before Indonesian authorities received the notice from Interpol.

WTO slightly raises 2024 goods trade forecast but wary of potential setbacks

GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization has raised its outlook for global goods trade this year slightly, but cautions that increasing geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over economic policy pose “substantial” risks to its forecast. The Geneva-based WTO projected Thursday that global goods trade will increase by 2.7% this year, compared with the 2.6% it forecast in April. But it predicted growth of 3% next year, down from the 3.3% it forecast previously. Last year, the volume of world merchandise trade was down 1.1%, pushed lower by high inflation and rising interest rates. The global trade body pointed to a 2.3% year-on-year increase in global merchandise trade in this year’s first six months.

2 Pakistani police and 4 insurgents killed in the restive northwest

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants riding on a motorcycle have opened fire on a vehicle carrying police officers in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, killing two of them and wounding two others. The attack came ahead of a summit of Asian security grouping in the capital. A local police official said the attack happened Thursday in Tank, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, who often target security forces. The TTP are outlawed in Pakistan. They are separate from but a close ally of the Taliban who control neighboring Afghanistan.