BEIJING (Xinhua) – In response to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s claim that China coerced Australia by economic means, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson says that no one has a better claim to the title of “master of coercion” than the United States. Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a daily press briefing that the U.S. government forced the military government of Haiti to step down in 1994, and referred to that as “a textbook example of coercive diplomacy”. In 2003, the United States explicitly characterized 30.3 billion U.S. dollars additional military expenses for “coercive diplomacy” as incurred expenses, Zhao added. The U.S. government went all out to hobble competitors like Huawei of China, Alstom of France and Toshiba of Japan and used coercion to force the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Samsung and other companies to provide chip supply chain data, said the spokesperson, adding these are textbook examples of economic coercion. Reiterating that China always proceeds from the lawful rights and interests of domestic industries and the safety of consumers and adopts appropriate measures on imported products in strict compliance with Chinese laws and regulations as well as WTO rules, Zhao said this is fully justified, lawful and beyond reproach. The label of “economic coercion” cannot be pinned on China, Zhao said, adding all attempts to gang up with others to misrepresent facts and resort to malicious hype-up are bound to fail.

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COTABATO, Philippines (AFP) – Nine people were killed and three injured in the southern Philippines Saturday when a convoy of SUVs was shot at in an ambush linked to a feud between rival clans, police said. The attack occurred in a region with a long history of violence, and a short drive from where 58 people — including 32 journalists — were murdered in the nation’s worst political massacre in 2009. Clan leader Peges Mamasainged and eight others were killed as they traveled down a farm-lined road in Maguindanao province, according to police. Both the victims and attackers were led by former commanders of a guerilla group that waged a bloody, decades-long insurgency in the region before a peace agreement was signed in 2014, provincial police spokesman Fhaeyd Cana told AFP. Authorities are looking for suspects led by Mamasainged’s rival, Cana said, adding the two families were involved in a long-running blood feud. Well-armed families in the country’s lawless south at times resort to clan warfare to settle disputes that can last for generations. “[Guindulungan town] police described this attack as a rido,” Cana said, using the local term for blood feud. The attack was the province’s bloodiest since the 2009 massacre, he added.

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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A ring of planetary debris studded with moon-sized structures has been observed orbiting close to a white dwarf star, hinting at a nearby planet in the “habitable zone” where water and life could exist, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. There could be a habitable planet in the vicinity of a white star observed by scientists from UCL, who spotted a ring of planetary debris studded with moon-sized structures orbiting close to the dead star, Sputnik reported. The findings raise hopes that humans will find a planet with life in the so-called “habitable” zone, where liquid water - and therefore life - can exist. “The moon-sized structures we have observed are irregular and dusty (e.g. comet-like) rather than solid, spherical bodies. Their absolute regularity, one passing in front of the star every 23 minutes, is a mystery we cannot currently explain,” said lead author Professor Jay Farihi of UCL Physics & Astronomy. He pointed out that the discovered bodies could display an evenly-spaced orbital pattern because of the nearby planet’s gravitation. Without such influence from a possible planet, the structures would be dispersed, and the scientists would observe no regularity. A similar pattern of gravitational influence can be observed in the case of Neptune and Saturn - their “shepherding” help stabilizing the ring structures around them.

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BEIJING (Sputnik) – A bus explosion in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang has left one person dead and 42 injured, local police said on Saturday. According to police, the explosion in a city passenger bus occurred at 5:55 p.m. local time (09:55 GMT). As a result, one person died, two people were seriously injured and 40 received minor injuries. The causes of the incident are being investigated, the police said.

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YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s junta on Saturday announced an amnesty for more than 800 prisoners to mark the country’s Union Day, as it held a parade and show of force in the capital. The country has been in turmoil since last year’s coup, with mass protests and a subsequent military crackdown that has killed more than 1,500 civilians, according to the UN’s human rights office. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued the “pardon order” -- a regular feature of major holidays in the country -- for 814 prisoners to commemorate Union Day’s 75th anniversary, state media said. Those given amnesty will be mostly from prisons in commercial hub Yangon, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told AFP. He did not say whether detained Australian academic Sean Turnell -- who has been detained for more than a year -- would be among those released. The junta released about 23,000 prisoners last April, with some rights groups at the time fearing the move was to free up space for opponents of the military and cause chaos. A similar number were released on last year’s Union Day as well. Around two dozen people gathered outside Yangon’s colonial-era Insein prison on Saturday morning hoping to be reunited with loved ones, some holding umbrellas against the sun.

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BARCELONA (AP) – A fire in a Barcelona hotel on Saturday forced at least one person to leap to safety out of a third-floor window. Spanish emergency services said the fire injured nine people, including one in critical condition. Catalan television showed footage apparently shot on a mobile phone of one person jumping from a third-floor window onto mattresses that had been piled on the sidewalk to cushion the impact. Local media reported that at least one more person also had to leap out to escape the blaze. Black smoke poured from a window in the hotel, which is located in the central neighborhood of Poble Sec. Emergency services spokeswoman Zulma Itza said besides the one man who is in critical condition, two other people are in serious condition. Police are investigating the cause of the fire.