COLU @ CONCEPTS

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — During recent trips to Croatia and Malta, a Dubai-based billionaire and business partner of the Trump Organization looked more like a head of state himself — mingling with government dignitaries, receiving a presidential reception and visiting the glittering Mediterranean Sea. Hussain Sajwani met with leaders in the two European nations and addressed local journalists, many of whom referred to his ties to President Donald Trump or simply called him “the Donald of Dubai.” Sajwani’s trips, as well as a recent deal in Oman, show that Trump’s business partner in Dubai wants to expand his development empire beyond the Mideast and a tower under construction in London. Enter Sajwani’s DAMAC Properties, which launched a new effort this week to sell Trump-branded villas at the golf course bearing the American president’s name. “My dream is as we have put our major, iconic tower in London, that we do repeat that in major gateway cities around t...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — If, after all the fanfare, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doesn’t actually launch missiles toward Guam, many may write the whole episode off as another of the North’s seemingly endless bluffs. But from Pyongyang’s perspective and in the eyes of some U.S. military experts, Kim and his generals have already won this round. Launch or not, Pyongyang has caused great drama and angst, riled U.S. President Donald Trump and alarmed America’s allies in Tokyo and Seoul. It could also set a precedent for more aggressive brinkmanship ahead. It comes as no surprise then that on Tuesday, as North Korea’s state media released photos of Kim and his military officers examining the launch plan, replete with photos of the missiles’ flight path and a big satellite image of the U.S. territory’s Andersen Air Force Base, it also offered a seeming out. Kim, it said, wants to “watch a little more” before making a decision. The North’s plan is to launch four missiles ...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s military on Tuesday presented leader Kim Jong Un with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam and “wring the windpipes of the Yankees,” even as both Koreas and the United States signaled their willingness to avert a deepening crisis, with each suggesting a path toward negotiations. The tentative interest in diplomacy follows unusually combative threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea amid worries that Pyongyang is nearing its long-sought goal of accurately being able to send a nuclear missile to the U.S. mainland. Next week’s start of U.S.-South Korean military exercises that enrage the North each year make it unclear, however, if diplomacy will prevail. During an inspection of the North Korean army’s Strategic Forces, which handles the missile program, Kim praised the military for drawing up a “close and careful plan” and said he would watch the “foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees” a little more before d...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Protesters in North Carolina toppled a nearly century-old statue of a Confederate soldier Monday at a rally against racism. Activists in Durham brought a ladder up to the statue and used a rope to pull down the Confederate Soldiers Monument that was dedicated in 1924. A diverse crowd of dozens cheered as the statue of a soldier holding a rifle fell to the ground in front of an old courthouse building that now houses local government offices. Seconds after the monument fell, protesters began kicking the crumpled bronze monument. “I was a little bit shocked people could come here and come together like that,” said Isaiah Wallace, who is black. Wallace said he watched as others toppled the statue. He hopes other Confederate symbols elsewhere will follow. “I feel like this is going to send shockwaves through the country and hopefully they can bring down other racist symbols,” he said. The Durham protest was in response to a white nationalist rally held ...

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the developments in the Syrian civil war (all times local): 9:50 p.m. The U.S. State Department says it is “saddened and horrified” by the news of the killing of seven Syrian first responders in their base in the country’s rebel-held Idlib Province. Spokesperson Heather Nauert condemned the killings in a statement released Sunday. The Syrian Civil Defense, popularly known as the White Helmets, has been applauded globally for braving air strikes and artillery fire to rescue civilians in Syria’s unforgiving war zones. Dozens of its first responders have been killed in the line of duty. But seven were killed in their sleep early morning Saturday in Sarmin, Idlib. It was not immediately lear who was behind the killings. ___ 8:35 p.m.The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah says it is time for political leaders to accept the survival of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. Hassan Nasrallah, addressing a rally on Sunday, advised t...

Confederate Army Gen. Robert E. Lee was vilified during the Civil War only to become a heroic symbol of the South’s “Lost Cause” — and eventually a racist icon. His transformation, at the center of the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, reflects the changing moods in the United States around race, mythology and national reconciliation, historians say. Lee monuments, memorials and schools in his name erected at the turn of the 20th Century are now facing scrutiny amid a demographically changing nation. But who was Robert E. Lee beyond the myth? Why are there memorials in his honor in the first place? ___ THE SOLDIER A son of American Revolutionary War hero Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, Robert E. Lee graduated second in his class at West Point and distinguished himself in various battles during the U.S.-Mexico War. As tensions heated around southern secession, Lee’s former mentor, Gen. Winfield Scott, offered him a post to lead the Union’s forces against the ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. national security officials said Sunday that a military confrontation with North Korea’s is not imminent, but they cautioned that the possibility of war is greater than it was a decade ago. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security adviser, tried to provide assurances that a conflict is avoidable, while also supporting Trump’s tough talk. They said the United States and its allies no longer can afford to stand by as North Korea pushes ahead with the development of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. “We’re not closer to war than a week ago but we are closer to war than we were a decade ago,” McMaster said, adding that the Trump administration is prepared to deal militarily with North Korea if necessary. But he stressed that the U.S. is pursuing “a very determined diplomatic effort” led by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that’s coupled with new financial sanctions to dissuade N...