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BANGKOK (AP) — Shares were mixed in Asia on Monday, with India and Australia leading gains for the region following elections that looked set to keep incumbents in office.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.3% to 21,343.09 after the government reported Monday that the economy grew at a better-than-expected 2.1% annual pace in January-March.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is using “treason” rather lightly as he assails unidentified U.S. officials for investigating operatives of his campaign in 2016. There’s no allegation or even suggestion that they committed this punishable-by-death crime, if any crime at all.

MADRID, Iowa (AP) — Iowa farmer Tim Bardole survived years of low crop prices and rising costs by cutting back on fertilizer and herbicides and fixing broken-down equipment rather than buying new. When President Donald Trump’s trade war with China made a miserable situation worse, Bardole used up any equity his operation had and started investing in hogs in hopes they’ll do better than crops.

Tehran (ISNA) - Iran exported 4,348,000 tons of industrial mineral products in the first month of this year, which begun March 21st.

Value of industrial mineral exports stood at $503 million during the month, as customs data showed, accounting for 20 percent of non-oil exports.

During the period, Iran registered a 16 percent boost in its mineral exports to mark solid performance despite U.S. pressures.

Tehran (ISNA) - Iran is now the permanent member of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Iranian deputy Transport Minister, Saieed Rasouli announced.

According to Rasouli, who is also the head of public relations department at Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the membership, ratified during the 70th meeting of CIS in Helsinki, can reinforce Iran's railway transit ties with Middle-Asian counties and facilitate transit at International North-South Transport Corridor.

19 May 2019; DW: The Turkish president has described plans to help Russia build its next generation missile defense system. The move is likely to further strain Turkey's relations with the United States.

Russia and Turkey will jointly produce the next generation S-500 aerial missile defense system, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.

Tehran, May 18 (AFP/PTI) Iran's foreign minister Saturday discounted the prospect of a new war in the region because Tehran opposed it and no party was under the "illusion" the Islamic republic could be confronted.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have been on the rise as the United States has deployed a carrier group and B-52 bombers over what it termed Iranian "threats".

Ottawa, May 19 (AFP) Ottawa plans to proceed "full steam ahead" on ratification of a free trade agreement with the US and Mexico, Canada's foreign affairs minister said Saturday, after the neighbours scrapped reciprocal tariffs on steel and aluminum imports

Canada had been "very clear" that as long as the tariffs were in place "it would be very hard for us to move forward with ratification," Chrystia Freeland told CBC News.

PYONGYANG, May 19. /TASS/: Russian Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Alexander Kozlov will visit North Korea on June 6-8, a source in Pyongyang said in a conversation with TASS.

The co-chairmen of the Russia-North Korea intergovernmental commission on trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation will meet in Pyongyang, the source said. "The commission’s co-chairmen will meet to implement the agreements reached during the summit in Vladivostok," he noted.

NEW YORK, May 18 (APP): The ongoing US-Iran tensions have exposed the growing strains among President Donald Trump’s top foreign policy advisers: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, according to an American media report.

Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran has exacerbated fissures between the two men, especially “over the tight control Bolton has tried to exert over the national security decision-making process,” Politico, an online news service, said.