(MAE SAI, Thailand) — When the 12 young boys and their soccer coach walked into a cave complex in northern Thailand a year ago Sunday, they didn’t know their lives were going to forever change.

Rising floodwater quickly trapped the youngsters inside the Tham Luang cave complex, setting off a more than two-week ordeal that the world watched with rapt attention and that left the members of the Wild Boars soccer club with a survival tale that propelled them into celebrities.

Nine of the boys and their coach were on hand Sunday in the northern town of Mae Sai to mark the anniversary along with some 4,000 others by taking part in a marathon and bike event to raise money to improve conditions at the cave.

“I want to thank everybody who has put so much effort and sacrifices to save all of us,” said Ekapol Chantawong, the former coach of the Wild Boars who led the boys on the ill-fated visit to the cave.

Ekapol stood in front of a bronze statue of Lieutenant Commander Saman Gunan that has ..

(WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he wants to build a global coalition against Iran during urgent consultations in the Middle East, following a week of crisis that saw the United States pull back from the brink of a military strike on Iran.

Pompeo spoke Sunday as he left Washington for Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Sunni Arab allies that are alarmed by Shiite Iran’s increasing assertiveness and are working to limit its influence in the region. His stops in Jeddah and Abu Dhabi were hastily arranged late last week as additions to a trip to India from where he will join President Donald Trump in Japan and South Korea. But they were not announced until immediately before his departure in a sign of fast-moving and unpredictable developments.

“We’ll be talking with them about how to make sure that we are all strategically aligned, and how we can build out a global coalition, a coalition not only throughout the Gulf states, but in Asia and in Europe, ..

U.S. officials and some outside experts say they expect this week’s meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to head off an escalating trade war and restart trade negotiations between the world’s two largest economic powers.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet on the sidelines of the June 28 and 29 G20 economic summit in Osaka, Japan, amid signs that both sides are eager to forestall an escalating round of tariffs that is pushing China deeper into debt and prompting U.S. business and political leaders to oppose additional tariffs on imports from China.

One sign that the Trump Administration wants to give economic peace a chance is the fact that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is set to attend the Trump-Xi meeting, is holding up a final decision on selling advanced U.S. tanks and other military equipment to Taiwan, said a U.S. defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Defense Department has notified Congress of the proposed $2 bill..