Politics

Dharamsala / AFP Hundreds of grieving Tibetans on Sunday joined the funeral procession for a 16-year-old schoolboy who died after setting himself on fire to protest against Chinese rule. Dorje Tsering died from cardiac arrest on Thursday after setting himself ablaze at a housing settlement for Tibetan refugees in India’s northern city of Dehradun. Tsering’s body was Saturday brought to ...

Bratislava / AFP Slovakia’s leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Sunday he would begin difficult coalition talks after he won elections on a anti-refugee platform but lost his parliamentary majority as smaller parties, including the extreme right, scored first-time seats. A conservative party leader described the outcome as a “big earthquake” in Slovak politics, as analysts cautioned that Fico ...

Beijing / AP China’s President Xi Jinping has pledged to contain any moves by Taiwan toward formal independence in his first public remarks on the issue since the self-governing island democracy elected a president and legislature from the independence-leaning party in January. Speaking to delegates to the annual meeting of China’s ceremonial parliament, Xi said China won’t budge in its ...

Taipei / DPA Women are the most active customers in Taiwan’s online retail market, prompting local e-commerce operators to revise marketing strategies to meet the needs of female shoppers. Japan-based Rakuten’s e-commerce platform in Taiwan sees women account for 70 percent of its membership, according to the United Evening News. The paper cited the Taiwan Rakuten Ichiba as indicating that ...

Brussels / AFP European leaders will push Turkey at a summit on Monday to agree to “large-scale” deportations of economic migrants from Greece, as EU chief Donald Tusk says he sees the first hints of a resolution to the migrant crisis. With a fresh surge expected in the warmer spring weather, the European Union’s 28 leaders are pinning much of ...

BEIRUT / AP One of the main Western-backed Syrian opposition groups elected a new leader after the term of its former chief ended, it said in a statement. The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition said longtime member Anas Al Abda was elected president, replacing Khaled Khoja. It added that three other officials from the group have been named vice presidents. The ...

Seoul/ AFP South Korea will soon announce its own tougher sanctions on North Korea, an official said on Sunday, a move set to further heighten tensions as Seoul and Washington begin their largest-ever joint military exercise. The new measures—following Wednesday’s decision by the UN Security Council to slap unprecedented sanctions on the North—will be announced this week, a Seoul government ...

COLOMBO / AP With most opposition leaders in jail or exile, public protests tightly controlled and courts rendering verdicts decried for lack of due process, the Maldives has nearly slid back to where it was eight years ago: an autocratic state that quashes dissent. Since assuming power in this Indian Ocean archipelago nation of luxurious seaside resorts just over two ...

Manila / AFP The Philippine coastguard said it was closely watching a North Korean vessel and its 21 crew members on Sunday, as officials waited for a response from the United Nations days after the ship was seized in compliance with new sanctions. The 6,830-tonne cargo ship, the Jin Teng, is being held at Subic port, northeast of Manila, where ...

Beirut / AP A shaky cease-fire in Syria brokered by Moscow and Washington has survived its first week, outlasting skeptics’ expectations and providing some hope that a diplomatic solution to the five-year-old war might be possible. With daily incidents of artillery shelling, airstrikes and clashes, it would be easy to dismiss the “cessation of hostilities” as a charade. But the ...