Politics

  North Korea / AP The United States, Japan and South Korea have requested urgent diplomatic talks at the United Nations on Monday over North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch, with Seoul condemning what it called “serious military and security threats” and predicting more such tests. A spokesman for the US Mission to the United Nations said that the meeting ...

  TAIPEI / AP Taiwanese officials and media reports are blaming a cold spell for the deaths of more than 150 people, most of them elderly and sick, over the past several days. Temperatures fell as low as 6.7 degrees Celsius (44 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday evening along the coast north of the capital, Taipei. Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper and ...

  TOKYO / AP The prime minister of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile said on Monday that he has high expectations for President Donald Trump to support dialogue between the Tibetans and Beijing, as Trump’s predecessors have. Lobsang Sangay told foreign journalists in Tokyo that “it matters” what the United States does and says,” and that Tibetans should “remain hopeful” that ...

  DUBAI / AP The secretary-general of the United Nations says he “deeply regrets” the United States’ decision to block a former Palestinian prime minister from leading the world body’s political mission in Libya. Antonio Guterres says that Salam Fayyad was “the right person for the right job at the right moment.” Guterres said: “I think it is a loss ...

  MOSCOW / AP Russia released drone footage on Monday showing new destruction in Syria’s historic town of Palmyra, which was recently recaptured by the IS group, and warned that the militants could be planning the further demolition of antiquities. The Russian Defense Ministry says Syrian government forces are advancing toward the town as another battle for the ancient site ...

  WASHINGTON / AP Embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn’s fate as one of President Donald Trump’s senior aides is uncertain following reports that he discussed US sanctions with a Russian envoy before Trump’s inauguration. A top White House official sidestepped repeated chances on Sunday to publicly defend him. The president, who spent the weekend at his private club in ...

  PESHAWAR / AP In a scathing indictment of Pakistan’s treatment of Afghan refugees, a human rights group charged on Monday that the country is forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees back to their homeland, which is still beset by war and crushing poverty. It also said that a $400 stipend the United Nations refugee agency gives to refugees ...

  North Korea / AP North Korea appeared to fire a ballistic missile early Sunday in what would be its first such test of the year and an implicit challenge to President Donald Trump, who stood with the Japanese leader as Shinzo Abe called the move “intolerable.” There was no immediate confirmation from the North, which had recently warned it ...

  SRINAGAR / AP Four suspected rebels, two Indian army soldiers and a civilian have been killed in a fierce gunbattle in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said on Sunday. The fighting began after police and soldiers cordoned off the southern village of Frisal overnight following a tip that militants were hiding in a house, said police Inspector-General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani. ...

  PANGLONG / AP Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on all armed ethnic groups to sign a cease-fire agreement during a speech on Sunday in the same place where her father, an independence hero, signed a peace deal 70 years ago. Speaking during annual Union Day celebrations, Suu Kyi said ethnic groups can still join the movement for ...