Beijing / AFP The US on Tuesday sailed a warship close to a disputed South China Sea reef Beijing has built up into an artificial island, reports and officials said, prompting China to express “dissatisfaction and opposition”. Guided-missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence navigated within 12 nautical miles of the Fiery Cross Reef, occupied by China and also claimed …

Yangon / AFP Washington’s new ambassador to Myanmar on Tuesday said remaining sanctions had taken an “unintended” toll on the nation’s delicate economic development, as the US re-evaluates its embargoes on the former pariah state. Myanmar’s stunning transition from decades of repressive junta rule to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party was accompanied …

  Vienna / AFP Austria’s unpopular and squabbling centrist coalition began the search on Tuesday for a new leader and a new start after a surging populist far-right forced Chancellor Werner Faymann to resign. The choice of a successor to Faymann, 56, who quit on Monday due to “insufficient support” in his Social Democrats (SPOe) party, is fraught with potential …