JIM GOMEZ / AP With the symbolic handshakes and unity photo-op, President Barack Obama’s high-profile summit with Southeast Asian leaders in California this week aims to step up pressure against China’s increasingly worrisome behavior in disputed waters. Forging a common front and encouraging bolder rhetoric against Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, however, will be a challenge among the ...

BEIJING / AP A Chinese nationalist newspaper says American politicians are resorting to petty actions following a unanimous bill approval by the Senate to rename the plaza in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington after an imprisoned Chinese political dissident. The Communist Party-controlled Global Times called the move on Sunday provocative and said it’s intended to outrage Beijing, although ...

NEW DELHI / Bloomberg India said that it is disappointed with the United States’ decision to sell eight nuclear-capable F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and that it does not believe such an arms transfer will help combat terrorism. The US government saidthat it had approved the sale of the F-16 fighter aircraft, radar and electronic warfare equipment to Pakistan in ...