Hong Kong / AFP Thousands took to Hong Kong’s streets on Sunday after Beijing said it would step into an escalating row over whether two city lawmakers who advocate a split from China should be banned from taking up their seats. The protest follows an ongoing judicial review by Hong Kong authorities, who are seeking to disqualify Baggio Leung …

  Seoul /AFP South Korean prosecutors arrested two former top presidential aides on Sunday in a snowballing influence-peddling scandal which has seen tens of thousands of people take to the streets to demand President Park Geun-Hye resign. Park’s approval ratings have hit a historic low of five percent—a record for a sitting president—over the scandal involving her close friend Choi …

  Sofia / AFP Bulgarians voted on Sunday in a first round of presidential elections, a key test of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s popularity in the EU’s poorest country. If his candidate and protegee Tsetska Tsacheva fails to win the presidency, Borisov might call early elections, plunging Bulgaria into renewed political uncertainty, experts say. Opinion polls suggest that Tsacheva, currently …