Bloomberg Defense chiefs from the US and China agreed in principle to guidelines on encounters between warplanes, in the latest bid by Pacific nations to keep increased military activity from escalating into conflict. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and seven other regional military chiefs, including China’s General Wei Fenghe, gave broad endorsement to the rules in Singapore on Saturday, ...

Bloomberg Afghans are voting on Saturday in long-delayed parliamentary elections that have been marred by a spate of high-profile Taliban attacks and intimidation. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani kicked off elections at 7 a.m local time by casting his ballot even as polling in some other booths in the country’s capital, Kabul, was delayed by hours due to malfunctioning biometric devices ...

Bloomberg President Tsai Ing-wen is coming under increased pressure from her allies at home to push harder for Taiwan’s formal independence even as China keeps up its unrelenting campaign to bring the island under its control. Thousands of people gathered outside the headquarters of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei on Saturday. Unhappy with the president’s moderate stance on Taiwan’s ...