RIKUZENTAKATA / AP The Japanese coast guard resumed underwater searches this week for some of the more than 2,500 people still missing from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country’s northeast coast. Six divers entered Hirota Bay in near-freezing temperatures on Thursday at the behest of surviving families in the city of Rikuzentakata. As reconstruction of the disaster-hit …

Naypyidaw / AFP Aung San Suu Kyi was on Thursday finally ruled out of the running to become Myanmar’s next president, as her party nominated one of her most loyal aides to rule the formerly junta-run nation as her proxy. Suu Kyi has vowed to rule “above” the president, despite being barred from top office by the army-scripted constitution, as …

Brussels / AFP A proposed EU-Turkey deal to swap Syrian refugees one-for-one will be only “temporary” and a longer-term resettlement arrangement will be necessary, the Netherlands warned on Thursday. European Union interior ministers meeting in Brussels were debating a proposal made by Ankara at a leaders’ summit on Monday for a wide-ranging deal to curb the migration crisis. Under the …