Washington / AFP New satellite imagery shows China has apparently installed “significant” defensive weapons on a series of artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said. Beijing has created seven islets in the Spratly Islands in recent years, built up from much smaller land protuberances and reefs. Although Beijing has said it does not …

  Brussels / AFP British Prime Minister Theresa May urged her EU counterparts on Thursday to make Brexit “as smooth and orderly… as possible” as they prepared to discuss the process at a dinner without her. “We want that to be as smooth and orderly a process as possible. It is not just in our interests, it is in the interests …

  Nagato / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bunkered down for talks on Thursday to try and resolve a territorial dispute that has prevented their countries from formally ending World War II hostilities. Abe is hosting Putin at a hot spring summit in his ancestral city of Nagato in the hopes of achieving a breakthrough …