Caracas / AFP Public outrage over sweeping new emergency powers decreed this week by President Nicolas Maduro was expected to spill onto the streets of Venezuela on Wednesday, with planned nationwide protests marking a new lowpoint in his unpopular rule. The demonstrations mark the strongest challenge yet to Maduro’s controversial declaration of a state of emergency. Opposition-led marches in …

  Hong Kong / AFP Hong Kong protesters angry at a visit by a top Beijing official shouted pro-democracy slogans on Wednesday but were kept well away from a mission seen as an attempt to bridge the city’s growing political divide. The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official …

U.S. President Barack Obama’s impending trip to Japan for the G7 summit looks likely to be overshadowed by his planned visit to Hiroshima, a first for a sitting U.S. president. There has been extensive debate both among scholars and in the public arena about the justification for the use of nuclear weapons against Japan. This debate mirrors debates that were …