Washington / AFP The White House is considering lifting a decades-old arms embargo against Vietnam in time for President Barack Obama’s visit to the booming Southeast Asian nation this month. As both countries warily eye China’s military build-up in the disputed South China Sea, officials said Obama is weighing an end to the Cold War-era ban on lethal weapons …

  DEVESELU / AP A US missile defense site in Romania aimed at protecting Europe from ballistic missile threats becomes operational on Thursday, angering Russia which opposes having the advanced military system in its former area of influence. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is due to speak at a ceremony later attended by US, NATO and Romanian officials to mark the …

  Manila / AFP Philippine communist rebel leader Jose Maria Sison has expressed hopes of ending nearly three decades in exile under the new presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, a potentially explosive homecoming opposed by senior military figures. Sison, now 77, fled to Europe soon after peace talks failed in 1987 and has stayed abroad since, while one of Asia’s longest-running …