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  BEIJING / AP The U.S. is putting regional stability in East Asia at risk, a Chinese spokesman said Saturday following remarks by President Donald Trump’s defense secretary that a U.S. commitment to defend Japanese territory applies to an island group that China claims. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Saturday called on the U.S. to avoid discussion of ...

  KABUL/ AP The United Nations has removed the name of a former Afghan warlord from its IS group and al-Qaida sanctions list. According to a statement posted Friday by the Security Council, a UN committee removed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s name from the sanctions list. The statement said Hekmatyar, leader of Islamist organization Hezb-i-Islami, would no longer have his assets frozen, ...

  NEW DELHI / AP Nearly three years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a sweeping national election victory with promises to develop the economy and root out corruption. But with a series of key state elections beginning on Saturday, Modi’s popularity — and his surprise currency decree that sparked months of financial uproar — is now being tested. ...

  “Mexico braces for a trade war with Washington,” headline in the Financial Times, Jan. 31, 2017. Let’s hope not, because a trade war triggered by President Trump would be an act of pure economic aggression, unjustified either by the United States’ economic and political interests or by Mexico’s behaviour. It would be the economic equivalent of Russia’s seizure of ...

  Most Indians are getting a tax break, thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s botched demonetisation program. A halving of the tax bill for the lower middle class and a 5 percentage point rebate for most companies should go some way to help steady consumption and employment, both of which were hurt by the 8 November ban on high-denomination cash. ...

  Iran’s recent test of a medium-range ballistic missile is an early indicator that it doesn’t fear the bellicose rhetoric of Donald Trump any more than it did the passive approach of Barack Obama. Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s immediate response — National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said the US is “officially putting Iran on notice” — seems straight out of ...

  US President Donald Trump slapped sanctions against Iran in retaliation to Tehran’s recent ballistic missile test. More than two dozen people and companies from the Persian Gulf to China face new restrictions for supporting the missile program and providing support for Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guards Corps. They are now prohibited doing any business in the United States or with ...

  Like many a divorce, the UK’s separation from Europe threatens to get bogged down over money. While the UK wants to focus straight away on building a post-European Union identity, for the EU the first order of business will be the 60 billion euros the bloc says Britain owes it. Prime Minister Theresa May plans to formally trigger Brexit ...

  We may need to brace for the demise of America’s largest department-store chain. Hudson’s Bay Co., the Canadian owner of Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue, is in talks to take over Macy’s, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Friday. It would be a spectacular end to a years-long struggle for what was once ...

  The International Monetary Fund’s involvement in Greece has been an unmitigated disaster: Time and again, its failure to heed crucial lessons has visited suffering upon the Greek people. When the fund’s directors meet on Monday, they should agree to forgive the country’s debts and get out. The IMF should never have gotten into Greece in the first place. As ...