World Briefs

CHINA A deputy head of the Chinese Cabinet’s Taiwan Affairs Office is placed under investigation for apparent corruption amid renewed scrutiny of Beijing’s policies toward the island following its election of a new independence-leaning president.

VIETNAM The Communist Party’s eight-day Congress set to open today is the kind of political cliffhanger that would do a democracy proud, as a battle for power hinges on a last-minute procedural question

AFGHAN  troops are fighting the Taliban across most of southern Helmand province and are in desperate need of reinforcements, an Afghan official says.

NEPAL Villages near the epicenter of a massive earthquake last year have been blanketed with snow, making life miserable for people still living in temporary shelters and huts.

N KOREA A cold snap in the North Korean capital has residents ice fishing on the Taedong River. The whole country was colder than minus 10 C, and the North’s official weather forecaster predicted that Pyongyang would sink to minus 16 C.

BURKINA FASO France’s prime minister said three attackers remain at large following the attacks in Burkina Faso’s capital, though authorities there insist that all those who carried out the assault had been shot dead.

USA Secretary of State John Kerry is hoping to move aside obstacles that threaten to delay the start of peace talks to end Syria’s war, seeking compromise with Russia’s foreign minister on which Syrian opposition groups should be eligible to participate.

HAITI For a second straight day, opposition protesters erected burning roadblocks and shattered windows in a section of Haiti’s capital Tuesday to press for new elections less than a week before the Jan. 24 presidential and legislative runoff.

MOLDOVA Hundreds of protesters broke through police lines yesterday to get into Moldova’s Parliament after it approved a new government to end months of deadlock between the president and the legislature.

GERMANY‘s finance minister is floating the idea of a European tax on gasoline to help finance the continent’s efforts to manage the migrant crisis. The EU has struggled to find common ground amid the huge influx of people seeking safety and a better life. Germany and Sweden have allowed in large numbers of refugees but many other countries are reluctant to share the burden.

INDIA Violent clashes between police and protesters erupted yesterday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, leaving a man dead and two others wounded, officials said.