World briefs

TAIWAN’s mainland affairs chief Wang Yu-chi announced his resignation yesterday, taking responsibility for forcing his former deputy to quit in August last year over allegations that he had leaked official secrets.

CHINA’s inflation fell below 1 percent in January as the country headed toward the Lunar New Year holiday. Government data showed yesterday that consumer prices rose 0.8 percent, down from December’s 1.5 percent gain. Food prices, a big concern for many families, rose by a modest 1.1 percent.

INDIA An upstart anti-corruption party wins a smashing victory in elections to install a state government in India’s capital, dealing a huge blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party. More on p12

BANGLADESH Ten infants and young children died in a single night in an overcrowded state-run hospital in northeastern Bangladesh, prompting authorities to investigate whether staff negligence was involved, officials say.

AFGHANISTAN Taliban suicide attackers assault an Afghan police station, killing one officer as a separate roadside bombing targeted a prominent female politician in the country’s east, authorities say.

JAPAN A man who slashed two teenage singers in the popular Japanese female pop group AKB48 last year is sentenced to six years in prison, reports say.

JAPAN-MONGOLIA Japan and Mongolia signed a free trade agreement yesterday that is expected to open the landlocked frontier market to more Japanese auto exports and strengthen Tokyo’s leverage with a key partner in its dealings with North Korea.

THAILAND’s junta leader says the military will return to the barracks once a civilian government is chosen, but stops short of ruling out another coup “if something cannot be solved” by the new government.

CAMEROON Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamic extremists have abducted about 30 people including eight Cameroonian girls and killed seven hostages in two bus hijackings in Cameroon and Nigeria, Cameroon residents and a Nigerian intelligence officer said yesterday.