AFP, Beijing
The first hotline between China and Taiwan was launched Wednesday, in a move designed to build ties between the two sides following a historic summit between their leaders.
Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to set up the hotline between senior officials during a landmark meeting in Singapore in November.
India test-fires missile
Reuters, New Delhi
India successfully test-fired on Wednesday a new long range surface-to-air missile capable of countering aerial threats at extended ranges, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes to enhance the country’s military capabilities.
India, which shares borders with nuclear-armed China and Pakistan, is likely to spend $250 billion over the next decade to upgrade its military.
2 Russian women jailed for aiding ISIS
AFP, Moscow
A Moscow court has jailed two young women for more than five years on charges of aiding Islamic State jihadists, with one of them found guilty of transferring some $600 to an ISIS bank account.
Yelena Arshakhanova and Saida Khalikova, medical students in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, were respectively sentenced to five years, three months and five years, six months behind bars, court spokeswoman Irina Zhirnova told AFP on Tuesday.
