Over the past year, the United States and China have clashed increasingly over trade, their visions for the world and national security. And in 2019, the question of whether the world's two biggest economies can work out a trade deal is something that is set to have an impact not only their relationship but the broader Chinese economy as well. VOA's Bill Ide has this report.
Read More Chinese Economy at Crossroads as Trade Reform Pressure Mounts : http://bit.ly/2CJugtO
Thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Hong Kong on New Year's Day to protest China's apparent tightening grip on the semi-autonomous territory.
Pro-democracy activists have become alarmed over a series actions taken by Hong Kong's pro-Beijing government, including banning the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party for reasons of national security, rejecting the renewal of a visa of a Western journalist who hosted a forum with the head of the party, and barring pro-democracy candidates from running in local elections.
Several pro-independence activists were among the protesters taking part in Tuesday's march. Hong Kong's youth-driven pro-democracy movement sprung from the massive 2014 pro-democracy "Umbrella Revolution" demanding fully free elections.
Hong Kong has enjoyed numerous freedoms under the "one country, two systems" formula established when Britain relinquished control of the territory in 1997, including the right to assembly and free speech.
Rescuers recovered six more bodies buried under tons of mud from a landslide that crashed onto a hilly village on Indonesia's main island of Java, bringing the death toll to 15, officials said Tuesday.
The landslide that plunged down surrounding hills just before sunset Monday buried 30 houses in Sirnaresmi village in West Java's Sukabumi district. Sixty people who lost their homes were forced to move to a temporary shelter, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
Television video showed relatives wailing as they watched rescuers pull a mud-caked body from a devastated hamlet. It was placed in a blue bag and taken away for burial.
Authorities struggled to bring tractors and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads after torrential rains sent mud and rocks crashing onto the hilly hamlets. Hundreds of police, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands, shovels and hoes as heavy rain hindered their efforts.
"Lack of equipment, bad weather and a blackout hampered our rescue efforts for those who are still missing and feared dead," Nugroho said.
Made Oka Astawa, head of the operations division at the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the six bodies were found under 4 meters (13 feet) of mud with the help of two excavators that managed to reach the devastated area.
Astawa said rescuers also pulled out four injured people, including an infant who died in a hospital. Twenty villagers are still believed to be missing.
He said the search effort was halted late Tuesday due to darkness and heavy rains that made the landslide areas unstable. The operation is to be resumed early Wednesday.
Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused dozens of landslides and widespread flooding across much of Indonesia, a chain of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains close to rivers.
The landslide occurred during New Year's Eve celebrations.
On Dec. 22, the Anak Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait erupted and partially collapsed into the sea, causing a tsunami that killed at least 437 people on Java and Sumatra islands.
At least 16 people are still missing and more than 33,700 residents were displaced.
Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn will have his official coronation on May 4, the palace announced Tuesday.
The coronation will be more than two years after Vajiralongkorn succeeded his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died at age 88 after reigning for seven decades.
The palace said the coronation ceremonies for Vajiralongkorn, 66, will be held on May 4-6, with the monarch making a public appearance on the last day.
Bhumibol's coronation, held almost four years after he was named king, took place in 1950 on May 5, a date that is a public holiday in Thailand.
Major royal ceremonies in Thailand are usually very ornate, but Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said in June last year that Vajiralongkorn had expressed the desire that his coronation be held in a relatively modest manner, though in keeping with elaborate royal tradition.
Vajiralongkorn gave a New Year's Eve address televised Monday night, wishing the Thai people good health, happiness and prosperity, and urging them to act virtuously for the sake of the nation. His New Year's greeting card, another tradition, expressed similar sentiments.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen says China must accept Taiwan's status as a self-ruled island.
In a New Year's Day address from her office, President Tsai said China had to "respect the insistence of 23 million people for freedom and democracy," and for both sides to face the reality that there are fundamental differences between their "values and lifestyles" and political systems.
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have been strained since Tsai, the leader of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, took office in 2016 and refused to accept the concept of China and Taiwan joined together as one China.
Beijing has mounted an aggressive posture towards the self-ruled island, carrying out numerous military exercises in the Taiwan Strait, blocking Taipei's participation in international organizations, and persuading several nations to switch diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China.
President Tsai called on China to seek "peaceful" ways to sort out their differences.
It is the first major art museum in New York to close within recent memory. The museum had financial challenges and has faced accusations o...
