TAIPEI (Kyodo) -- Taiwanese officials of the island's representative office in Hong Kong were forced to return home Sunday after the city government demanded that they sign a document recognizing Beijing's "one China" principle, the island's top agency handling relations with China said.

The Mainland Affairs Council said that the Taiwanese personnel at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong, operated by the council, were forced to leave the city due to "unreasonable political obstacles" the Hong Kong government had set

ANTALYA -- Turkish state-owned defense company STM says its military drone is not capable of launching fully autonomous attacks on targets, countering speculation about autonomous weapons spurred by a United Nations report.

Ozgur Guleryuz, CEO of STM, told Nikkei Asia that its rotary wing mini-UAV system, Kargu-2, is not designed to attack targets using artificial intelligence.

"Unless an operator pushes the button, it is not possible for the drone to select a target and attack," Guleryuz said.

The Kargu-2

TOKYO -- Tata Group has hit the accelerator on its expansion into digital services, as lndia's biggest conglomerate seeks to make up for lost time in a shift from heavy industry like cars and steel.

The 153-year-old group's high-profile acquisitions announced in recent weeks are designed to challenge tech leaders Flipkart and Amazon.com in India's fast-growing e-commerce market.

Tech unit Tata Digital said last week that it will acquire 1MG Technologies. The Indian startup

ANTALYA, Turkey -- The Afghanistan government's top peace negotiator has voiced concern that the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan could cause a "security vacuum, an increased level of fighting and perhaps a slower pace of negotiations," saying the solution "has to be through negotiations, not through battle."

"The Taliban has unfortunately increased its activities," thinking that "it might help them at the negotiation table later on," Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of Afghanistan's High Council for National Reconciliation,

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

Japan arguably invented the modern idea of the "lost decade." This created a cottage industry of analysts distilling the lessons from the paralysis and missed opportunities holding Tokyo back.

Yet the latest scandal at Toshiba suggests Japan needs a serious refresher course of its own.

Not to belabor the decade angle, but the controversy over Toshiba bullying an overseas hedge fund with government help

YANGON/BANGKOK -- Myanmar's military on Feb. 1 detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in the country's first coup since 1988, bringing an end to a decade of civilian rule.

The Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy had won a landslide in a general election in November . But the military has claimed the election was marred by fraud.

For all our coverage, visit our Myanmar Coup page.

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-- Myanmar

HONG KONG -- Chinese technology companies are flocking to New York for initial public offerings once again, reviving a record-setting flow that had slowed after a streak of weak openings amid shaky markets.

Cargo platform Full Truck Alliance, backed by Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group, is set to finalize pricing for its IPO to raise up to $1.57 billion on Monday and then begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange the next day.

It will follow on the heels of AiHuiShou International, an internet platform for

GUANGZHOU -- Scarce rain, rising coal prices and rapid inland industrialization have together left the southern Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangdong Province in the throes of an electricity shortage that casts uncertainty over about 10% of the country's economic output.

The effects are being felt on factory floors and in managers' offices, with one Japanese-owned metal parts supplier sent scrambling to rearrange work schedules after local authorities ordered power cuts.

For manufacturers on the ground in the province -- Procter & Gamble, Canon, Volkswagen and

DUBAI (Reuters) -- Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge who is under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses, secured a landslide victory on Saturday in Iran's presidential election after a contest marked by voter apathy over economic hardships and political restrictions.

With all 28.9 million ballots counted, Raisi was elected with a tally of 17.9 million, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on state TV. Turnout in Friday's four-man race was a record low of around 4