The ruling United Russia party has 54.2 percent of the vote after 90 percent ballots were counted on Monday in Russia's parliamentary election, data from the election commission showed.
Taiwan's new president urged China to "drop the baggage of history" in an otherwise conciliatory inauguration speech that Beijing's Communist Party rulers had been watching for any move towards independence.
Four of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in October appeared on Chinese television confirming for the first time they'd been detained for "illegal book trading" in mainland China.
