News Headlines - 17 January 2016

▽The formidable challenge facing Taiwan's first female president | The Economist

IT WAS a landslide that will change Taiwanese politics and could affect China, too... Ms Tsai won 56% of the vote, becoming the island’s first female leader. More striking still, in elections held on the same day to the parliament, called the Legislative Yuan, her party won 68 of the 113 seats up for grabs, compared with only 35 for the ruling Kuomintang (KMT; see graphic). It is the first time since Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 that the KMT and its allies have lost their grip on parliament. It plunges relations with China into doubt: the mainland has not ruled out the use of force to retake the 23m-strong island should it ever declare independence.

▽China launches new AIIB development bank as power balance shifts | Reuters

Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a new international development bank seen as a rival to the U.S.-led World Bank at a lavish ceremony on Saturday, as Beijing seeks to change the unwritten rules of global development finance.

▽Iranians jubilant as country wakes up to first day without sanctions | The Guardian

Iranians have greeted with jubilation the end to a decade of financial stringency under sanctions after western officials formally lifted a complex network of punitive measure as the landmark nuclear deal was implemented.

▽Cameron hopes for EU concessions in 'second-tier membership' for UK | The Guardian

David Cameron is hoping for an EU agreement to rebrand the UK as a second-tier member and an “emergency brake” on immigration if public services are overwhelmed, according to reports.

▽French drug trial: 1 person brain dead, 5 more hospitalized - CNN.com

One person has been declared brain dead and five others are hospitalized in France after they participated in an early stage clinical trial for a new drug, French health officials said Friday.