ASIA: Indian and Chinese soldiers began pulling back from one of the key friction points on their disputed border today as part of efforts to lower tensions in a more than two-year standoff, India’s defence ministry said.

“The Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings have begun to disengage in a co-ordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” the ministry said in a statement.

GREECE: An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 struck off the western islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia, but no damage or injury has been reported.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the undersea tremor occurred at 10.36am, about 35 miles south-west of Lixouri on Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea. It was felt across much of western Greece.

The fire service said it had no reports of damage or injury from the quake.

BELGIUM: Hundreds of taxi drivers clogged traffic in Brussels in an international demonstration against the online ride company Uber, which is seen as unfairly distorting the market.

The drivers want Belgian and European Union authorities to curb the spread of Uber and say the service does not face the tax burdens and regulations that they do.

Protesters came as far and wide as Switzerland and Spain for the demonstration that started at morning rush hour and continued into the afternoon.

CHINA: A man has been found safe after he spent two days aloft in a hydrogen balloon, travelling about 200 miles, after it became untethered.

The man and a partner were collecting pine nuts on Sunday in a forest park in Heilongjiang province in north-east China when they lost control and the balloon sailed off.

The other person jumped to the ground. Rescuers were able to contact the other man by phone the following morning and instructed him to on how to land safely.