Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga formally announced his bid to become the country’s next prime minister yesterday, with growing party support making him the race’s clear favourite.

China has been using coercive tactics in pursuit of territorial and maritime claims in the South and East China Seas, as well as along its border with India and Bhutan, the Pentagon has said.

A Chinese university's guidelines warning women students not to wear "revealing" clothes on campus "to prevent arousing temptation" have whipped up online fury in the socially conservative country.

Flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates will be able to fly over Saudi Arabia after the kingdom has said all services to and from the UAE can cross its airspace.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has been given the thumbs up by nearly seven out of 10 Malaysians, largely thanks to the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but his popularity has slipped below 70 per cent for the first time since he took power in March.

Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, has been appointed the inaugural chancellor of Albukhary International University (AIU) in Malaysia, reports the New Straits Times.

Nepal is making a royal exception to its coronavirus ban on foreign arrivals, with a mountaineering team including a Bahrain prince set to tackle two major peaks.

Thailand’s recently appointed finance minister, Predee Daochai, has resigned as the government struggles to pull Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy out of a slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

K-Pop band BTS roars to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in the United States, becoming the first Korean pop act to debut at No. 1.

India reported 78,512 novel coronavirus infections yesterday, more than any other country but fewer than the previous day when it posted the world’s biggest, single-day tally, as authorities looked to open more sectors of the economy.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to hold a leadership vote on September 14 to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is stepping down due to ill health, local media reported yesterday.

The blue mask is a common sight these days but recently it has been spotted on a Cargolux Airlines Boeing 747-8 at Changi Airport in Singapore.

Twenty-nine people were killed and seven seriously injured when a restaurant collapsed in northern China’s Shanxi province, the country’s emergencies ministry media has said.

The death toll from the Beirut port blast has risen to 190 with more than 6,500 injured and three people missing, Lebanon’s caretaker government says in a report.

The ruler of the United Arab Emirates issued a decree today formally ending the country’s boycott of Israel amid a US-brokered deal to normalize relations between the two countries.

A Bangladeshi woman and her daughter were found dead in an apartment at Jleeb-AL-Shuyoukh in Kuwait on Friday.

Pakistan’s flooded financial capital of Karachi was plunged into chaos yesterday with power cuts, streets under water and cellphone outages caused by heavy rain as authorities said at least 23 people had been killed in downpours the previous day.

Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was set to resign, national broadcaster NHK said today, saying he wanted to avert problems for the government from a worsening health condition.

China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) says it would lend $100 million to Bangladesh to help the country deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to resign for health reasons. He is to announce his resignation at a press conference.