Asia news headlines

Wuhan, the largest city in central China, has publicly demanded that hundreds of local companies repay their debts.

Japan's coast guard said North Korea has notified it that it plans to launch a satellite in coming days, which may be an attempt to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.

An Indian government official has been suspended after he ordered the drainage of a two-million-litre dam so he could get his phone back, which he dropped while taking a selfie.

The conviction is the latest in what rights groups say is the government's attempt to silence voices critical of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party.

A local volunteer rescue group for the city of Almaty said it had found the body of 27-year-old Jake Michael Herd.

Albanese has met with Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Japan as the two leaders signed a new climate and clean energy agreement, as the US President apologised to the Aussie PM for cancelling his Sydney visit.

The sanctions come as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in Japan for the G7 summit in Hiroshima.

More than half of the world's largest lakes and reservoirs have lost significant amounts of water over the last three decades.

China has opened its doors to Australian timber imports for the first time in more than two years.

Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian said the Australian authority had already sent four planes and three ships to the search area.

The 42-year-old Harvard alumni, said his policy priorities over the next four years will be to "demilitarise, demonopolise and decentralise" Thailand.

Thousands of people hunkered down Sunday in monasteries, pagodas and schools, seeking shelter from a powerful storm that slammed into the coast of Myanmar, tearing roofs off buildings and killing at least three people.

Australia's trade minister is returning home from China with an optimistic view, even as major import restrictions remain in place.

A Chinese naval flotilla led by a powerful destroyer has been on a 12-day circumnavigation of Japan's main islands in a display of military power.

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan can be held for eight days, a court has ruled.

An ally denounced the arrest as "an abduction". TV broadcast images of the 72-year-old being pulled by security forces towards an armoured vehicle, which took him away.

The Indonesian government is pondering a potential "tourist tax" on visitors to Bali as the number of arrivals continues to swell.

Eleven people died and four more were hospitalised after a gas leak Sunday in northern India's Punjab state, local media reported.

A woman in Thailand has been arrested on suspicion of killing 12 people she knew with cyanide.

Blackmores looks set to be bought by brewing company Kirin, after the Japanese firm launched a $1.88 billion takeover bid.

Singapore has executed a man accused of coordinating a cannabis delivery, despite pleas for clemency from his family and protests from activists that he was convicted on weak evidence.

The Japanese airline that mistakenly sold flight tickets for a fraction of their normal cost due to a technical glitch has announced it will not honour the sales.

Beijing is being urged to explain the reasons behind what has been labelled the largest ever peacetime build-up of armed forces.

Beijing has issued a call to avoid "hyping up the 'China threat' narrative" after Australia's landmark defence review called out the superpower's historic military buildup.

Images from war-torn Ukraine and the battered city of Mariupol have been recognised as some of the best pictures taken in the past year at the 2023 World Press Photo awards.

Economists have cautioned that even as India's economy is among the fastest-growing as its population rises, joblessness has also swelled.

Noel Hanna, from Northern Ireland, died while descending the treacherous Mount Annapurna, officials said.

The foreign minister said Australia's role was aimed at 'lowering the heat' between competing powers in the Indo Pacific region.

Separatist gunmen attacked Indonesian army troops who were deployed to rescue a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by the rebels in Indonesia's restive Papua province, leaving at least six dead and about 30 missing, officials say.

Police in Malaysia say they are investigating the death of a woman, believed to be a foreigner, whose decomposing body was discovered in a travel bag at an abandoned bus station.

For the 27-nation trading bloc, the reasons to head to China are clear.

Energy and environment ministers vowed to work to hasten the shift toward cleaner, renewable energy, but set no timetable for phasing out coal-fired power plants.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unharmed on Saturday after someone threw an explosive device at a campaign event in a western port city, officials said.

The world record for the furthest flight by paper plane has been broken by three aerospace engineers with a paper aircraft that flew a grand total of 88 metres

Macron said Europe shouldn't "take our cue from the US agenda and a Chinese overreaction" and said it wasn't in the bloc's interest to "accelerate (a crisis) on Taiwan".

The boy asked if he could hug him, but the Dalai Lama then asked the boy to kiss him on the lips and stuck out his tongue.

When the moment came, the spies and sleuths had only minutes to help seize the money before it could be laundered to safety.

China described them as "a serious warning against the Taiwan separatist forces' collusion with external forces".

China says it has started three days of military exercises around Taiwan, in an announcement that comes after the island democracy's president met the US House Speaker in defiance of repeated threats by Beijing.

At least 12 Filipinos are to be nailed to crosses to reenact Jesus Christ's suffering in a gory Good Friday tradition

Beijing has slammed Canberra's plan to remove the controversial app from government phones and devices.

An Australian woman who shouted at a policeman in Bali after she was fined for not wearing a helmet on her scooter is being cited as an example of foreigners being deported from Indonesia for bad behaviour.

Albanese's reported visit could fall on the anniversary of Gough Whitlam's first-ever trip by an Australian PM to China.

Thousands of elderly people have been taking to the streets since January to protest big cuts to monthly medical benefit payments.

From an infamous passage with a morbid name in Bolivia, to the United Kingdom and USA, these are the most treacherous roads in the world.

Seiichi Sano turns 90 later this year, and after being recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest male to surf, he's ready for other tests.

Andrews will become the first Australian state or national leader to visit China since the start of the pandemic.

Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Alibaba and once one of China's most prominent entrepreneurs, has made a rare public appearance in the country.

Honduras has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the Latin American country announced Saturday, saying it recognises "only one China in the world."