Prayut, 68, retained his cabinet position as defence minister after the Constitutional Court on Wednesday suspended him from the top job pending a review of his constitutionally mandated term limit.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory despite the strong objections of the government in Taipei, carried out its largest-ever military exercises around the island after a visit this month by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Mahathir, whose historic election victory in 2018 triggered Najib's downfall, said delays in various trials related to the multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) would result in justice being denied.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Indonesia Vasyl Hamianin pleaded for human solidarity during his country’s 31st Independence Day celebration in Jakarta on Wednesday, which also marked six months since Russia invaded.

The court agreed unanimously to hear a case brought by opposition parties who argue Prayut has reached the end of his eight-year term limit as prime minister.

Najib's failed last-ditch attempt to get the Federal Court to overturn the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling made in July 2020 meant he has to start serving his jail sentence immediately.

The political tension stems from comments the former cricket star is accused of making in a speech, at a rally of his supporters televised live on Saturday, against the police chief and a judge in response to the arrest of one of Khan's aides.

The 65-year-old prime minister, who has only shown mild symptoms, took part in a meeting remotely from his official residence in the morning, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on Sunday that the city-state would repeal the colonial-era law, but said the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman will be kept to allay fears of "a drastic shift in our societal norms".

Links to the church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s and famous for its mass weddings, have become a headache for Kishida since July 8, when former premier Shinzo Abe was shot and his suspected killer said his mother was bankrupted by the church and blamed Abe for promoting it. 

The annual summertime exercises, renamed Ulchi Freedom Shield this year and scheduled to end on Sept. 1, came after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, vowed to "normalise" the combined exercises and boost deterrence against the North.

The Philippines is one of the last countries in the world to resume full-time, in-person lessons -- sparking warnings that the prolonged closure of classrooms had worsened an education crisis in the country.

Albanese said it wasn't suggested Morrison's actions were illegal but they raised questions over political conventions and checks on power in a democracy.

Tokyo reported 25,277 new cases, up 1,504 from the same day a week earlier, while in Osaka Prefecture, 23,098 new cases were reported. Record numbers of cases were confirmed in Miyagi, Yamagata, Tottori, Okayama and Tokushima prefectures, with 254 additional deaths nationally.

The missiles would be existing arms modified to extend their range from 100 km (62 miles) to 1,000 km, the daily said, citing government sources.

Myanmar's decade-long experiment with democracy was halted last year and the country has since spiralled into bloody conflict after the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in a coup.

Umar Patek was sentenced to 20 years jail by an Indonesian court in 2012 after he was found guilty of mixing bombs that ripped through two Bali nightclubs a decade earlier, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians.

It is the first large-scale financing the country has received from Beijing since they signed a secretive security pact in April.

The national 'yellow alert', issued late on Thursday, comes after regions from Sichuan in the southwest to Shanghai in the Yangtze delta have experienced weeks of extreme heat, with government officials repeatedly citing global climate change as the cause. The alert is two notches short of the most serious warning on Beijing's scale. 

Members of a Canada-Taiwan parliamentary friendship group had been planning to visit the self-ruled island for some time and Taipei has suggested an October date, Sgro said.

Andi Widjajanto, former cabinet secretary and unofficial adviser to the President, told Reuters the two leaders would join the summit.

Taiwan and the US have said they will start trade talks under a new initiative. 

The findings were "based on an independent assessment of available information", the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, said in a report that he shared on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian country has maintained friendly ties with Russia, even as both remain under a raft of sanctions from Western countries - Myanmar for a military coup that overthrew an elected government last year, and Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which it calls a "special military operation".

"These are joint exercises that involve a number of countries well beyond Russia and China...I'll also note that most of the participating countries also routinely participate in a wide array of military exercises and exchanges with the United States as well," State Department spokesman Ned Price told a press conference.

The Federal Court on Tuesday dismissed the former prime minister's plea for a retrial, clearing the way for the hearings, which will be held until August 26.

Beijing and Moscow have close defence links and China has said it wants to push bilateral relations "to a higher level," even as Moscow faces international sanctions and widespread condemnation over its war in Ukraine.

The appeal is the last high stakes court gambit left open to Najib -- but if he is unsuccessful he will have to start serving his jail sentence after years of legal wrangling.

Albanese said Scott Morrison had appointed himself to more ministries than initially thought, and promised further investigation.

Noeleen Heyzer "will focus on addressing the deteriorating situation and immediate concerns as well as other priority areas of her mandate," according to a UN statement issued late Monday.