China's police presence under a new security pact will boost the capabilities of the Solomon Islands but they will not use techniques seen in Hong Kong.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr has maintained his wide lead in the Philippines presidential election race.

India's electricity demand touched a record high in April as its northern states reeled under the hot pre-summer.

Japanese energy conglomerate ENEOS Holdings said it will withdraw from a gas project in coup-hit Myanmar.

The sea level is rising twice as fast as previously forecast around parts of New Zealand.

Jokowi said Indonesia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations stand ready to build cooperation with their partners, and Kishida, who is on the first stop of his trip to Southeast Asia and Europe, underscored the importance of upholding the rules-based international order.

In a meeting held in Hanoi on the second leg of Kishida's eight-day tour covering Southeast Asia and Europe, the two premiers also confirmed their commitment to closer bilateral cooperation in the security and economic fields.

China's capital Beijing tightened COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday as it battled an outbreak.

Turning Twitter into a money-making platform where anyone can say anything looks to experts like a tough one.

Saudi Arabia announced that the Muslim holiday of Idul Fitri will begin on Monday in the country.

Vegetable oil prices have reached new highs, further tightening a market already on edge.

President Jokowi and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida agree to bolster the rules-based international order amid challenges such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Indonesia faced down US opposition and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20 summit in November, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"It is no coincidence that my first trip as chancellor to this region has led today here, to Tokyo," he said. "My trip is a clear political signal that Germany and the EU will continue and intensify their engagement in the Indo-Pacific region."

As Asia's sole member of the Group of Seven (G7), Japan hopes to hold talks on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and consolidate responses in Southeast Asia, where only one nation, Singapore, has joined sanctions against Russia, officials say.

"I'd like to make a trip for peace," Kishida told reporters in Tokyo before his arrival in Indonesia, which will be followed by visits to Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and Britain.

The announcement came as Russia's war in Ukraine continues, while concerns also remain over China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been convicted of smuggling at least 42 grams (1.48 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has among the world's harshest narcotics laws. He was hanged on Wednesday morning, after multiple legal challenges and appeals for clemency on the grounds that he had an intellectual disability, failed.

Yellen and Luhut also spoke about the potential for a Just Energy Transition Partnership that would bring together funding from donor countries, multilateral development banks, philanthropic groups, and the private sector to speed the decommission of coal-fired power plants, it said.

Despite struggling to defeat the country's worst outbreak in two years, the leadership is digging in its heels with a strict zero-Covid policy that involves lockdowns in the biggest cities and mass testing.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison saw a hawkish stance on China as an electoral strength. But weeks out from an election, his conservative Liberal Party is on the back foot on national security, accused by the Opposition Labor Party of bungling diplomacy in the Pacific and making Australia "less secure".

A set of proposals finalized by the ruling party last week, calling also for the development of counterstrike abilities by the Self-Defense Forces, will serve as a basis for the government to update the National Security Strategy by the end of the year.

The move comes shortly after Vietnam, another claimant in the South China Sea, also banned the Sony Pictures action movie, which stars Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg. It was released in the Philippines on Feb. 23.

The premier will visit Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and Britain over the eight-day period through May 6 for talks with their leaders, Kihara told a parliamentary meeting.

H3N8 is known to have been circulating since 2002 after first emerging in North American waterfowl. It is known to infect horses, dogs and seals, but has not previously been detected in humans.

The case was the first of 11 corruption charges against the Nobel laureate, each carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The source declined to be identified because her trials are being held behind closed doors.

"I will have an opportunity I think, very soon in the coming weeks to speak publicly and in some detail about the strategy," Blinken said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, had been on death row for more than a decade for trafficking 44 grams (1.5 oz) of heroin into Singapore, which has some of the world's toughest narcotics laws. His lawyers had filed multiple appeals against his execution saying he was intellectually disabled.

Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, convicted of trafficking a small amount of heroin into Singapore, is due to be hanged on Wednesday after more than a decade on death row. 

The crisis in Ukraine and the need to counter "Moscow’s direct threat to the rules-based international order" further make EU-South Korea cooperation important, the former officials said in a report to be released on Tuesday by the Brussels School of Governance.