Patients are arriving at his hospital in ever-increasing numbers; almost all are elderly and many are very unwell with COVID and pneumonia symptoms, he said. 

The People's Liberation Army said it had conducted a "strike drill" on Sunday in response to unspecified "provocations" and "collusion" between the United States and the self-ruled island.

Shanghai authorities urged residents to stay at home this weekend, seeking a toned-down Christmas in the nation's most populous city as COVID-19 rages nationwide after tough curbs were lifted.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a flurry of sanctions-busting weapons tests.

Women university students across Afghanistan were in disbelief on Wednesday, barred by the Taliban from studying and condemned to a life of feeling "like caged birds". 

Patients quarrel with doctors to access drugs that are in short supply, like cough medicines and pain killers. Medics are overloaded; infected staff continue to work because of a scarcity of personnel.

China is battling a wave of infections that has hit the elderly hard, but has officially logged only a handful of deaths from the coronavirus after the government redefined the criteria by which Covid deaths are counted.

Employees of Chinese tech giant ByteDance improperly accessed data from social media platform TikTok to track journalists in a bid to identify the source of leaks to the media, the company admitted Friday.

Myanmar authorities have arrested more than 110 Rohingya, including children, for traveling "without official documents" as they tried to make their way to Malaysia, state media reported Friday.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha is to seek another term in a general election due to be held in the kingdom before May next year, he told local media on Friday.

Foreign ministers of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia and Vietnam's deputy foreign minister joined the talks hosted by Thailand's foreign minister, according to Thai foreign ministry spokeswoman Kanchana Patarachoke.

China has requisitioned medical supplies production across the country as millions struggle to obtain basic drugs and testing kits in the face of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The alleged boss of Asia's biggest crime syndicate and one of the world's most wanted men has been extradited to Australia and arrested on drug trafficking charges, police said Thursday.

The Philippines said Wednesday it was "seriously concerned" over a report that China has started reclaiming several unoccupied land features in the disputed South China Sea. 

The death toll from a landslide at an unauthorized campsite in Malaysia rose to 25 as search and rescue teams continued to comb muddy terrain on Wednesday.

Crematoriums across China are straining to deal with an influx of bodies as the country battles a wave of COVID-19 cases that authorities have said is impossible to track.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Rudd one of the world's most sought-after experts on China and said he would bring significant experience to the role at a time when the region was being reshaped by strategic competition.

Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as the United States said Beijing's surprise decision to let the virus run free was a concern for the world.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday she will push China to lift trade sanctions and for consular access to two detained Australians during a trip to Beijing that's aimed at mending strained diplomatic ties.

Thai military frigates and helicopters kept up the search late Monday for more than 30 sailors missing after a naval vessel sank, with dozens of others already hauled from the choppy waters.

Wong will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and hold the sixth Australia–China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries on Wednesday.

The landslide in Selangor state bordering the capital, Kuala Lumpur, occurred before 3 a.m. (1900 GMT), tearing down a hillside into an organic farm that officials said was operating the campsite illegally. 

A landslide killed at least 12 people while they slept at a campsite in Malaysia early on Friday, officials said, as search teams scoured thick mud and downed trees for more than 20 people still missing.

As "good stewards of APEC", the United States will invite Russia, which is a member of the 21-country bloc, Matt Murray, a senior US official for APEC, told a media briefing in Singapore.

The talks -- involving top US diplomat for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink, National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Laura Rosenberger and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng -- took place on Sunday and Monday in the northern province of Hebei, Beijing said.

The House of Representatives approved the legislative overhaul on Tuesday, part of a decades long process to replace its colonial-era penal code. 

This year, the Bali Democracy Forum (BDF) was held during a turbulent time for democracies globally, with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling on countries to defend and invigorate democracy.

Panelists at an Asia-Pacific security cooperation forum have urged middle powers like Indonesia in ASEAN to assert influence amid the heated United States-China rivalry.

As the world embraces life with COVID-19 entering the third year of the pandemic, countries in the Indo-Pacific seek commonalities for further collaboration to establish vaccine security as an anticipation for future plagues.

Umar Patek was a member of an Al Qaeda-linked group that detonated two bombs outside a Bali bar and nightclub in October 2002, killing 202 people -- including 88 Australians.