Space defense, US troop deployments and a "hugely significant" deal with Britain: Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is collecting more than souvenirs on his whirlwind diplomatic tour.

The peak of China's COVID-19 wave is expected to last two to three months, and will soon swell over the vast countryside where medical resources are relatively scarce, a top Chinese epidemiologist has said.

Floods and natural disasters that hit all but one Australian state and territory in 2022 cost the economy A$5 billion ($3.48 billion) and stoked inflation according to Treasury estimates which forecast billions more spending in 2023.

President Vladimir Putin's move to replace his top commander in Ukraine is a sign of military disarray and his growing impatience in a war Russia is not winning, analysts said.

The proposed Bilateral Security Treaty, which both parties committed to finish negotiating by April 30, will cover defence, with discussions underway over troop training and joint operations, in addition to issues like climate change and cyber security.

Weeks after unveiling plans to ramp up security spending, Japan sent its defense and foreign ministers to Washington where the two countries issued a statement vowing to "modernize the alliance in order to address the increasingly severe security environment."

People in China worried on Thursday about spreading COVID-19 to aged relatives as they planned returns to their hometowns for holidays that the World Health Organization warns could inflame a raging outbreak.

Mobs of rioters who stormed Brazil's seats of power raised conspiracy-laden slogans against voting machines, a prime target of disinformation campaigns seeking to undermine trust in electoral systems around the world.

The British and Japanese prime ministers signed what Downing Street called a "hugely significant" new defense deal allowing UK troops to deploy in Japan as the pair met in London on Wednesday.

South Korea and Japan have in recent weeks imposed fresh travel requirements on all visitors from China, as the world's most populous country battles a surge in Covid cases.

Florida has for decades served as a home in exile to Latin America's former strongmen and right-wing leaders and more recently is the adopted state of Donald Trump, Bolsonaro's political soulmate who has pushed a narrative of rigged elections.

The deficit reached 3.3 trillion rubles ($47 billion), or 2.3 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told a government meeting. 

The Indonesian foreign minister stressed that the country would keep ASEAN unity front and center during its 2023 chairmanship.

Countries should consider recommending that passengers wear masks on long-haul flights, given the rapid spread of the latest Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 in the United States, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Tuesday.

Mosquitoes that transmit dengue and other viruses have evolved growing resistance to insecticides in parts of Asia, and novel ways to control them are desperately needed, new research warns.

China ditched mandatory quarantines for arrivals and allowed travel to resume across its border with Hong Kong on Sunday, removing the last major restrictions under the "zero-COVID" regime which it abruptly began dismantling in early December after historic protests against the curbs.

In 2019, the last year before the pandemic struck, some 2.6 million people performed the haj. The kingdom allowed only limited numbers from its residents in 2020 and 2021 before it welcomed back one million foreign pilgrims in 2022.

Brazilian security forces cleared protest camps Monday and arrested 1,500 people as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva condemned "acts of terrorism" after a far-right mob stormed the seat of power, unleashing chaos on the capital.

Myanmar authorities have sentenced 112 Rohingya, including a dozen children, to between two and five years in prison for attempting to travel to Malaysia "without legal documents", state media reported Tuesday. 

"Usually an autobiography is written by someone who is retiring from his job. I have just been in this [Prime Minister] position for a little over a month," Anwar said responding to a query from one member of the audience who joined a public lecture organized by businessman Chairul Tanjung in South Jakarta.

New ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn will prioritize the six P’s of peace, prosperity, planet, people, partnerships and potentials during his four-year term as administrative head of the bloc, he said in his inaugural speech on Monday.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s largest palm oil exporters, have agreed to build stronger collaboration to further develop the palm oil market and to combat discrimination against the commodity.

The incident involving the 225-metre-long Marshall Islands-registered M/V Glory had briefly sparked fears of a repeat of a major 2021 blockage when the giant container ship Ever Given became diagonally wedged in the canal.

"The will of the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions must be respected!" he tweeted.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes also ordered social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to block coup-mongering propaganda. 

Anwar, a long-time opposition leader, was sworn in as the country's 10th prime minister on November 24 to head a unity government in a shaky alliance with the graft-tainted party of his former political rivals.

After three years, mainland China opened sea and land crossings with Hong Kong and ended a requirement for incoming travellers to quarantine, dismantling a final pillar of a zero-COVID policy that had shielded China's 1.4 billion people from the virus but also cut them off from the rest of the world.