Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and riot police clashed in chaotic scenes around the city yesterday with police in full riot gear chasing protesters through crowds of horrified lunchtime shoppers.

Suspected ethnic Rakhine rebels disguised as a sports team stormed a bus in rural Myanmar and took 31 hostages -- mostly off-duty firefighters and construction workers -- authorities said yesterday.

Asserting that the Muslims in India are the “happiest”, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supremo Mohan Bhagwat said that people of other faiths have sought refuge in India due to the “Hindu culture”.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday visited Iran on a mission to act as a “facilitator” between Tehran and Riyadh and try to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said it would take four months for Jammu and Kashmir to return to normal after his government stripped the state of its special status in August and imposed harsh restrictions.

Japan sends tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history, which kills 23 people and briefly paralyses Tokyo.

The Bangladesh Embassy in Tokyo opens a helpline to provide assistance to Bangladesh expatriates in Japan as Typhoon Hagibis made landfall on Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo.

Japan yesterday braced for a powerful typhoon barrelling towards Tokyo that has already forced the cancellation of two Rugby World Cup matches, disrupted the Suzuka Grand Prix and grounded flights.

Taiwan’s president yesterday rejected a “one country, two systems” formula that Beijing has suggested could be used to unify the island and the mainland, saying such an arrangement had set Hong Kong “on the edge of disorder”.

North Korea yesterday slammed a statement by European UN Security Council members urging strict enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang for its latest missile test, calling the move a “serious provocation”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that China’s treatment of Muslims, including the Uighurs, in western China was an “enormous human rights violation” and Washington will continue to raise the issue.

The number of ultra-wealthy individuals dipped in China this year, a report said yesterday, as the government seeks to rebalance the economy and tackle high levels of toxic debt. Those listed as the wealthiest -- with holdings worth at least 2 billion yuan ($281 million) -- fell to 1,819 this year

Top US and Chinese negotiators meet for the first time since late July to try to find a way out of a 15-month trade war as new irritants between the world's two largest economies threatened hopes for progress.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping at an informal summit this week, the Indian foreign ministry said yesterday, their talks coming at a time of strained ties over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Beijing yesterday decried a US decision to restrict visas for Chinese officials linked to the repression of Xinjiang Muslims, and called on Washington to withdraw the measure.

An eighty-year-old Malaysian newspaper, which had close links to the corruption-plagued former ruling party, halted publication yesterday after years of financial struggle, with 862 staff affected.

China is destroying burial grounds where generations of Uighur families have been laid to rest, leaving behind human bones and broken tombs in what activists call an effort to eradicate the ethnic group’s identity in Xinjiang.

Malaysian lawmakers yesterday voted to repeal a controversial law that punished spreading “fake news” with up to six years behind bars and which critics said was aimed at stifling dissent.

The US Commerce Department is placed 28 Chinese public security bureaus and companies - including video surveillance company Hikvision and seven other companies on a US trade blacklist over Beijing's treatment of Uighur Muslims and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities.

In a move to establish major energy infrastructure, including power generation projects in Bangladesh, Japan’s largest energy company JERA Co Inc has acquired a 22 percent stake in Summit Power International Limited for $330 million.