Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will prepare his defence against an International Criminal Court probe into his deadly drug war, after previously insisting he would not cooperate.

The son of late Philippines strongman Ferdinand Marcos declared yesterday he will run for president, ending speculation about his political ambitions but stirring anger among victims of his father’s brutal era of martial law.

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not call any defence witnesses at her incitement trial in a junta court, her lawyer said yesterday, as the military hit a detained US journalist with another criminal charge.

Malaysia late Monday summoned Beijings’s envoy to the Southeast Asian country in protest after Chinese vessels entered its maritime economic zone in the disputed South China Sea.

Girls have returned to some secondary schools in a northern province of Afghanistan, Taliban officials and teachers said yesterday, but they remain barred from classrooms in much of the country.

Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, yesterday called a parliamentary election for October 31 and vowed to bolster the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, shortly after being formally confirmed by lawmakers in the top job.

The Assam Congress yesterday suspended its MLA, Sherman Ali Ahmed, days after he was arrested for making provocative statements on an eviction drive around 40 years ago. In a one-line statement, Congress said that it has suspended Ahmed with immediate effect for repeatedly violating party discipline.

Sri Lankan prosecutors yesterday indicted the alleged mastermind of the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide bombings along with 24 men they say were co-conspirators in the island’s worst single terror attack.

The Taliban said yesterday they had destroyed an Islamic State cell in the Afghan capital, hours after a suspected IS attack on a mosque killed five people.

Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday asked a judge to reduce the frequency of her court hearings due to strained health, her lawyer said, but assured the public there was no concern about her condition.

We are disappointed that the Myanmar authorities have not cooperated with the Special Envoy of the Asean on Myanmar. Unless there is progress, it would be difficult to have the Chairman of the SAC at the Asean Summit.”

Demonstrators torched a police vehicle in India yesterday as tensions boiled over after clashes involving protesting farmers killed at least nine people.

India today said it would investigate cases regarding “Pandora Papers” papers that exposed how the wealthy in over 200 countries tried to protect their assets from the scanner at home.

Women in Afghanistan who object to what the Taliban have said and done since returning to power are finding it harder to protest, now that impromptu demonstrations have been banned and previous rallies were broken up by gunfire and beatings.

The two Koreas on Monday restored their hotlines that the North severed months ago, with Pyongyang urging Seoul to step up efforts to improve relations after criticising what it called double standards over weapons development.

Indonesia will reopen its tourist island Bali for some international travellers, including those from China, New Zealand, and Japan, among others, from October 14, senior cabinet minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Monday.

Japan's new Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, exchanged fist bumps with lawmakers after he was formally elected by parliament on Monday, as public broadcaster NHK said he was set to dissolve the body next week and call an election on Oct. 31.

Six people were killed when violence broke out in India's Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday after a car linked to a federal minister ran over two farmers taking part in a protest against controversial farm laws.

Mamata Banerjee yesterday cemented her position as Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third consecutive time by winning the bypoll in Bhabanipur assembly constituency in Kolkata by a record margin, five months after a stunning defeat in the assembly elections in Nandigram.

North Korea yesterday slammed the UN Security Council for holding an emergency meeting over the country’s latest missile tests, accusing the member states of toying with a “time-bomb”.