Chinese and Indian troops have “completed disengagement” on most parts of the disputed border between their two countries, China’s foreign ministry said yesterday, after violent clashes broke out earlier this year.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held the first joint virtual conference with his counterparts from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal during which he proposed a four-point plan to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic, boost economic recovery and resumption of the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) infrastructure projects.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared an emergency and a lockdown in a border town after a person suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border.

Vietnam is back on high alert for the coronavirus after medical officials in the central city of Danang detected the country’s first locally transmitted case for three months.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has announced his new Cabinet, in a reshuffle that will see six of the fifteen ministries headed by new ministers.

Malaysia reached a $3.9 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs yesterday over the Wall Street titan’s role in the 1MDB scandal in exchange for the country ending all criminal proceedings against the bank.

Vietnam’s PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has issued a directive to ban the Southeast Asian country’s wildlife trade with immediate effect in order to reduce the risk of new pandemics, a government statement said.

It has been almost two years since Bugra Arkin’s father Aierken was abruptly snatched from his home in China’s troubled Xinjiang region by national security agents.

Human Rights Watch has called for Japan to immediately cancel plans to donate money to Myanmar police to purchase vehicles and communications equipment, saying the force has a well-documented record of serious human rights violations, including against the Rohingya population in the country.

China orders the United States to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu, in a tit-for-tat response to being told to shut its consulate in Houston earlier, as relations between the two world powers deteriorates further.

Nepal government has given its nod to Nepal Electricity Authority to trade electricity with India and Bangladesh.

The Vietnam government has ordered police to investigate brokers from Bangladesh and ensure security for Bangladeshi workers in Vietnam, the foreign ministry said in a statement yesterday.

A Pakistani journalist, who has been a vocal critic of the powerful military and government, was released late Tuesday hours after the government confirmed he had been abducted, his family said.

A giant 23-metre (75-foot) whale briefly washed up near a beach in Indonesia but it was unclear how the enormous marine mammal died, a conservation official said Wednesday.

Hundreds of Thais protested this evening, demanding the resignation of the government and the dissolution of parliament, defying a coronavirus ban on big gatherings in one of the largest street demonstrations since a 2014 military coup.

Inland waterways development between Bangladesh and India can become a vital and cost effective way of multimodal connectivity that can improve economic wellbeing of people from both countries, policymakers and experts have said.

Even as Indian and Chinese troops pull back from the site of a deadly faceoff in Galwan Valley in Ladakh, India is understood to have decided to expedite the construction of strategic roads, bridges and tunnels in forward areas along the border with China.

Malaysian Immigration Department has circulated a notice today, seeking public information on a Bangladeshi national to be investigated under the Immigration Act, after he spoke of mistreatment of migrants during Covid-19 lockdown in an Al Jazeera documentary aired last week.

Japan warns of more heavy rain on the southwestern island of Kyushu as the death toll in flood-hit areas reaches at least 50, with more than a dozen people reported missing.

Deep floodwaters and the risk of more mudslides that left about 20 people confirmed or presumed dead hampered search and rescue operations on Sunday in southern Japan, including at elderly home facilities where more than a dozen perished and scores are still stranded.