A powerful typhoon has hit the north-east Philippines, in Cagayan province, killing two people and cutting electricity supplies to many parts of the region.

A strong earthquake rattles Taiwan and small islands in the far south of Japan, official monitoring sites said, briefly prompting a warning for a 1-metre tsunami for the Okinawa island chain.

China will create a "blacklist" of its tourists who behave badly overseas, state-media reported, after several embarrassing incidents involving Chinese travelling abroad.

Taiwan begins rationing water supplies to more than one million households as it tackles the island's worst drought in years.

China's land reclamation is creating a "great wall of sand" in the South China Sea, leading to "serious questions" on its intentions, says a top US official.