Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying defied pro-democracy protesters' demands to step down by Friday, and repeated police warnings that the consequences would be serious if they sought to surround or occupy government buildings.
Thousands of Philippine and American soldiers began annual war games on Monday near disputed waters in the South China Sea, testing the readiness of the two oldest security allies in the southeast Asian region to respond to any emergency.
U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated Islamic State activity inside Syria, which has become "ground zero" for jihadists worldwide, President Barack Obama said in a CBS television interview broadcast on Sunday.
Violent clashes between Hong Kong riot police and students galvanized tens of thousands of supporters for the city's pro-democracy movement and kick-started a plan to lock down the heart of the Asian financial center early on Sunday.
Hong Kong riot police used pepper spray on Saturday to disperse dozens of students who had stormed government headquarters, but an equal number held their ground in protests against Beijing's tightening grip on the city.
The Taiwanese government is investigating whether Xiaomi Inc [XTC.UL], China's leading smartphone company by domestic shipments, is a cyber security threat and will make a decision within three months.
Nearly 40 years after the United States helicoptered its last soldiers out of Vietnam in an ignominious retreat, Washington is moving closer to lifting an arms embargo on its former enemy, with initial sales likely to help Hanoi deal with growing naval challenges from China.
Two people were killed and several more injured in at least three explosions in China's troubled far western region of Xinjiang on Sunday, state media reported, but gave few details.
Hong Kong students are preparing for a showdown with Beijing over democratic reforms by boycotting classes on Monday, as a restive younger generation challenges the Chinese Communist Party's tightening grip on the city.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could go to China on his first foreign trip since taking power, China's ambassador to South Korea said on Wednesday, according to a report from South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
India said on Tuesday it would firmly defend its 3,500-km- (2,200-mile-) long border with China after domestic media reported a new face-off on the disputed frontier, just days ahead of a visit by President Xi Jinping.
A signboard at the top of a staircase in the ageing Beijing offices of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) directs lawyers and company officials to numbered conference rooms for antitrust meetings.
China's most senior official in Hong Kong, Zhang Xiaoming, said on Friday that remarks he had made to pro-democracy lawmakers in an August 19 meeting had been misrepresented in media reports.
Four people accused of participating in an attack at a train station in southwestern China went on trial on Friday, charged with murder and organising a terror group, a case that triggered a sweeping crackdown on what Beijing calls militant violence.
Just days before China was set to deliver its edict on electoral reform in Hong Kong, Beijing’s most senior official in the city held a rare meeting with several local lawmakers whose determined push for full democracy had incensed Beijing's Communist leaders.
Vietnam will soon have a credible naval deterrent to China in the South China Sea in the form of Kilo-class submarines from Russia, which experts say could make Beijing think twice before pushing its much smaller neighbor around in disputed waters.
China's crackdown on corruption, a scourge Communist Party leaders fear threatens their hold on power, is likely to last at least another five years, an official said, warning also against the mid-autumn tradition of handing out mooncakes as gifts.
South Africa has denied a visa to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, for the third time in five years, one of his representatives said on Thursday, intensifying speculation about the extent of Beijing's sway over Pretoria.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe picked two veteran lawmakers with friendly ties to China for top party posts on Wednesday in an apparent signal of hope for a thaw in chilly ties with Beijing and a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Hong Kong is poised for a showdown with China when the Chinese parliament meets later on Sunday, with the largely rubber-stamp body likely to snuff out hopes for a democratic breakthrough in the regional financial hub at elections due in 2017.
China has welcomed Vietnam's decision to compensate the victims of the anti-China protests in May, a move aimed at removing a thorn that has hurt relations between the two countries for months.
