The case against the 74-year-old billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military putsch, is one of four before the courts that could unleash fresh political instability in the coup-prone kingdom.

The cases involve some of Thailand's most powerful politicians, including its current prime minister, and could deepen a decades-old rift between the conservative-royalist establishment and its opponents, such as the populist ruling Pheu Thai party and the opposition Move Forward party.

The Philippines has long clashed with China over the South China Sea. But the country's proximity to Taiwan also puts it in China's area of interest, Marcos told troops at a military camp in Isabela province in northern Cagayan region facing Taiwan.

Li's four-day trip, which begins Saturday, comes after Beijing lifted most of the trade barriers it had imposed on Australian exports, including coal, timber, barley, and wine.

The four were on an academic exchange and worked as instructors at Iowa's Cornell College, which said they were wounded in a "serious incident".

Parts of northern India have been gripped by a heatwave since mid-May, with temperatures soaring over 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

Russian ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora confirmed to Vedomosti that the president's visit to Pyongyang will happen and is being "actively prepared".

For the first time in his high-flying political career, which began in 2001 when he became the chief minister of his home state of Gujarat, Modi, 73, must accommodate the pulls and pressures of a coalition government after his party surprisingly failed to get a majority on its own.

Defence Minister and incoming president Prabowo Subianto has been pushing to upgrade ageing military hardware and spend billions on new jets and submarines. Indonesia has long lagged its regional peers in terms of defence spending as a share of gross domestic product. 

A lack of unity among ASEAN nations is regarded as the core stumbling block to immediately concluding the long-awaited code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, which had been expected to establish a guiding framework for preventing an open conflict in the troubled waters.

Commentators and exit polls had projected an overwhelming victory for Modi, whose campaign wooed the Hindu majority to the worry of the country's 200-million-plus Muslim community, deepening concerns over minority rights.

The US State Department said it will continue raising human rights concerns with India, just as Modi looked set to retain power but without an outright majority in the latest election.

In its lawsuit, the Australian Information Commissioner said Medibank "seriously interfered" with the privacy of Australians by failing to take reasonable steps to protect data from misuse.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said that from July, looser eligibility criteria would allow "permanent residents who have been living in Australia for 12 months" to serve.

The early see-saw trends unnerved markets with stocks falling steeply. The NIFTY and the BSE were both down over 2 percent.

Chaowalit Thongduang, 37, was arrested in Bali on Thursday, said Sr. Comr. Wahyu Widada, the head of police criminal investigation unit.

Most exit polls projected the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could win a two-thirds majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament, where 272 is needed for a simple majority. A two-thirds majority will allow the government to usher in far-reaching amendments in the constitution.

Prabowo, who will succeed President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in October after winning the February elections, welcomed the plan, describing it as "an important step" to ending the war.

Responding to Austin, Chinese Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng accused the United States of seeking to build "an Asia-Pacific version of NATO", and described the superpower as the "greatest challenge to regional peace and stability". 

In a survey of military exercises in Asia between 2003 and 2022, the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies said drills are expanding at an increasing rate, driven in part by US and Chinese efforts to test capabilities and boost strategic diplomacy.

One passenger died of a suspected heart attack and dozens were injured after Singapore Airline Flight SQ321, flying from London to Singapore, encountered what the airline described as sudden, extreme turbulence while flying over Myanmar. The ministry said the investigation was ongoing. 

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which reported "severe heat-wave conditions", recorded the temperatures at two Delhi suburbs stations at Narela and Mungeshpur.

The complaint, lodged by the royalist military that ousted the government of his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, had stemmed from an interview the influential tycoon gave to foreign media in 2015.

China, which claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, started two days of drills last Thursday in what it called "punishment" for Lai's inauguration speech that week.

As the summit opened, Li said the meeting was "both a restart and a new beginning" and called for the comprehensive resumption of cooperation between East Asia's economic powerhouses.

Relief teams in the Pacific nation have been trickling into the difficult-to-access northern Enga region since Friday though officials said the odds of finding survivors were slim.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.

The numbers of those buried around Yambali village in Enga province in the country's north are based on estimates from local authorities which have been rising steadily since Friday's landslide.

The storm crossed the coastal regions of Bangladesh's Mongla port and the adjoining Sagar Islands in India's West Bengal state with wind speed measuring up to 135 kmph (about 84 mph), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The neighbours had agreed to hold a summit every year starting in 2008 to boost regional cooperation, but the initiative has been disrupted by bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic. Their last trilateral summit was in late 2019.