Japan has massively upped its defense spending in recent years, alarmed by China's growing assertiveness in the region and the frequency of North Korea's missile tests.

Representing the largest archipelagic country in the world, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi on Tuesday warned island states they were facing an “existential danger” amid worsening climate change and sluggish multilateral efforts.

The shelling took place close to midnight on Monday in Kachin State, the sources said, when artillery hit the camp about 5 km from a base in the border town of Laiza run by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

The coast guard said it took "necessary measures" such as forcing the gunboat out and controlling its route after repeated dissuasion and warnings from the Chinese side were ignored.

Tsai, who cannot stand again as president at elections in January after two terms in office, has repeatedly offered talks with China, which has rejected them as it views her as a separatist.

The discreet effort to track China's nuclear-powered and -armed ballistic missile submarines, known as SSBNs, is one of the core drivers of increased deployments and contingency planning by the US Navy and other militaries across the Indo-Pacific region.

Transborder haze is a perennial problem in Southeast Asia as regulatory loopholes make it hard for authorities to eliminate Indonesia's slash-and-burn land clearing practices.

Amadeus Fernando Pagente, who performs under the stage name Pura Luka Vega, was detained on Wednesday in relation to a controversial performance in July.

In recent weeks air quality in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia has spiked into the red, with indexes consistently showing readings above 150 - putting it in a bracket where people can experience health effects, and those with sensitive conditions could suffer more serious problems.

In a statement after a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Malaysia, members recognised "the adverse environmental and health impacts of crop burning practices," and committed to collectively reduce and phase it out. 

Ties between the world's two largest economies have been strained in recent years due to a number of issues including Taiwan, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, allegations of spying, human rights issues and trade tariffs, among others.

He said the letter had been sent to his counterpart in Indonesia following instructions from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday (Oct 3) to coordinate with his counterparts in Asean to resolve the transborder haze issue.

Two women were killed, from China and Myanmar, and five people wounded - two foreigners and three Thai nationals.

The Immigration Office detained the two men on Friday as they ate at a restaurant in north Jakarta.

Megawati was in Kuala Lumpur to join a ceremony held by the Tun Abdul Rahman University which gave her an honorary doctorate in social science. 

The Singapore-based Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) had through satellite images detected 121 hotspots in Sumatra and 122 hotspots in Kalimantan, but none in Malaysia, said DOE director-general Datuk Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaafar.

Premier Srettha Thavisin's new government came into office in August after months of political wrangling, having promised constitutional reform in the run-up to May's general election.

Malaysia on Friday warned residents of high pollution levels in most areas on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the western Kalimantan region of Sarawak, blaming trans-boundary haze from Indonesia, its Department of Environment said in a statement. 

More than a thousand sailors from the two allies are taking part in the annual "Samasama" (Tagalog for Together) anti-submarine, surface and electronic warfare drills off Manila and the south of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines.

The scorching September's average temperature was 2.66 degrees Celsius (36.78 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than usual, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Monday. 

Almost every dry season, smoke from fires to clear land for palm oil and pulp and paper plantations in Indonesia clouds the skies over much of the region, bringing risks to public health and worrying tourist operators and airlines.

A coalition of human rights organizations and former attorney general and respected human rights defender Marzuki Darusman, have officially requested that the National Commission on Human Rights (KomnasHAM) investigate alleged arm sales by state-owned arms manufacturers to the Myanmar junta, which they say potentially took place after the 2021 coup.

The cabinet reshuffle "will be soon", Bernama reported Zahid as saying on Sunday. 

The monsoon, which is vital for India's $3 trillion economy, brings nearly 70 percent of the rain the country needs to water crops and replenish reservoirs and aquifers. 

As world leaders descended on the UN General Assembly, ASEAN's top representatives voiced their concerns about the right to inclusive development and adherence to the rule of law.

The Chinese-made bullet train named "Whoosh" is built to take more than 600 people to and from Jakarta and Bandung in West Java in 45 minutes and is part of China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

Hundreds of forest fires in Indonesia have caused haze that has worsened air quality in parts of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur's top environment official has said, a claim Jakarta denied on Saturday.

Few nations have been transformed as radically by China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, as Laos. The US$5.9 billion China-Laos railway has pushed the small, Southeast Asian country closer to its dream of being land-linked, not land-locked.

China's increasing assertiveness in efforts to form security ties with developing countries in close proximity to Australia have raised alarm bells in Canberra, and a recent shakeup of Australia's defence has refocused on protecting its northern approaches.

The White Paper comes a decade after the vision was first proposed by President Xi Jinping and has been presented as his alternative to the current Western-led world order.