Asia

Filipino fisherman Arnel Satam guns the motor of his tiny wooden boat as he makes a dash for the shallow waters of Scarborough Shoal in the disputed South China Sea, with Chinese coast guard speedboats in hot pursuit.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in Sydney on Saturday against a plan to adapt Australia's constitution to enshrine Indigenous rights, ahead of a referendum next month. The crowd gathered in the city's Hyde Park railed against the proposal, which if it passes on October 14, would give Indigenous peoples the right to be consulted on policies…

A notice demanding Hardeep Singh Nijjar appear in court is still stuck on his house in Punjab, where the Sikh separatist's village neighbours believe Canada's accusation that India was responsible for his killing.

The UN called Friday on Iranian authorities to scrap a new law that dramatically increases penalties for women who flout strict Islamic dress code, describing it as "repressive and demeaning".

Protesters have set fire to a mayor's office on an Indonesian island to demand compensation over a mining company's activity in their area, police said, adding that several arrests had been made.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday called on India to cooperate with its investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist after earlier this week pointing to Indian agents as suspects.

Yemen's Huthi rebels held a major military parade in Sanaa on Thursday, marking nine years since they seized the capital and just days after peace talks with war foes Saudi Arabia.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Thursday began his first official trip to China in almost two decades, state media reported, where he will ask a longtime ally for financial support to help rebuild his devastated country.

India suspended Thursday the issuing of visas in Canada, the service provider said, amid a diplomatic row sparked by Ottowa's accusation that New Delhi was involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist near Vancouver.

More than 10 percent of Japanese people have crossed 80 years or older for the first time, new official data showed, as the nation faces a rapidly greying population.

Iran hopes that a prisoner swap with the United States will go ahead Monday, once Tehran gains access to $6 billion frozen by US ally South Korea, the Iranian foreign ministry said.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un expressed his "heartfelt thanks" to President Vladimir Putin, state media said Monday, as he headed home after nearly a week in Russia on a defence-focused trip.