Experts judged on Wednesday that a reactor on Japan's west coast is located on ground at high risk of an earthquake, setting in motion a process that will likely lead to the first permanent shutdown of a nuclear plant since the 2011 Fukushima crisis.

In a rare departure from her characteristically tough style, a teary-eyed Prime Minister Julia Gillard introduced a new tax bill to Parliament on Wednesday that would fund better care for Australians with severe physical and mental disabilities.

A massive evacuation to clear low-lying camps ahead of a cyclone has run into a potentially deadly snag: Many members of the displaced Rohingya minority living there have refused to leave because they don't trust Myanmar authorities.

Former President Joseph Estrada was declared the winner of Manila's mayoral election on Tuesday, his first ballot victory since his ouster in a 2001 anti-corruption revolt and a possible prelude to a return to higher office.

Rescuers at a giant U.S.-owned mine in eastern Indonesia have freed four out of 37 workers who were believed trapped underground Tuesday when a tunnel collapsed, the company said.

Singapore said Tuesday it will implement new measures that will make it easier to share information with other countries on cross-border tax evaders trying to hide assets in the city-state.

The Japanese government on Tuesday distanced itself from comments by a prominent politician that the so-called comfort women of World War Two served a “necessary” role by keeping troops in check.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday she wants talks with North Korea about removing raw materials and finished products from a joint industrial complex closed by military tensions.

A boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims capsized off western Myanmar with many feared drowned at the start of a mass evacuation from low-lying regions ahead of an approaching storm, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

Reformist Myanmar President Thein Sein will visit the White House next week, the first such trip by a Myanmar head of state in almost 47 years and a sign of warming ties.