Investigators have launched a second corruption probe into defense firm AgustaWestland in connection with a deal to sell 197 army helicopters, authorities said on Saturday, potentially dealing another blow to a company that India might blacklist.

The British government asked Malaysia's national airline to block former spy Edward Snowden from boarding flights to the United Kingdom, the carrier told AFP Friday, after he leaked details of Washington's secret surveillance programs.

Malaysian police on Saturday arrested 15 people over a flash-mob protest held to build support for a planned June 22 opposition rally against alleged fraud in elections last month.

Rescue workers battled heavy rains as they searched for survivors of a boat that capsized in eastern India on Friday, killing at least two people with 25 others still missing, officials said.

Fishermen and rescue workers hauled dozens of people out of the sea after a ferry sank in the central Philippines on Friday, but at least two passengers drowned, authorities said.

South Korea's former spy chief has been indicted on charges of meddling in last year's presidential election by ordering an online smear campaign against opposition candidates and their parties, prosecutors said Friday.

Japan's cabinet on Friday rubber-stamped a package of government reforms aimed at rebooting the economy, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe readied to explain the measures to fellow G-8 leaders.

Vietnamese police have arrested one of the country's best known bloggers for posting criticism of the communist government, intensifying a crackdown against Internet-fuelled dissent in the one-party, authoritarian state.

An Australian radio presenter was sacked Friday after sparking outrage by pressing embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard on air whether her hairdresser boyfriend Tim Mathieson is gay.

A former senior Singapore civil servant was jailed for six months Thursday for receiving oral sex from a female executive of a supplier company in return for business favours.