The U.S. Congress has approved the transfer of a second Coast Guard ship to the Philippines, an official said Friday as Washington shifts its military ties with the Southeast Asian nation that has been engaged in a territorial spat with China.

Eight South Korean lawmakers made a high-profile visit Friday to a modern factory park that sits just across the world's most heavily armed border and represents the last major cooperative initiative between the two rival Koreas.

A mayor who has fought to close a flashpoint U.S. base on Japan's Okinawa island voiced opposition Thursday to a deal that could see thousands of U.S. troops leaving, saying his core concern remained.

South Korea's parliamentary speaker resigned on Thursday over a bribery scandal which has tarnished the conservative ruling party in a key election year.

A Maldives court issued an arrest warrant Thursday for former President Mohamed Nasheed, who resigned this week but later insisted he had been ousted by coup plotters in a political dispute that sparked rioting.

Pilloried by neighbors, laughed at in freak shows and spurned by the women he admired from afar, Chandra Bahadur Dangi has always seen his tiny stature as a curse.

Singapore on Wednesday urged the United States to be careful in comments on China, warning that suggestions of a strategy to contain the rising power could cause strife in Asia.

South Korea's central bank Thursday froze its key interest rate for the eighth straight month, amid competing pressures from a cooling economy and high inflation expectations.

Malaysia said Thursday it posted record trade activity in 2011 as China became the country's largest export market, helping blunt the impact of global economic weakness.

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan Thursday said action by the European Central Bank has bought breathing space for the global economy but eurozone countries must act quickly on structural reforms.