North Korea's new rocket launch plans are a dramatic gesture of defiance towards the international community, and a major challenge to the winner of South Korea's upcoming presidential elections, analysts say.

Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada's Universal Entertainment funneled at least US$30 million to an ex-consultant for the Philippines gaming authority who is now at the center of a bribery investigation, according to sources and company records.

Asia-Pacific fishing experts Sunday warned against depleting tuna stocks, saying the region needs to reduce its catch of the vulnerable bigeye species by 30 percent.

Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Thursday, a move which could raise tensions further.

China is finding the once friendly ground of Southeast Asia bumpy going, with anger against Chinese claims to disputed islands, once reliable ally Myanmar flirting with democracy and renewed American attention to the region.

U.S. President Barack Obama's attendance at an annual summit of Southeast Asian leaders on Tuesday thrust him right in the eye of the region's most stormy dispute: the long-raging rivalry between China and five neighbors for control of strategic and resource-rich waters in the South China Sea.

For prominent comedian and former political prisoner Zarganar, the U.S. President's visit Monday to Yangon University marked nothing less than a “rebirth” of an institution whose history is entwined with the nation's struggle for freedom.

Southeast Asian nations displayed a rare show of unity on Sunday against China's sweeping maritime claims, calling for the first formal talks with Beijing over a sea dispute that has raised tensions and exposed deep divisions in the region.

President Barack Obama flexed U.S. power in Asia Sunday, launching a regional tour that will make history when he lands in Myanmar to encourage its leaders to quicken a startling political reform drive.

Southeast Asian leaders endorsed a controversial human rights pact on Sunday during an annual summit in which they also focused on bruising territorial rows and deadly unrest in Myanmar.