New leader Xi Jinping has urged China to pursue the "Chinese dream" but experts say behind the grandiose words, he is single-minded in his aim to bolster Communist Party rule.
China has overtaken Britain to become the world's fifth largest arms exporter with five percent of the global trade, its highest position since the Cold War.
The US Friday said it would bolster defenses against a possible North Korean missile strike a week after Pyongyang threatened a "pre-emptive" nuclear attack against its arch-foe.
Diverse underground ecosystems buried deep beneath the Earth's crust may offer clues to the origins of life on Earth, several recent studies have revealed.
The leader of a band of Filipino militants whose incursion in Malaysia has left scores dead has reportedly fled even as his own family insist he is still in the country.
Nearly 330 million abortions have been performed in China in the 40 years since it first implemented measures to limit population growth in the world's most populous nation.
Japan's weather agency announced the official beginning of cherry blossom season in Tokyo on Saturday, equalling the record for the earliest ever start.
US President Barack Obama wasted no time in courting China's new President Xi Jinping Thursday, calling him within hours of his elevation, and then pressing him on cybercrime and North Korea.
Thousands of dead pigs in a Shanghai river have cast a spotlight on China's poorly regulated farm production, with the country's favourite meat joining a long list of food scares.
The developing world's rapid growth has sharply cut extreme poverty, created a new middle class and put the economies of Brazil, China and India on a path to overtake the globe's wealthiest nations.
China's parliament installed bureaucrat Li Keqiang as premier Friday, putting him in charge of running the world's second-largest economy in a final step of a landmark power transition.
Australia's largest casino has alerted police to a betting scam in which a high-roller reportedly netted Aus$32 million (US$33 million) in an "Ocean's Eleven" style heist.
Governments and agencies must be wary of drowning Myanmar with well-intentioned but ill-targeted aid, experts warned Thursday, admonishing the global community to "first do no harm."
New Zealand declared a drought across its entire North Island for the first time in at least 30 years on Friday, with low river levels in the capital Wellington also worrying officials.
The grounded Dreamliner is "absolutely" safe and will be back in the air within weeks, planemaker Boeing said in Japan on Friday, as it sought to reassure airlines and passengers about its aircraft.
Shares in Samsung Electronics fell 1.7 percent in early trade in Seoul on Friday, hours after the launch of the company's latest flagship smartphone in New York City.
Activists in Hanoi chanted anti-China slogans and laid flowers Thursday at a protest marking the anniversary of a battle over the contested Spratly Islands in which 64 Vietnamese soldiers died.