The Malaysian government's insistence on holding a snap general election next month during a monsoon season that's expected to bring devastating floods risks putting politics above people's lives, opposition lawmakers and political analysts say.

Two air force fighter jets escorted a Singapore Airlines plane traveling from San Francisco to Changi Airport after a passenger made a hoax bomb threat.

North Korea fired at least one unidentified ballistic missile on Thursday, that Japan said flew over its main island, landing in the Pacific Ocean, and South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said landed in waters off the east of the peninsula.

North Korean state media has released images purporting to show last week's missile launches with a warning that the so-called "reckless military hysteria" of the United States and its allies is moving the Korean peninsula towards "unstable confrontation."

President Joe Biden held a three-hour talk Monday with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, their first in-person encounter since Biden took office and an opportunity that both sides appeared to hope would lead to an improvement in rapidly deteriorating relations.

North Korea launched a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards the east on Friday, a South Korean defense ministry official told CNN.

A bird thought to be extinct for 140 years has been rediscovered in the forests of Papua New Guinea.

A Philippine archipelago known for tropical vacations will become the focus of political attention this week when Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the highest ranking US official to visit its main island.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was appointed prime minister on Thursday, the sultan's palace said, and will be sworn in at 5 p.m. local time.

Marion Barter won plaudits for her warmth as an elementary school teacher, but in 1997 the 51-year-old mother-of-two became restless, quit her job, sold her house, and flew from Australia's beach-lined Gold Coast to start a new life in Europe.