The government will further relax entry rules for foreign visitors starting next month, bowing to demand from the local tourism industry to lower costs as more countries ease border controls to lure holidaymakers.

Taiwan on Wednesday denounced Russia's deployment of "peacekeeping" troops in two separatist-held regions in eastern Ukraine, amid fears Beijing might copy Moscow's playbook and attempt to take the self-ruled island by force.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the country's interests were non-negotiable, as Moscow massed more than 150,000 troops on the borders with Ukraine and the West punished Russia with new sanctions.

Ferdinand Marcos Junior's quest for the Philippine presidency has Loretta Rosales recoiling in horror remembering the nightmare she went through standing up to his late father's brutal rule.

A fact-finding inquiry has been launched into the conduct of a school deputy director in Chaiyaphum province after copies of his alleged chats with a girl student were posted on social media.

PARIS: The number of major wildfires worldwide will rise sharply in coming decades due to global warming, and governments are ill-prepared for the death and destruction such mega-blazes trail in their wake, the UN warned Wednesday.

There were 39 more Covid-19 fatalities and 21,232 confirmed new cases during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry reported on Wednesday morning.

Core inflation in Singapore accelerated for a seventh month to the fastest in almost a decade amid expectations that its central bank will act again in April to tighten policy.

Thailand cannot contemplate any interest hikes until its economy is fully recovered, and fiscal and monetary policy will continue to support businesses and an economic recovery, Finance Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Wednesday.

A diplomat at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, China, was detained temporarily by Chinese authorities on Monday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.