China on Wednesday accused Britain of having a "colonial mentality," after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised Hong Kong residents a path to citizenship if China enacted planned national security laws.

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said any negotiations with the United States would be "futile" as he delivered his first major speech to the conservative-dominated chamber on Sunday. Ghalibaf, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards' air force, was elected speaker on Thursday after February elections that swung the balance in the legislature towards ultra-conservatives.

South Korea re-imposed a series of coronavirus social distancing measures on Thursday, as a series of clusters threatened to challenge its success in containing the epidemic.

Tensions between China and India over their Himalayan border have escalated, with China accused of moving thousands of troops into disputed territory and expanding a military airbase in the disputed region along the eastern Ladakh border, news wires reported.

A new legislative period started in Iran on Wednesday, with a three-party coalition of conservatives, arch-conservatives and hardliners to dominate this session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, news wires reported. Reformers and moderate conservatives close to President Hassan Rowhani are minority after their bad results in February's election.

South Korea on Wednesday announced a spike in new infections and considered reimposing social distancing restrictions,  news wires reported. The Asian country was widely praised for its strategy of tracing, testing and treating the coronavirus pandemic. But it reported  on Wednesday 40 newly confirmed cases, the biggest daily jump in nearly 50 days while millions of children returned to school.

Hong Kong police fired pepper balls and made arrests in the city's central business district as protests sprung up in multiple districts in response to the likely passing of a bill that criminalises "insulting" China’s national anthem. Swarms of riot police were on high alert across the territory ahead of the second reading of the controversial bill, expected to take place Wednesday afternoon. 

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas on Monday, ending the restrictions nationwide, news wires reported.

Police fired tear gas and water cannon at thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters who gathered Sunday against a controversial security law proposed by China, in the most intense clashes for months. As the demonstrators and police were facing off in the semi-autonomous financial hub, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted in Beijing that the proposed law must be imposed "without the slightest delay".

The flight data recorder from the Pakistani airliner that crashed into a residential neighbourhood of Karachi has been found, an official said on Saturday, as the death toll rose to 97. As per the latest data, there were only two survivors from onboard the aircraft, while no fatalities were reported in the densely populated area of the city where the aircraft crash-landed on Friday.