US President Donald Trump spoke on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and claimed progress on issues from trade to North Korea and Hong Kong, but China said Xi accused the United States of interfering in its internal affairs. The two leaders spoke a week after their envoys sealed a “Phase 1” agreement aimed at ending an 18-month trade war that has rattled markets and raised tensions.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has criticised India’s new citizenship law, which is seen as discriminatory against Muslims and has sparked deadly protests across the South Asian country.

Donald Trump kicked off Christmas vacation on Friday after a series of legislative victories gave him one of his best weeks in office -- apart from becoming only the third US president ever impeached.

China yesterday urged the UN Security Council to unanimously back its joint proposal with Russia to ease sanctions on North Korea, warning that dialogue to resolve nuclear tensions must not regress.

Malaysia will this week host a summit of Muslim leaders billed as a forum to look at the Islamic world’s problems, but it will be closely watched for Middle East power plays and their stance on China’s Uighur minority.

China’s second aircraft carrier entered service yesterday, adding major firepower to its military ambitions as it faces tensions with self-ruled Taiwan as well as the US and regional neighbours around the disputed South China Sea.

India’s new citizenship law has stoked fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remould the world’s largest democracy as a Hindu nation, undermining the secular and pluralist roots of the world’s biggest democracy.

Bangladesh has been ranked the top country among its South Asian neighbours by performing the best in bringing down gender gap, World Economic Forum says in its latest report.

Fourteen miners were killed in a coal and gas blast at a mine in southwest China, leaving two people still trapped underground, authorities say.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan terms the prevailing situation over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 as “volatile” and it has been created by BJP-RSS combine.

Sporadic violence breaks out in Nadia, North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts of India’s West Bengal state where protest grew against the amended Citizenship Act, police say.

After supporting BJP over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a key party ally in Assam has now decided to oppose it. The AGP announced its decision on Saturday after a meeting of the senior party leaders. The party will approach the Supreme Court against the CAA according to media reports.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad suggests he may seek to stay in power after 2020.

The Nanavati Commission has given a clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi-led government in the 2002 riots in the state where over 1,000 people, mostly of the minority community, were killed.

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court indicted Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, on terror financing charges yesterday, a government prosecutor and defence lawyer said. Defence lawyer Imran Gill said his client pleaded not guilty.

Indian parliament gives its seal of approval to the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which gives nationality to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan after it was cleared by the Rajya Sabha with 125 voting for it and 105 against.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Bangladesh government sign agreements for $33.26 million in loan for a project to design the Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line 5 (Southern route) that will help ease the traffic and pollution burden in Dhaka city.

The government will bring Bangladeshi migrant workers under two compulsory insurance schemes of Tk 2 lakh and Tk 5 lakh in a bid to provide financial security to them and their family members.

At least 43 people, mostly labourers, died in their sleep when a fire raged through a handbag-manufacturing factory in a congested locality of Delhi in India this morning, police say. =

The Imperial Japanese Army asked the government to provide one “comfort woman” for every 70 soldiers, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said, citing wartime government documents it had reviewed, shedding fresh light on Tokyo’s involvement in the practice.