Sri Lanka's police and military troops forcibly removed anti-government protesters camped outside the presidential office in Colombo in a pre-dawn raid on Friday on the order of the country's new President.

• Video: Ups and downs of Shinzo Abe

Protesters celebrated in Sri Lanka's commercial capital late into the night Thursday after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tendered his resignation following a week of escalating demonstrations over the country's crippling economic crisis.

More than 50 US and Japanese warplanes flew over waters near Japan this week as the two allies put on a show of force amid rising tensions in the region with China and Russia.

• Sri Lanka's crisis rages on. Here's what we know

• What's next for Sri Lanka? • Video: See protesters enjoy luxuries in presidential palace

When Akie Matsuzaki married Shinzo Abe, then a rising political aide, in 1987, she followed a path well trodden by Japanese wives and gave up her job at the country's largest advertising agency.

Japan's ruling coalition swept to victory on Sunday in an upper house election that took on heightened significance following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

An aquarium employee waves a mackerel near a penguin -- but there's no reaction. When she moves the fish closer to its beak, the penguin turns away haughtily. An otter sniffs the fish, then runs away.

Choi Jung-hun smiled as I read out the latest official Covid-19 figures from North Korean state media: fewer than 5 million cases of "fever" and just 73 fatalities -- a fraction of the death toll of every other country in the world.

As employees return to the office in South Korea, so does gapjil -- the country's longstanding problem of toxic workplace culture.

North Korea has criticized an agreement between the United States, South Korea and Japan to strengthen military cooperation -- claiming it is part of a US plan to create a military alliance like NATO in the region.