Việt Nam News

At least 12 people were killed when a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China, government sources said Wednesday, but the toll was expected to climb as news trickles out of the remote mountainous region.

The Mormon church excommunicated one of its senior leaders Tuesday, without providing a reason for the rare dismissal.

The number of white Americans under 55 dying from colorectal cancer has been increasing since the mid-2000s after decades of downward movement, new research published Tuesday showed, though rates among other races remained static or declined.

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled southwest China late Tuesday, killing at least seven people, with up to 100 feared dead, according to a government estimate.

A grand ceremony took place at the Philippine International Convention Centre in Manila yesterday to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

At least 31 fishermen have been killed by Boko Haram jihadists in two separate attacks on islands in Lake Chad in northeastern Nigeria, fishermen and vigilantes fighting the Islamists said late Monday.

The US-led coalition campaign to destroy the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria enters its fourth year this week, and the Pentagon believes the jihadists' defeat is inevitable.

Japan faces an increasing threat from North Korea's development of longer-range ballistic missiles and feels more concern about China's expanding military activities at sea and in the air, according to its annual defense report released on Tuesday.

Spain will call for a eurozone budget and finance minister to oversee it at an August 28 summit with France, Germany and Italy, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Monday.

Average US temperatures have risen dramatically and fast, with recent decades the warmest of the past 1,500 years, according to a draft federal government report cited by The New York Times on Tuesday.

Spain will not make its recovery of Gibraltar a condition in the Brexit taks, its foreign minister said in an interview on Sunday that could ease tensions over the disputed British territory.

Top diplomats of the two Koreas met on the sidelines of a regional forum in Manila, the South's Yonhap news agency reports today, citing an official from Seoul's foreign ministry.

Other countries should put themselves in Filipino shoes while considering the nation’s foreign policy twists and turns, says Alan Cayetano, Foreign Secretary of the Philippines. 

Syed Hamid Albar* 
Former Foreign Minister, Malaysia

By Ong Keng Yong *
Executive Deputy Chairman, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Retno L. P. Marsudi* 
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Indonesia

Roberto F. de Ocampo* 
Former Finance Secretary, Philippines

In the context of growing rivalries between major world powers, ASEAN needs to demonstrate strong political will and unity to promote peace, security and prosperity, foreign policy experts said on Friday.