At least 22 people, including three monks, have been killed at a monastery in Myanmar's southern Shan state, with local rebel groups and the military-backed junta accusing each other of carrying out the massacre.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries launched their biggest joint exercises in years Monday while North Korea said it tested submarine-fired cruise missiles in an apparent protest of the drills it views as an invasion rehearsal.

At the Saturday morning session of the National People's Congress, China's ceremonial parliament, Li Qiang, was appointed prime minister of China, Li was nominated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and appointed to this post a day after Jinping received a third five-year term as head of state, making him rule for life.

On Friday 10 March, Xi Jinping is unanimously elected as president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the PRC at the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, to lead the country of 1.4 billion people onto a new journey toward modernization.