KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's king has called on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to reconvene the country's suspended parliament immediately, despite the latter's statement just a day earlier that the legislature could resume in September.

King Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin, who chaired a special conference of Malay state rulers on Wednesday, made it clear he wants parliament to fulfill its purpose. Separately, the rulers also came out against extending the country's COVID-19 state of emergency, due to expire Aug. 1

SEOUL -- The new U.S. envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, is expected to arrive in Seoul on Saturday ahead of a three-way meeting that includes Japan, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

Noh Kyu-duk, the South Korean Foreign Ministry's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will participate in the talks. Tokyo will send Takehiro Funakoshi, the director-general of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.

The three sides are

TOKYO -- Japan and Singapore will work together to promote investment in decarbonization efforts, from the installation of renewable capacity to more transitional steps like replacing coal with natural gas.

Hiroshi Kajiyama, the Japanese industry minister, and his Singaporean counterpart, Gan Kim Yong, agreed at a recent meeting to set up a dialogue for energy transition, to deepen their ministries' cooperation on securing financing for decarbonization projects.

Drastic changes, like a sudden transition away from fossil fuels, could derail Asia's emerging economies. Japan and Singapore

NEW DELHI -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday invited the world to invest in India, saying the South Asian nation offers what innovators and investors need.

"India's strides in the world of tech and start-up are well-known," Modi said, delivering a virtual keynote address at the 5th edition of VivaTech -- one of Europe's largest digital and start-up events, held annually in Paris.

The prime minister's appeal comes as India turns a corner from a surge

TOKYO -- Japanese trading conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp. will develop a massive onshore wind farm in Laos that will supply electricity to Vietnam.

The facility will have power generation capacity of 600 megawatts, making it one of the largest onshore wind farms in Southeast Asia. The price tag is expected to run in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

A Mitsubishi subsidiary will take a 20% stake in a joint venture to be formed with two Thai renewable-energy developers. Construction by the new company is slated to start

YANGON/BANGKOK -- Myanmar's military on Feb. 1 detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in the country's first coup since 1988, bringing an end to a decade of civilian rule.

The Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy had won a landslide in a general election in November . But the military has claimed the election was marred by fraud.

For all our coverage, visit our Myanmar Coup page.

Read our in-depth coverage:

-- Myanmar

JIAXING, China -- Chinese President Xi Jinping turned 68 this week, the customary retirement age for the Communist Party's top leaders, fueling speculation as to whether he will buck tradition to remain leader at the Communist Party's National Congress in 2022.

Members of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee generally retire if they are 68 or older at the twice-a-decade party congress. Xi, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, Li Zhanshu, National People's Congress Standing Committee chair

TOKYO -- SoftBank Group's borrowing from foreign financial institutions surged last fiscal year, as the Japanese technology conglomerate's pivot to investing spurred a shift to stock-backed loans that overseas players are better equipped to handle.

JPMorgan Chase jumped to second place from sixth a year earlier, with outstanding loans more than tripling to 829.3 billion yen ($7.53 billion) as of the end of March, according to information in the notice of SoftBank's annual shareholders meeting next week

TOKYO -- The J-20, China's most advanced stealth fighter, was among the warplanes that took part in a dry run Sunday as the Chinese Communist Party prepared to celebrate its 100th anniversary on July 1.

The same day as the rehearsal, leaders of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries wrapped up their three-day summit in Cornwall, England, releasing a joint declaration highly critical of China.

The declaration ticks all the boxes regarding China's troubling actions. It calls on