China says it has sent warplanes into its newly declared maritime air defence zone in the East China Sea, days after the US, South Korea and Japan all sent flights through the airspace in defiance of Beijing's rules.
ELSEWHERE:
MOSCOW - A Russian court has granted bail to Australian Colin Russell, the last of 30 Greenpeace crew members detained since their September protest against Arctic oil drilling.
HONG KONG - Eighty people have been injured after a high-speed ferry travelling from Hong Kong to Macau hit an "unidentified object" in the water.
TEHRAN - At least seven people have died after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck the Gulf coast near Iran's sole nuclear power plant.
BANGKOK - Thai opposition protesters have rejected government talks to defuse their rallies after the prime minister called for an end to the demonstrations as she survived a no-confidence vote in parliament.
MOMBASA - Kenya has launched construction of a Chinese-funded $A15 billion flagship railway project to run from the busy port city of Mombasa inland to the highland capital Nairobi, and hopes to eventually extend it onwards to Uganda and then connect with proposed lines to Rwanda and South Sudan.
RIYADH - The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia says the issue of giving women the right to drive should not be "one of society's major concerns" and that the country's ban, the only one of its kind in the world, protects society from "evil".
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