South Korean president Lee Myung-bak made a surprise visit today to islets at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute with Japan, ignoring warnings from Tokyo that it would worsen the neighbours’ already strained relations.

Major donors pledged yesterday to give Afghanistan $16bn (€13.02bn) in development aid through 2015 as they try to prevent it from sliding back into chaos when foreign troops leave, but demanded reforms to fight widespread corruption.

The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia agreed today to strengthen economic and security co-operation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute that has kept the two nations from concluding a peace treaty.

Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has met Thailand’s prime minister in her first ever audience with a head of government from the region, her political party said.

North Korean state television has showed Kim Jong Il laid out in an open coffin today.