ASEAN

YANGON — Pope Francis begins his first full day in Myanmar traveling to the country's capital Tuesday to meet with the civilian leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a day after hosting the military general in charge of the crackdown on the country's Muslim Rohingya minority.

SHAH ALAM, Malaysia — A Malaysian doctor has testified in the trial of two women accused of murdering the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader that the victim's pupils contracted and his underwear was soiled with feces, both signs of poisoning.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis' aim in visiting Myanmar and Bangladesh is to encourage their tiny Catholic communities and bring a message of friendship and peace to some of Asia's most peripheral and poor. The big question looming is whether he'll utter the word "Rohingya" while he's there.

KARANGASEM, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities raised the alert for a rumbling volcano on Bali to the highest level on Monday, stranding tens of thousands of travelers as ash clouds forced the closure of the tourist island's international airport.

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Pope Francis on Monday begins a six-day trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh. While attention will focus on how Francis addresses the Rohingya Muslim crisis, the trip also holds huge significance for the tiny Catholic communities in each country.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis heads to Myanmar and Bangladesh with the international community excoriating Myanmar's crackdown on Rohingya Muslims as "ethnic cleansing" but his own church resisting the label and defending Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi as the only hope for democracy.

BANGKOK — Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on Thursday covering the return of Rohingya Muslims who fled across their mutual border to escape violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

UNITED NATIONS — Widespread atrocities against Rohingya Muslim women and girls have been orchestrated and perpetrated by Myanmar's military and may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the U.N. envoy on sexual violence in conflict said Wednesday.

BANGKOK — The world's least developed countries need access to electricity if they are to break out of poverty, according to a U.N. report that urges wealthy nations to do more to honor their aid commitments to help bridge the energy gap.

WASHINGTON — The United States declared the ongoing violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar to be "ethnic cleansing" on Wednesday, threatening penalties for military officials engaged in a brutal crackdown that has sent more than 600,000 refugees flooding over the border to Bangladesh.