COLOMBO -- Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday night declared a state of emergency amid public protests over the current economic crisis in the South Asian country.

A special gazette issued by the president said that emergency law was declared in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community. (Sri Lanka-Emergency State)

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SEOUL -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired one short-range ballistic missile, presumed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile, off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Saturday.

The JCS said in a statement that it detected the missile, which was launched in waters off the DPRK's eastern coastal city of Sinpo, where its main submarine shipyard is believed to be placed, at about 2:07 p.m. local time (0507 GMT) on Saturday. (South Korea-DPRK-Projectile Launch)

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DHAKA -- A head-on collision between two passenger buses in Bangladesh's Natore district, some 200 km northwest of capital Dhaka, on Saturday left at least 7 people dead and 20 injured, a senior police official said.

Mashiur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Natore's Bonpara Highway Police Station Station, told journalists that "at least 7 people were killed in the head-on collision." (Bangladesh-Road Accident)

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SUVA -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi started his official visit to Fiji on Saturday, aiming to further strengthen the two countries' bilateral and regional cooperation.

According to a statement by the Fijian government on Saturday night, during the meeting between Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who is also Fiji's Foreign Minister, and the visiting Japanese foreign minister, Bainimarama commended Japan for its continuous support to Fiji's national development priorities and scope of partnership, which over the years has extended to important areas including climate change, disaster risk management, and COVID-19 response efforts. (Fiji-Japan-FM)