India's military has increased operational readiness along the eastern Indian border with China, sources said, as neither side shows any sign of backing off from a face-off in a remote Himalayan region near their disputed frontier.

China's President Xi Jinping said there needs to be a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue, and in a telephone call with U.S. President Donald Trump he urged all sides to avoid words or action that raise tensions.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has cancelled a planned visit to Botswana because of exhaustion, his office said, a move that is likely to be welcomed by China, a major investor in the African country.

Storms swept across Beijing and southeastern China on Saturday, disrupting thousands of flights and flooding towns, while authorities warned that rain and wind could cause landslides in the area where a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck this week.

The Indian government dismissed the controversial chief of its movie censorship panel on Friday, following months of criticism from Bollywood film-makers and fellow panelists angered by attempts to sanitise art and popular culture.

A statue of the Beatles in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar could be at risk amid an alleged land grab, protesters say, as rapid development turns a city once famed for wide open spaces into a cluttered metropolis.