VIETNAM-US-TESTING TIES — Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong doesn't hold an official government post, but it's not surprising that he'll meet with President Barack Obama on his first visit to the United States this week — he is the de-facto top leader of his country. Twenty years after normalizing ties in the wake of the Vietnam War, U.S. officials are eager to take relations with Vietnam — currently friendly but hardly intimate — to a new level. 

MALAYSIA-NAJIB — Malaysia's leader is facing the risk of a criminal charge over allegations that millions of dollars were funneled from an indebted state fund to his personal bank accounts. The attorney general confirmed late Saturday he has received documents from an official investigation that made the link between Prime Minister Najib Razak and the investment fund 1MDB. 

CHINA-SOUTH KOREA-BUS PLUNGE — Korean institute chief falls to death after deadly bus trip. 

CHINA-FACTORY COLLAPSE — Shoe factory collapses in eastern China, killing 9 people.