Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.
Leaders of India's major opposition parties meet, Bengaluru, India, July 18 2023. /Reuters
Twenty-six opposition parties in India have formed a grand alliance to fight the ruling BJP. The alliance has adopted the acronym INDIA, which stands for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
In the first indication of a common political and economic policy, the alliance said it would focus on fighting rising prices and unemployment. The name was decided at the end of a two-day meeting of the 26 parties in Bengaluru city. National elections are due by May 2024.
Protesters clash with security forces as they gather near the Swedish embassy in Baghdad hours after the embassy was stormed, Baghdad, Iraq, July 20, 2023. /CFP
Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in central Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning, scaling its walls and setting it on fire in protest against the expected burning of a Quran in Sweden.
All Baghdad embassy staff were safe, the Swedish Foreign Ministry's press office said in a statement, condemning the attack and highlighting the need for Iraqi authorities to protect diplomatic missions.
A police helicopter participates in the search for a missing seaman who was washed away by flood waters, Yecheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, July 19, 2023. /CFP
More than 40 people have lost their lives and nine remain missing in flooding and landslides after less than a week of heavy rain in South Korea, mostly in the country's central region.
The toll includes 14 who died when floodwater trapped them in an underpass in the city of Cheongju. The latest deaths have cast doubt on South Korea's work to prepare for extreme weather driven by climate change, as floods have claimed dozens of lives during recent rainy seasons.
Pita Limjaroenrat, left, the leader of Move Forward Party, at a meeting in parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
Thailand's Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat's bid to form a coalition government following elections in May is in jeopardy. On Wednesday, the country's Constitutional Court suspended him as lawmaker over an allegation he violated election rules by holding shares in a media firm.
Reuters reported, "The suspension does not bar Pita from running for premier but it was not immediately clear whether his eight-party alliance would seek to re-nominate him, by filing a different motion."
Singapore Airlines planes at Changi Airport in Singapore, November 16, 2022. /Reuters.
Five million passengers passed through Singapore's Changi Airport in June, the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020 that monthly passenger traffic crossed the five million mark. There were 27,500 flights, 88 percent of the total that took off or landed at the airport in June 2019, according to figures released by Changi Airport Group on Thursday.
Lim Ching Kiat, Changi Airport Group's executive vice-president, said: "We are pleased to have crossed the five million mark again in June with the mid-year holiday season. Changi has regained more than 80 per cent of its pre-Covid-19 city links, and we look forward to strengthening connectivity to more points in South-east Asia and China in the second half of the year."
(Cover: Leaders of India's opposition parties at talks in the southern city of Bengaluru, Bengaluru, India, July 18, 2023. /Reuters)