The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the central Philippine island of Bohol has topped 100 with only three people pulled alive from rubble.

An explosion struck one of the most prestigious hotels in Myanmar's main city just before midnight on Monday, ripping apart a guest room and wounding one American the latest in a series of unexplained blasts to hit the Southeast Asian country.

Sequestered in the battlements of Castle Mandawa, Paul Rush dreams of his best exotic marigold hotel.

Cyclone Phailin, the strongest storm to hit India in more than a decade, destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of crops.