Afghan women pushing back against Taliban orders to cover up
Many women in the Afghan capital are delaying a return to fully covering their faces in public in defiance of orders from Islamist Taliban rulers, others are staying at home ...
WHO chief says China’s zero-Covid policy not ‘sustainable’
The head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday China’s zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy is not sustainable given what is now known of the virus, in rare public comments ...
Protests break out as Philippines election returns a Marcos to presidency
The Philippines woke to a new but familiar political landscape on Tuesday, after an election triumph by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. paved the way for a once-unimaginable return to the country’...
UN Security Council due to meet Wednesday on North Korea, say diplomats
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Wednesday at the request of the United States to discuss North Korea’s latest missile launches, diplomats said, as Washington pushes ...
Sri Lanka prime minister resigns, curfew imposed after clashes (Updated)
Sri Lanka’s prime minister resigned on Monday to make way for a unity government that would try to find a way out of the country’s worst economic crisis ...
Marcos, son of strongman, poised for Philippines election triumph
Ferdinand Marcos Jr was headed for a stunning victory in the Philippines’ presidential election on Monday with double the votes of his nearest rival, putting the son of the notorious ...
Philippines’ Marcos, Robredo set for rousing final rallies
Philippines presidential candidates geared up for final rallies on Saturday to galvanise support and win over undecided voters, two days from an election plagued by misinformation campaigns and the rekindling ...
Taliban announce women must cover faces in public
The Taliban on Saturday ruled Afghan women must cover their faces, according to a decree from the group’s supreme leader, an escalation of growing restrictions on women in public ...
N.Korea fires short-range ballistic missile – S. Korea military
North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Saturday, South Korean military said, three days before the inauguration of South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, who has vowed to take a hard ...
Sri Lanka president declares state of emergency after day of protests
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency on Friday following a day of anti-government strikes and protests over the country’s deep economic crisis that saw police ...
Victims angry as son of dictator closes in on Philippine presidency
Former political prisoner Christina Bawagan was arrested, tortured and sexually abused by soldiers during the brutal martial law of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. I still have the clothes I was ...
N.Korea fires ballistic missile off east coast ahead of S.Korea inauguration
North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the sea off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea and Japan said, about a week after Pyongyang vowed to develop its nuclear ...
India seizes $725 million of Xiaomi assets over illegal remittances
India said on Saturday it had seized $725 million from the local bank accounts of China’s Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) after a probe found the smartphone maker had made illegal remittances ...
Pakistan and India reel under intense heat wave
Pakistan issued a heat warning after the hottest March in 61 years while in parts of neighbouring India schools were shut and streets deserted as an intense heave wave on Friday ...
Mass walkout in Sri Lanka over economic crisis
Many schools in Colombo were shut and several train stations deserted on Thursday as teachers and train drivers joined mass walkouts demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government quit over Sri ...
How Africa is bearing the brunt of palm oil’s perfect storm
Djeneba Belem’s fried bean cake stall in Abidjan is a world away from the war raging in Ukraine. But her business is now at the mercy of an unexpected ...
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi handed five-year jail term for graft
A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases she ...
The struggle to save Iraq’s last Persian leopards
Tying a camera trap around a tree trunk on Bamo mountain in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, brothers Bahez and Nabaz Farooq Ali hope to capture footage of the Persian leopard, ...
N. Korea parades ICBMs, vows to boost nuclear arsenal
North Korea will speed up development of its nuclear arsenal, leader Kim Jong Un said while overseeing a huge military parade that displayed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and other weapons, ...
Beijing to test 20 million for Covidas lockdown jitters grow
Residents across Beijing joined growing lines of people waiting to be screened for COVID-19 on Tuesday after the Chinese capital overnight ramped up plans for mass-testing to 20 million people and ...
All 10 people found from missing Japan boat confirmed dead
All 10 people found so far from a Japanese tour boat missing off the country’s northern coast have been confirmed dead, the coast guard said on Sunday.
The boat went ...
Shanghai fences up Covid-hit buildings, fuelling fresh outcry
Shanghai authorities battling an outbreak of COVID-19 have erected mesh barriers outside some residential buildings, sparking fresh public outcry over a lockdown that has forced much of the city’s 25 ...
N.Korea boasts of ‘invincible power’ world cannot ignore ahead of holiday
North Korean state media on Sunday trumpeted how the country has gained an “invincible power that the world cannot ignore and no one can touch” under Kim Jong Un, an ...
Indonesia’s palm oil export ban will hurt other countries
Indonesia’s new palm oil export ban will hurt other countries but is necessary to try to bring down the soaring domestic price of cooking oil driven up by Russia’...