Asia

British police arrested Pakistani politician Altaf Hussain in London on Tuesday as part of an investigation into speeches he gave as a founder of a political party that ruled the megacity of Karachi for decades, media in Pakistan reported. London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement a man in his …

Hundreds of thousands of people have marched in Hong Kong against a law critics fear could let China target political opponents in the territory. The controversial extradition bill would allow suspected criminals to be sent to mainland China for trial. The government says the bill has built-in protections and will …

A gun battle between supporters of India’s ruling right-wing party and a regional rival party has left four people dead and more than a dozen others injured in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Police and security forces said Sunday the clashes broke out in the eastern state, which …

Millions of Chinese high schoolers will set the country’s grueling two-day college entrance examination, known as the gaokao, this week. According to state news agency Xinhua, some 10 million students will take the test in 2019, competing to get into the country’s top universities amidst incredible pressure from their parents …

A Vietnamese environmental activist and blogger have been sentenced to six years in prison under the country’s new law that cracks down on online dissent. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, a 39-year old shrimp farmer from the southern town of Binh Dai, was arrested and tried for what state media described as …

US President Donald Trump threatened to hit China with tariffs on “at least” another $300 billion worth of Chinese goods but said he thought both China and Mexico wanted to make deals in their trade disputes with the United States. Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have risen sharply …

China has conducted a pioneering launch of a space rocket from a cargo ship, becoming “the first nation” to fully own and operate a floating launch platform. A Long March 11 carrier rocket lifted off from the pad installed on a civilian ship in the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, the …

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marked the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on Tuesday by expressing “real concerns” about China’s human rights record, prompting a swift protest from Beijing. Diplomatic relations between the two countries have deteriorated badly since December when police in Vancouver detained Huawei Technologies Co …

Nearly 20,000 women have signed an online petition demanding the government ban companies from requiring female employees to wear high heels on the job – an example of gender discrimination, says Yumi Ishikawa, who started the drive. The #KuToo campaign is a play on the word for shoes, or “kutsu” …

Police said they had found the body of a twelfth South Korean tourist a week after a pleasure boat capsized and sank on the River Danube in Budapest, killing an estimated 28 people. The man was found late on Tuesday 60km (37 miles) downstream from Hungary’s capital, police said, underlining …

At least five people have been killed in a bomb attack that targeted a bus carrying Afghan government employees in the capital, Kabul. Afghan media cited official sources as saying that the blast was caused on Monday by a magnetic bomb attached under the bus, which had members of Afghanistan’s …

Two people, including an 11-year-old girl, were killed and 17 other children hurt in a stabbing spree in Japan on Tuesday — a rare act of public violence in a country considered one of the safest in the world. The attack took place near a park in the city of …

Since the dawn of time, mankind has always been afraid of evil and evil spirits. In all parts of the world, it is possible to come across rituals for keeping evil spirits away. The evil eye is believed to cause harm to someone or something. Supernatural harm may come in …

Three more climbers have died on Mount Everest, taking the death toll to seven in a week – more than the total for the whole of last year. The three died of exhaustion while descending on Thursday. It comes amid traffic jams near the summit as record numbers make the …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks on Friday to form a new cabinet to tackle a stuttering economy and other challenges facing his second term after winning a big majority. Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party had won 296 of the 542 seats up …

Two of the world’s largest video surveillance products manufacturers, China’s Hikvision and Dahua, are likely to follow Huawei onto the US blacklist, according to reports. The sanction may be announced, “in the coming weeks.” Washington is considering denying more Chinese companies a share of the US market. Limiting access to …

Pyongyang has unleashed an avalanche of insults directed at Joe Biden after the Democratic presidential hopeful referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a dictator. Biden was declared a “fool of low IQ” and an “imbecile” lacking human qualities by Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday. …

Jakarta has descended into violent chaos with angry mobs torching cars and firing missiles and Molotov cocktails at police in post-election skirmishes. So far, six people have been confirmed dead and a further 200 injured. A reportedly 50,000-strong security force used tear gas and water cannon to quell torrents of …

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to send 69 containers of garbage back to Canada and leave them within its territorial waters if it refuses to accept the trash, his spokesman said on Wednesday. “The Philippines as an independent sovereign nation must …

Afghan legislators brawled over the appointment of a new speaker as the assembly sat for the first time since elections were held in October. One man even brandished a large knife as security chased him through the chamber. Video footage from the assembly shows chaos as lawmakers fought about the …