Asia

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said hundreds of fighters loyal to ISIS were massing in northern Afghanistan with plans to move between ex-Soviet Central Asian countries disguised as refugees. “According to our intelligence, the number of (ISIS) members alone in northern Afghanistan is about 2,000 people,” the Russian leader …

Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters in Bangladesh’s two main cities on Friday, on the third day of religious disturbances in the Muslim-majority nation, authorities said. The protests began on Wednesday after footage emerged of a Quran being placed on the knee of a god …

A deal for the United Nations to start work on a remote Bangladeshi island where the government has sent thousands of Rohingya refugees offers no guarantee they will be allowed to move freely to the mainland, according to a copy of the agreement. The Bangladesh government has moved nearly 19,000 …

South Korean police have arrested four people for allegedly installing hidden cameras in the rooms of an entire motel and attempting to extort money from the hundreds of guests who were filmed. The suspects filmed for months and tried to blackmail some guests with threats to release their videos but …

A large explosion has hit a Shia Muslim mosque in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, martyring at least 33 people and wounding scores of others. According to Press TV, Qari Saeed Khosti, the spokesman of the Taliban’s new government’s interior ministry said, said the blast which took place during Friday …

Russia and China have commenced four-day joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan with the participation of several warships and at least a dozen military aircraft, the Russian military says. In a statement on Thursday, Russia’s Pacific Fleet said that “The Joint Sea 2021 Russian-Chinese naval drills are running …

Japan dissolved its parliament on Thursday, setting the stage for an election at the end of the month that will pit new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida against unpopular opposition in a battle over who can better fix the pandemic-battered economy. Kishida enjoys reasonable public support 11 days into the job, …

At least 46 people have lost their lives and dozens more have been injured in a fire that broke out in a residential building in southern Chinese Taipei, officials say. The fire occurred in the 4-decade-old Cheng Chung Cheng building in the Yancheng district of the southern city of Kaohsiung …

A Taliban delegation led by Afghanistan’s foreign minister will hold talks in Turkey on Thursday with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said. NATO member Turkey maintained its embassy in Afghanistan after Western countries withdrew following the Taliban takeover, and has urged those countries to step …

A fire in a residential building in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung has killed 46 people and injured another 41, the government said on Thursday. The fire broke out in the 40-year-old building in Kaohsiung’s Yancheng district in the early hours of the morning and was extinguished around dawn. …

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have warned Western diplomats that insisting on sanctions as a means to pressure their governance could undermine security and trigger a wave of economic refugees. The acting foreign minister of the Taliban government, Amir Khan Muttaqi, told the US and European envoys during recent talks in Qatar …

China says recent military drills near Chinese Taipei were a “just” move aimed at protecting the country’s sovereignty and integrity against Taipei’s “collusion” with foreign forces. China carried out beach landing and assault drills in the province directly across the sea from Chinese Taipei on Monday, one week after former …

Japan’s ruling conservative party has presented its campaign on a platform of increasing the country’s defense spending to counter alleged threats from China and North Korea. Announcing the pledge on Tuesday, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) also promised to “seek responsible actions” over alleged human rights issues related to Uyghurs, Tibet, ethnic …

The Kremlin has rejected a recent claim made by new Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that Japan’s sovereignty extends to a chain of islands disputed with Moscow. “We disagree with such statements. This is the territory of the Russian Federation,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a press briefing on …

Qatar’s diplomatic point man on Afghanistan said Tuesday countries should engage the country’s new Taliban rulers, warning that isolation could lead to a wide-reaching security threat, as happened when al-Qaeda used the country as a base to plot the 9/11 attacks. Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani, Qatar’s special envoy for counterterrorism …

China and India blamed each other for a lack of progress in finding ways to ease friction along their disputed border, underscoring the lingering ill will following clashes last year. The Chinese side “made great efforts to calm tensions during a meeting of military officials on Sunday, Colonel Long Shaohua, …

Abdul Qadeer Khan, revered as the “father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb”, has died at 85, authorities said Sunday, having been hospitalized with COVID-19. The atomic scientist was hailed as a national hero for transforming his country into the world’s first Islamic nuclear power, but regarded by the West as a …

An L-410 plane crashed near a city in the Tatarstan region on Sunday, killing 16 people and injuring seven, the RIA news agency cited the emergency services as saying. The plane had been carrying a group of parachute jumpers onboard, the Emergencies Ministry said, according to the TASS news agency. …

Government forces have detained at least 500 people in a sweeping crackdown in Indian-controlled Kashmir, local officials said on Sunday, following a string of suspected militant attacks and targeted killings in the disputed region. Assailants fatally shot three Hindus and a Sikh person in the region’s main city of Srinagar …

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pledge to defend the island’s sovereignty and democracy in a major speech on Sunday, saying it faces challenges more complex and severe than ever, at a time when tensions with China have risen. Democratic Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has come under …