Asia

Japan’s top diplomat says his country has temporarily moved its embassy from Afghanistan to Turkey but now plans to relocate it to Qatar, where the Taliban have an office Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi earlier this month had visited the Middle East. “I believe various forms of communication will take …

Chinese authorities have instructed an American Chamber of Commerce in the southwestern city of Chengdu to cease operations, officials with the organization said on Tuesday. The chamber notified members on Monday that, in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, it had to stop operations and “no longer carry out any …

Pakistan’s counter-terrorism units raided a hideout of the ISIS group in the restive southwestern Baluchistan province before dawn on Tuesday, setting off a shootout that killed 11 militants, the police said. The units, acting on intelligence, carried out the raid in the district of Mastung, where ISIS militants had recently …

Afghanistan will form a government within days, Pakistan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, after weeks of uncertainty following the Taliban’s conquest of the country. “We expect that a consensus government will be formed in the coming days in Afghanistan,” Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference in Islamabad. Foreign Minister …

China is banning children from playing online games for more than three hours a week, the harshest restriction so far on the game industry. Minors in China can only play games between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends, and on public holidays starting September 1, according to a …

At least seven children were killed in a Kabul drone strike, the UNICEF representative in Afghanistan told reporters. The Pentagon had said the strike eliminated an “imminent threat” by ISIS-K terrorists to the ongoing airlift. “We have confirmation from open sources that seven children were killed” in the incident, Herve …

Floodwaters rose Monday across northeastern India, where hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on the roofs of their homes or have fled to higher ground as more torrential rain fell. Incessant downpours for more than a week forced the Brahmaputra and other major rivers to burst their banks across …

North Korea appears to have restarted operations at a power plant capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, according to the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that clues, such as the discharge of cooling water, observed in early July indicated the plant is active. No …

Japanese officials have suspended the use of millions of doses of the Moderna Covid vaccine after foreign substances were found in a number of batches and two people died after receiving jabs from the affected lots. The Japanese government discovered the contamination over the weekend in a batch of the …

Russia on Monday called on the United States to release Afghan central bank reserves that Washington blocked after the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul earlier this month. “If our Western colleagues are actually worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by …

Malaysia’s new prime minister missed the inauguration of his own cabinet Monday after coming into contact with someone infected with the coronavirus and being forced to self-isolate, his office said. Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s ministers headed to the national palace for a swearing-in ceremony before the king, two weeks after the …

The group of countries that have banded together to fight ISIS, including the US, released a statement pledging to work to eliminate the group and taking special aim at its affiliate in Afghanistan that took responsibility for Monday’s rocket attack on Kabul’s airport. “We will draw on all elements of …

U.S. anti-missile defences intercepted rockets fired at Kabul’s airport early on Monday, as the United States flew its core diplomats out of Afghanistan in the final hours of its chaotic withdrawal. The last U.S. troops are due to pull out of Kabul by Tuesday, after they and their allies mounted …

The Taliban will allow all foreign nationals and Afghan citizens with travel authorization from another country to leave Afghanistan, according to a joint statement issued by Britain, the US, and other countries. “We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization …

With 80 percent of its people fully inoculated against COVID-19, Singapore is now the world’s most vaccinated country, according to Reuters. Singapore has fully inoculated 80 percent of its 5.7 million people against COVID-19, according to officials, becoming the world’s most vaccinated country and setting the stage for further easing …

Afghan women will be allowed to study at university but there would be a ban on mixed classes under their rule, the Taliban’s acting higher education minister said on Sunday. The hardline Islamist group that stormed to power in mid-August after ousting the Western-back government has vowed to rule differently …

Chinese State councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Afghanistan and US-China relations in a phone call on Sunday, Chinese state media said, amid tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Wang said it is necessary for all sides to engage with the …

Japan is looking into the possibility of mixing shots of AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine with those developed by other drugmakers in a bid to speed up its vaccine rollout, the minister in charge of vaccinations said on Sunday. Japan, which has previously relied on the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE and Moderna …

Militant fire from across the border in Afghanistan killed two Pakistani soldiers on Sunday, the army said. The army said it retaliated and killed two or three attackers. The incident in Pakistan’s Bajaur district is the first of its kind reported since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

China has blasted a “mendacious” report by the US intelligence community that concluded a months-long investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, warning Washington against politicization of the issue. The strong condemnation by China’s Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu on Saturday came a day after the US intelligence report on …