Asia

South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military drills on Monday, the South’s military said on Sunday, amid North Korea’s warnings of a diplomatic and security crisis. South Korea and the United States regularly stage military exercises, mainly in the spring and summer, but North Korea …

Torrential rain lashed much of Japan on Sunday, flooding roads and buildings in the western part of the country, while three people were feared dead after a landslide in central Nagano prefecture. Large parts of Japan, particularly the southernmost main island of Kyushu, have seen record levels of rainfall, causing …

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will resign on Monday, news portal MalaysiaKini reported after he lost his majority due to infighting in the ruling coalition. The resignation, if confirmed, would end a tumultuous 17 months in office for Muhyiddin but also bring more uncertainty to Malaysia as the country grapples …

Taliban insurgents entered the Afghanistan capital Kabul on Sunday, an interior ministry official said, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.

Twitter unblocked the accounts of India’s main opposition party Congress, its leader Rahul Gandhi and other party officials on Saturday, days after suspending the accounts over a tweet on the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl. Gandhi’s account has 19.5 million followers. It was locked after he posted …

At least 27 Rohingya refugees were missing after their boat sank Saturday during an attempt to escape a Bangladeshi island camp criticized by human rights groups, officials said. Nearly 20,000 Rohingya have been relocated to Bhashan Char island, which takes the full force of cyclones that roar across the Bay …

Russia and China have wrapped up their five-day joint strategic military drills in Northwest China involving over 10,000 troops and advanced weaponry as top officials in both countries vowed further collaborations amid rising US-led provocations in eastern Europe and the pacific. The last day of the drills – dubbed Zapad/Interaction-2021 …

The Czech Republic was evacuating its two diplomats from its embassy in Kabul on Saturday as the security situation in Afghanistan worsened, Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani held urgent talks with local leaders and international partners on Saturday as Taliban rebels pushed closer to Kabul, capturing …

The Philippine health minister, facing questions over more than $1 billion in COVID-19 spending, denied on Saturday that any money was “stolen”, as his department vowed to account for every peso. The country is battling one of Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks, and the spread of the virulent delta variant is …

One woman was dead and two people were missing on Saturday after torrential rains touched off a landslide and engulfed at least two houses in western Japan, with rivers overflowing their banks as the rain continued to pound the area. A wide swath of western Japan, particularly the southernmost main …

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he was in urgent talks with local leaders and international partners as the Taliban pushed closer to Kabul, capturing a key town south of the capital that is one of the gateways to the city. “As your President, my focus is on preventing further instability, …

Indonesia’s capital reopened its retail malls this week to an exclusive crowd – shoppers vaccinated against coronavirus. With restrictions still in place in much of Indonesia, Jakarta’s malls are allowed to operate at 25% capacity to try to keep the economy moving, but customers must prove via a smartphone application …

Disturbances break out after 56-year-old Afghan dies of a heart attack while waiting in the dusty heat to enter Afghanistan. Pakistani forces have clashed with hundreds of Afghans stranded on Pakistan’s side of a commercially vital border crossing with Afghanistan after its closure by the Taliban, Pakistani security officials say. …

China has rejected the World Health Organization (WHO)’s calls for a new probe into the origins of the coronavirus, saying it supports “scientific” over “political” efforts to find out how the virus started. The rejection came on Friday after the WHO urged Beijing to share raw data from the earliest …

A Malaysian serviceman shot dead three fellow air force personnel at a military base before killing himself on Friday, police said, a rare case of gun violence in the Southeast Asian nation. The serviceman, who was supposed to be undergoing a coronavirus quarantine, snatched the firearms from a guard post, …

China’s newly appointed ambassador in Washington stressed the utmost importance of Taiwan in the Sino-U.S. relationship during his first meeting with a top U.S. official since assuming the job, according to Chinese state media. Qin Gang, 55, who has earned a reputation for pointed public defences of his country’s positions, …

Thai police clashed with demonstrators on Friday after hundreds defied a ban on gatherings to rally in central Bangkok, where they attempted to march on the prime minister’s residence to demand his resignation over the country’s coronavirus crisis. Police fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets from an elevated highway …

Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on Afghanistan on Friday, wresting control of its second and third biggest cities while Western embassies prepared to send in troops to help evacuate staff from the capital, Kabul. The capture of the second-biggest city of Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west …

China has urged the United States to stop interfering in the affairs of Chinese Taipei and sending wrong signals to separatist forces in the self-governed Chinese island. Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council, made the remarks at a regular news conference in Beijing on …

Afghan government negotiators in Qatar have offered the Taliban a power-sharing deal in return for an end to fighting in the country, a government negotiating source told AFP on Thursday. “Yes, the government has submitted a proposal to Qatar as mediator. The proposal allows the Taliban to share power in …