Asia

South Korea and the United States will begin preliminary military drills on Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, despite North Korea’s warning that the exercises would dent signs of an inter-Korean thaw. The drills, called Crisis Management Staff Training, were designed to examine the allies’ readiness to respond …

The latest lockdown on the capital and its satellite cities is the third round of harsh restrictions since the pandemic began More than 24 million people in the Philippines have been plunged into a new, harsh lockdown as Covid-19’s aggressive delta variant runs rampant across the Southeast Asian nation. The …

Taliban fighters seize Aibak, the capital of Samangan in north – the sixth provincial capital to fall in four days. The Taliban has captured the sixth province in Afghanistan in four days. The armed group’s spokesman on Monday morning sent messages to the media, claiming it has overtaken Aibak, the …

Russia plans to build 51 more pieces of military infrastructure on the Kuril islands, the state TASS news agency quoted Russia’s defense ministry as saying on Monday. Part of the chain is claimed by Japan and the territorial dispute over some of the islands dates back to the time when …

Chinese nuclear submarines tried to secretly follow UK aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth that was moving into the Pacific Ocean but were soon identified, the Express newspaper reported on Sunday. Queen Elizabeth was on the way from the South China Sea to the Pacific, when sonar radars aboard the ships …

Taliban fighters overran three provincial capitals including the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz on Sunday, local officials said, as the insurgents intensified pressure on the north and threatened further cities. The insurgents have taken dozens of districts and border crossings in recent months and put pressure on several provincial capitals, …

At least two policemen were killed and 12 people, including eight policemen, injured on Sunday when a powerful blast targeted a police van near a luxury hotel in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s troubled southwestern Balochistan province, officials said. “The initial probe showed that the bomb was fitted with a …

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un has mobilized the military to carry out relief work in areas recently hit by heavy rains, amid concerns over food shortages. Kim issued the order on Sunday to “render powerful national material and financial support to South Hamgyong Province in its recovery campaign,” according to …

Mount Merapi unleashed clouds of hot ash at least seven times since Sunday morning, as well as a series of fast-moving pyroclastic flows, a mixture of rock, debris, lava and gasses. Indonesia’s most volatile volcano erupted Sunday on the densely populated island of Java, spewing smoke and ash high into …

Protests against Myanmar’s military government broke out across the nation on Sunday, the anniversary of the bloody suppression of a 1988 uprising against a previous army junta. At least six separate protests were documented on Facebook pages of opponents of the military, which seized power from the elected government six …

The Taliban seized the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said. It is the first major city to be overtaken by the insurgents since they began their sweeping military offensive in May. Kunduz, the capital of a province of the same name, is a significant military and …

An Afghan Air Force pilot was killed by a bomb in Kabul on Saturday, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban. The pilot, Hamidullah Azimi, died when a sticky bomb attached to his vehicle detonated, officials said, adding that five civilians were wounded in the explosion. Azimi was …

The U.S. embassy in Kabul urged Americans to leave Afghanistan “immediately” due to a deteriorating security situation and the limited number of staff available to help U.S. citizens in the country. “Given the security conditions and reduced staffing, the Embassy’s ability to assist U.S. citizens in Afghanistan is extremely limited …

More than a thousand homes were damaged and about 5,000 people evacuated in North Korea after flooding caused by heavy rains, the country’s state broadcaster reported, with swathes of farmland also inundated by the deluge. The TV report comes as the impoverished North in June admitted it was tackling a …

More than a thousand Thai anti-government protesters clashed with police on Saturday, as they protested against the government’s failure to handle coronavirus outbreaks and its impact on the economy. The protesters marched toward Government House, the office of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, demanding his resignation. Police sealed off a road …

A special envoy to Myanmar appointed by Southeast Asia’s regional bloc to help resolve the coup-hit country’s political crisis called Saturday for full access to all parties when he visits. Brunei Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof was named to the role this week by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations …

North Korea continued developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs during the first half of 2021 in violation of international sanctions and despite the country’s worsening economic situation, according to an excerpt of a confidential United Nations report seen by Reuters on Friday. The report by a panel of independent …

The Taliban captured an Afghan provincial capital and assassinated the government’s top media officer in Kabul on Friday, dealing twin high-profile blows to the Western-backed administration. A police spokesman in southern Nimroz province said the capital Zaranj had fallen to the hardline Islamists because of a lack of reinforcements from …

A man with a knife stabbed four passengers on an underground train in Tokyo on Friday, and was arrested by police after fleeing, the train company and news reports said. NHK public television said two of the four passengers were seriously injured. It said the suspect left his knife behind …

China has strongly criticized the United States’ recent offer of a temporary “safe haven” to people from Hong Kong, describing the move as “violently intervening” in the semi-autonomous city’s internal affairs. China’s Foreign Ministry Office in Hong Kong made the remarks in a statement on Friday after the administration of …