Asia

No immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion that happened on the second day of a temporary ceasefire agreed upon between gov’t and the Taliban. At least 12 people have been killed and more wounded in an explosion at a Shia mosque on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, according …

Two South Korean fisheries associations have filed a lawsuit, demanding the Japanese government’s compensation over its plan to dump contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. The court filing is seeking 10 million won ($8,850) per day from the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company …

Kandahar, Kunduz, and Ghazni provinces were rocked by four separate bombings, killing at least 11 civilians. At least 11 civilians were killed and 13 others wounded in four separate bombings in Afghanistan on Thursday, hours after a three-day ceasefire began across the country to mark the Muslim festival of Eid …

China has called on the United States to give a full clarification on its bio-military activities at home and abroad, which is a matter of concern shared by Russia and others. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday that it was necessary for …

The Taliban militant group has captured a key district in Afghanistan’s central province of Wardak, despite the announcement of a three-day ceasefire for the Eid al-Fitr holiday. The militants seized the Nerkh district, located around 40 kilometers from the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, pushing government forces out. Afghan Interior …

A day after declaring the COVID-19 variant first detected in India as one of global concern, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday that the variant has spread to 49 countries. The U.N. health agency’s new concern about the B.1.617 variant comes as India recorded 4,205 COVID-19 deaths, a new one-day …

At least seven people were killed and one reported missing after a landslide at an Indonesian gold mine, the authorities said on Tuesday (May 11). Torrential rain triggered a landslide on Monday, inundating the mine with mud mixed with stones and debris in South Solok regency, West Sumatra, said the …

At least 71 bodies have been pulled from the banks of the Ganges River in eastern India, as a second Covid-19 wave ravages the country and engulfs its healthcare system. Local authorities are investigating and a postmortem of the bodies was carried out, but “due to heavy decomposition, we were …

One simple question has kept China-watchers scratching their heads for years: Will the country get old before it gets rich? The metaphorical needle between both those two words has just shifted hard toward “old.” China’s National Bureau of Statistics released data on Tuesday from its once-a-decade national census, which was …

The Taliban militant group has declared a three-day ceasefire across Afghanistan in observance of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, two days after 50 people, mostly young girls, were killed in bomb blasts outside a school in Kabul. A statement released by the Taliban on Monday said the group had instructed its …

The office of Iraq’s leading cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, offered condolences to the victims of the terrorist attack that killed at least 85 schoolgirls in the Afghani capital, Kabul. A statement of Ayatollah al-Sistani condemned the “horrendous crime” that “wrenches the heart of any free conscientious human.” “In spite …

A wildfire in eastern Kazakhstan that has burned an area of 310 hectares (766 acres) has killed at least one person and injured two others on Monday, the local emergencies department said. More than 200 firefighters were at the scene, aided by two helicopters, the department said in a statement, …

The Indian government has told doctors to look out for signs of mucormycosis or “black fungus” in COVID-19 patients as hospitals report a rise in cases of the rare but potentially fatal infection. The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said at the weekend that doctors treating COVID-19 patients, …

Remnants of China’s biggest rocket landed in the Indian Ocean on Sunday, with the bulk of its components destroyed upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, according to Chinese state media, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit. The coordinates are given by state media, citing the China …

At least 150 people, many of them young women, were injured in the attack in a Shia neighbourhood of the city. The death toll from an explosion near a school in a Shia district of west Kabul has risen to 58, Afghan officials said on Sunday, with doctors struggling to …

The government has imposed the most severe restrictions since a one-month lockdown in April last year. Pakistan on Saturday began a nine-day shutdown affecting travel and tourist hotspots in a bid to prevent a surge in COVID-19 cases during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Already battling the third wave …

A heavy explosion rattled the Dasht-e-Barchi area in Kabul city on Saturday afternoon, sources said. The Ministry of Interior (MoI) stated that a blast happened close to Sayeed-ul-Shuhada School in PD13 of Kabul city at around 4:27 pm Saturday. At least 25 people were killed and 50 others wounded in …

India recorded more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a day for the first time as more states imposed lockdowns in a desperate bid to halt the devastating new COVID-19 surge. The 4,187 new deaths took India’s overall toll to 238,270 since the pandemic started. It added another 401,078 new cases …

Imran Khan’s visit to Riyadh is a significant move to rebuild relations between the historic allies following recent setbacks, say, analysts. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has started a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia in an effort to reset relations after tensions between the longtime allies in recent years. Khan’s …

The Maldives speaker of parliament and former president, Mohamed Nasheed, was in critical care on Friday after being severely wounded in a bomb blast outside his home, hospital authorities said, in what police are treating as a terrorist attack. Nobody has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s explosion in the capital Malé …