A South Korean has crossed the heavily fortified border in a rare defection to North Korea, South Korea’s military said yesterday.

Married off at seven to a man old enough to be her great-grandfather, Fatema endured rapes, beatings and starvation until she could take no more and tried to kill herself. Through tears she recalls the beatings she received -- like the time, aged 10, she was flung against a wall and “my head crashed against a nail... I almost died”.

More than 100 Rohingya refugees who had been adrift on a sinking boat off the western coast of Indonesia were allowed to disembark early today after authorities relented following international pressure to allow the group to seek refuge.

An Indonesian navy ship on Thursday was towing a boat carrying 120 Rohingya Muslims into port after it had drifted for days off the country’s northernmost province of Aceh, a navy official said.

Indonesia yesterday said it will let dozens of Rohingya refugees come ashore after protests from locals and the international community over its plan to push them into Malaysian waters. 

A leading Myanmar actor, singer and model who was on a junta celebrity wanted list for supporting pro-democracy protests has been jailed for three years, his legal team said Monday.

A Myanmar junta court on Monday again postponed giving its verdict in Aung San Suu Kyi's trial for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, a source with knowledge of the case said.

More than 30 people, including women and children, were killed and their bodies burnt in Myanmar's conflict-torn Kayah state on Friday, according to a local resident, media reports and a local human rights group.

Myanmar’s military carried out more airstrikes on a rebel-controlled area near the Thai border, the rebel group said yesterday, in the latest escalation of violence that has sent hundreds fleeing into Thailand.

Dozens of jade miners who remain missing yesterday following a landslide in Myanmar’s Kachin State have “very little chance of survival”, according to a fire department official.

Dozens of people are feared missing after a landslide early today at a jade mine in northern Myanmar, according to a civil society group and media reports.

More than 50,000 people have been forced from their homes in Malaysia and at least seven are dead after the country faced some of its worst floods for years, officials said yesterday.

Western allies yesterday expressed “grave concern” over Hong Kong’s new legislature election rules after a weekend poll that saw a record low voter turnout.

Myanmar military carried out a series of mass killings of civilians in July this year, resulting in deaths of at least 40 men, according to a BBC investigation.

Turnout was looking muted yesterday as Hong Kongers cast ballots for city lawmakers under Beijing’s new “patriots only” rules which drastically reduce the number of directly elected seats and control who can run for office.

A top leader of the Pakistan Taliban escaped unhurt from a suspected drone strike on a safe house in eastern Afghanistan, the militant group said yesterday.

Russia has urged Western leaders to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets to fund humanitarian relief and avert an exodus of migrants to Europe fuelled by the Taliban’s takeover in August.

Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in court yesterday wearing a white top and a brown wraparound longyi that is the typical uniform for prisoners in the country, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.

A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, with monitors briefly warning of the possibility of hazardous tsunami waves before lifting the threat.

South and North Korea, China and the US have agreed “in principle” to declare a formal end to the Korean war, almost 70 years after the conflict ended in a shaky truce, the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, has said.