Malaysian ex-leader Najib Razak’s first trial linked to the 1MDB scandal will proceed after a judge ruled yesterday that prosecutors had made a sufficient case, boosting efforts to bring him to justice over the mammoth fraud.

Indian police have arrested dozens of people for social media comments that allegedly threatened “communal harmony” after the Supreme Court awarded a holy site once used for a mosque to Hindus, officials said yesterday.

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar complained of difficulty in breathing in the early hours of yesterday, following which she was rushed to Breach Candy Hospital, in South Mumbai.

China yesterday accused Mike Pompeo of “outdated Cold War thinking” after the US Secretary of State warned against a Chinese threat to Western freedoms.

Haze shrouded India’s capital city again yesterday, with residents braving dangerous air quality to return to work after a weekend of clearer air and better weather.

Turkey said yesterday it had begun sending back foreign jihadists to their countries of origin, with an American already expelled and more than 20 Europeans including French and Germans in the process of being deported.

A Hong Kong police officer shoots at masked protesters, hitting one in the torso, as anger sparked by the recent death of a student spilled into the rush hour commute and wreaked fresh chaos.

Flight operations at Kolkata airport will be stopped from 6:00pm today till 6:00am tomorrow, or for 12 hours, over safety concerns due to Cyclone Bulbul, Home Ministry officials have said.

North Korea yesterday slammed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as an “idiot and villain” and warned he will never set foot in Pyongyang after he condemned the North’s latest weapons test.

At least 15 people are killed and another four injured in attacks by suspected Muslim rebels in Thailand's violence-wracked south, an army spokesman says, the largest death toll in years.

An Indian construction worker died while being taken hostage with several compatriots by insurgents in Myanmar’s conflict-scarred Rakhine state, rebels and the government said yesterday.

At least 17 people, including seven children, died when a crowded bus swerved off the road and plunged into a river in central Nepal on Sunday, officials said.

People are losing precious years of their lives due to pollution, India’s Supreme Court said yesterday and slammed authorities for their failure to curb pollution in Delhi-NCR.

At least one person was killed and 17 wounded yesterday in a grenade blast at a crowded market in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city Srinagar, police and doctors said.

Thailand reopens the cave where 12 young footballers and their coach were trapped last year in a saga that captivated the world.

Dressed demurely in black leggings and unflattering baggy t-shirts, rather than their trademark low-cut bikini tops, WWE superstars Natalya and Lacey Evans starred in the first ever women's wrestling match in Saudi Arabia, the latest unlikely event in the kingdom as it attempts to shrug off an ultra-conservative image.

North Korean state news agency KCNA says another test of super-large multiple rocket launchers a day earlier had been a success, but the test drew protests from neighbouring Japan and South Korea.

A 6.6-magnitude quake struck the southern Philippines, geologists say, causing injuries and damaging buildings in a region still reeling from a previous deadly tremor.

A Nepali mountaineer has smashed the record for summiting the world's 14 highest peaks, according to a post on his social media account.

China’s Communist Party elite kicked off a key meeting in Beijing yesterday, as the country’s leadership faces pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a protracted trade war, and a slowing economy.