Heavily armed militants looted several banks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province yesterday before clashing with security forces, with one policeman and a civilian killed, authorities told AFP.

The former head of Pakistan’s powerful spy agency will appeal a 14-year hard labour sentence on charges including abuse of power, his lawyer said Friday, decrying a “sham” military trial.

Disaster-hit Sri Lanka has unveiled a major compensation package to rebuild homes damaged by a deadly cyclone, even as the island yesterday prepared for further landslides and flooding.

At the Pakistani border town of Chaman, the local hospital said three people had been discharged after suffering minor injuries during the clash

Pakistan Ministry of Defence yesterday officially notified Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir as the country’s first chief of defence forces (CDF), a day after President Asif Ali Zardari approved the appointment on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Pakistan will temporarily allow UN relief supplies into Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, in the first partial border opening since deadly clashes erupted between the two neighbours in October.

Tensions between the two countries remain high after weeks of escalating border clashes

Pakistan’s former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan’s sister Uzma Khanum yesterday said that her brother was “perfectly fine” after a meeting with him at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.

Singapore will impose a stricter ban on smartphones and smartwatches in secondary schools starting January, its education ministry said, part of a global push to combat digital distractions

Sri Lanka yesterday declared a state of emergency and appealed for international assistance as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 132, with another 176 reported missing.

The men are aged between 23 and 40 years old

"As of tonight, 61 fatalities have been recorded," says

The worst flooding Sri Lanka has experienced since the turn of the century occurred in June 2003, when 254 people were killed

The party of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan demanded a meeting with him yesterday, saying it was worried about his health as he has been barred from seeing his family and lawyers for over three weeks.

Most of the deaths occurred in the central tea-growing district of Badulla

Another four were killed in a similar manner in the adjoining Nuwara Eliya district.

Raids follow twin suicide bombings in Peshawar that killed three paramilitary personnel

A suicide bombing killed three Pakistani paramilitary personnel yesterday at a security headquarters in Peshawar city, officials said, the latest deadly violence in the province bordering Afghanistan.

'Three Federal Constabulary personnel deployed at the gate were martyred and four others were wounded'

Hundreds of thousands of new voters have registered to cast their ballot in Nepal’s first polls since a mass uprising in September ousted the government, election officials said yesterday.