Myanmar’s ruling junta has confirmed that it carried out an air strike on a village in which dozens of people were reported killed, drawing condemnation from the United Nations and Western powers.

Sri Lanka again postponed local polls yesterday in defiance of a court order, delaying a de facto referendum on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to restore the bankrupt island nation’s finances.

Pakistan yesterday condemned India’s decision to hold Group of 20 meetings in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir next month, calling the move “irresponsible”.

Thailand’s main opposition Pheu Thai party yesterday confirmed the daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as one of its candidates to be prime minister in the kingdom’s upcoming election.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered that elections in two provinces should go ahead by May 15 despite government reluctance to hold the votes now as it struggles with an economic crisis and a political challenge from the opposition.

Eight civilians including children were killed in an air strike on a village in northwest Myanmar, according to a human rights group, ethnic minority rebels and media, the latest violence as the ruling military battles to consolidate power.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday appealed to parliament to act against predecessor Imran Khan over accusations that his party was involved in violence that erupted when police tried to arrest him for alleged corruption.

The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the United Nations said yesterday.

North Korea unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads and vowed to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to expand the country’s arsenal, state media KCNA said yesterday, as a US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for military drills.

Myanmar’s junta chief, flanked by tanks and missile launchers, vowed no let-up in a crackdown on opponents and said yesterday elections would be held, weeks after the military conceded it did not control enough territory to allow a vote.

At least 184 Rohingya refugees, including many women and children, landed in Indonesia’s westernmost province yesterday, officials said, after they were dropped at sea by boat and made to swim ashore.

The European Union and Germany yesterday said they had struck a deal after a dispute over the planned phaseout by 2035 of the sale of cars using fossil fuels.

Russia’s backing for Myanmar’s military rulers is unacceptable and destabilising, with its supply of weapons helping to fuel a conflict that has become a catastrophe for the country, a top US official said on Thursday.

The United States will announce further sanctions against entities inside Myanmar in the coming days, a senior State Department official said

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka is seeking a 10-year moratorium on its foreign debt, President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said yesterday on the eve of a desperately needed $2.9 billion IMF bailout.

Police in Pakistan have arrested dozens of supporters and aides of former prime minister Imran Khan in raids in two cities as part of a crackdown on those involved in recent clashes with the security forces, Khan’s party and police said yesterday.

President Xi Jinping heads to Russia today hoping to deliver a breakthrough on Ukraine as China seeks to position itself as a peacemaker.

More than 800,000 young North Koreans have volunteered to join the army to fight “US imperialists”, state media said Saturday, days after Pyongyang test-fired its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.

At least 22 people, including three Buddhist monks, were shot dead at close range in central Myanmar last week, according to a doctor's post-mortem report, in what opponents of military rule say was a massacre of civilians conducted by the army.

Two Pakistani policemen were killed while guarding teams collecting census data in separate attacks claimed by the local Taliban, police said yesterday.