South Korea and the United States began their largest joint military drills in years yesterday with a resumption of field training, officials said, as the allies seek to tighten readiness over North Korea’s potential weapons tests.

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida has tested positive for Covid-19, his office said yesterday, a week before the leader was expected to attend an African development conference in Tunisia. Kishida took a PCR test “after experiencing a mild temperature and a cough” from Saturday evening, an official from the Prime Minister’s Office of Japan told AFP.

Myanmar's junta chief said on Friday he would consider allowing deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be moved to house arrest from prison but only after verdicts in a litany of cases against her have been reached.

The Taliban will deal with the international community in line with sharia law, Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader of the hardline Islamist group said, according to a copy of his speech given to around 3,000 tribal leaders and shared by the information ministry yesterday.

Myanmar’s military chief yesterday said the junta is open to negotiations with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end the crisis sparked by its coup after her trials in a junta-run court have concluded.

At least 20 people were killed and six more were injured when a bus caught fire after colliding with an oil tanker in Pakistan yesterday, police said. The passengers were a couple of hours into a long journey when their vehicle crashed on the outskirts of the central city of Multan.

The UN’s new special envoy for Myanmar began her first trip to the country yesterday, a day after a junta court sentenced ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to six more years in jail for corruption.

Sri Lanka’s government yesterday granted permission for a controversial Chinese research vessel to visit the island despite neighbouring India’s concerns that it could spy on New Delhi’s military installations, officials said.

An Australian economist and former adviser to deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has pleaded not guilty in a closed Myanmar court to charges of violating a state secrets law, according to media reports yesterday.

Flash floods caused by abnormally heavy monsoon rains killed at least 549 people in Pakistan over the past month, with remote communities in the impoverished southwestern province of Balochistan among the hardest hit, a government agency said.

China’s largest-ever military exercises surrounding Taiwan were drawing to a close yesterday following a controversial visit last week to the self-ruled island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Many people were feared injured after a bomb blast hit Afghanistan’s capital Kabul yesterday, witnesses said. The blast hit a busy shopping street in the western part of the city where members of the Shia Muslim community regularly meet.

North Korea yesterday slammed US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her recent visit to the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, calling her the “worst destroyer of international peace”.

Sri Lanka has asked China to indefinitely delay a visit by a ship reported by Indian media to be a spy vessel, following intense pressure by the island’s northern neighbour, official sources said yesterday.

Taiwan officials said Chinese aircraft and warships rehearsed an attack on the island yesterday, part of Beijing’s retaliation for a visit there by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that has also seen it halt talks with the United States on issues including defence and climate change.

Thailand’s prime minister yesterday ordered an investigation into a massive blaze that tore through a nightclub, killing at least 14 people and injuring around 40.

War crimes investigators got hold of thousands of pages of documents that shed new light on Myanmar’s campaign to expel the country’s ethnic minority -- the Rohingya, as well as efforts to hide the strategy from the world.

Sri Lanka yesterday issued an urgent appeal to tackle rapidly spreading malnutrition among children as its economic crisis leaves nine out of 10 people dependent on state handouts.

The head of Myanmar’s junta yesterday blamed instability for stalling efforts to implement a peace plan agreed with other Southeast Asian countries as he extended emergency rule for another six months.

The head of Myanmar's junta on Monday (August 1, 2022) blamed instability for stalling efforts to implement a peace plan agreed with other Southeast Asian countries as he extended emergency rule for another six months.