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.

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 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.

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.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday he’s sleeping soundly after becoming the first premier in nine years to inhabit the official residence, which is reputedly haunted by ghosts.

The South Korean city of Busan has green-lit plans for an ambitious new ocean settlement, with work on the first neighborhood set to begin next year.

A citizen of Myanmar on Friday pleaded guilty in a plot to attack or kill the country’s pro-democracy UN ambassador, who has refused junta orders to quit, US officials said.

Taliban militants in Pakistan declared an end to a month-long ceasefire arranged with the aid of the Afghan Taliban, accusing the government of breaching terms including a prisoner release agreement and the formation of negotiating committees.

Up to 120 people have been arrested in Pakistan after a Sri Lankan factory manager was beaten to death and set ablaze by a mob who accused him of blasphemy, officials said yesterday.

The Taliban yesterday issued a decree in the name of their supreme leader instructing Afghan ministries “to take serious action” on women’s rights, but failed to mention girls’ access to schools.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar yesterday deferred the first verdicts in the trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to Dec. 6, a source familiar with the proceedings said.