Under glaring laboratory lights, a research assistant extends his forearm and carefully inverts a mesh-topped container onto his skin to allow a wriggling mass of bed bugs to feed on his blood, all in the name of science.

The Southeast Asian regional bloc will find it difficult to re-engage with Myanmar even after its upcoming election, the Thai foreign minister said yesterday, calling for the release of the country’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Afghanistan’s Taliban administration said yesterday that nine children and a woman were killed in Pakistani air strikes and vowed to respond, ratcheting up tensions between the South Asian neighbours.

Ash clouds from the recent eruption of the Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia flying at high altitudes are impacting flight operations

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

Reuters could not immediately verify the report

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump discussed bilateral cooperation and the issue of Taiwan in a phone call yesterday, Beijing’s state news agency Xinhua reported.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said yesterday his family was “very worried” about his senator sister, suggesting she was unwell after she accused him of drug abuse at a recent rally.

China yesterday slammed Japan’s decision to push ahead with a planned deployment of missiles on an island near Taiwan, escalating a weeks-long diplomatic spat.

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.

Election Commission spokesman said there was "a total of 837,094 registered names" of first-time voters

Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October

Indian counter-terrorism units raided the office of The Kashmir Times over its alleged role in a “criminal conspiracy”, police said, with the news website calling the accusations “baseless” yesterday.

Aircraft explodes upon impact

A curfew was in force yesterday in a Nepalese town following clashes between young activists and loyalists of the former ruling party that was overthrown in a deadly September uprising.

China ran a disinformation campaign to hurt sales of the French Rafale fighter jet after India used the planes in May for the first time against Chinese weapons deployed by its neighbour Pakistan, a bipartisan US commission said this month in a report that the Chinese rejected as false information.

Pakistan security forces killed 30 militants in two targeted operations near the Afghan frontier, the army said yesterday, a week after a suicide bombing killed 12 people in Islamabad.

Responds to suicide bombing killing 12 last week in Islamabad