Hopes for the imminent rescue of 41 men trapped in a highway tunnel in the Indian Himalayas for nearly two weeks were dashed by a problem with the drilling equipment, officials said yesterday.

A convoy of trucks bringing goods into Myanmar from China has gone up in flames in what state media reported yesterday was an insurgent attack, compounding surging insecurity that has raised concern in neighbouring China.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un celebrated a “new era of a space power” with scientists and his family, state media said yesterday, after the North successfully put a military spy satellite into orbit.

China called for vigilance yesterday as a surge of respiratory illness hit schools and hospitals and the World Health Organization, which has asked the government for disease data, said no unusual or novel pathogens had been detected.

India today said it is closely monitoring the reported outbreak of avian influenza, also known as bird flu, and clusters of respiratory illness in children in northern China, and expressed readiness to face any kind of public health issues

The Afghanistan embassy in New Delhi today announced its permanent closure, citing "persistent challenges from the Indian government"

Just a few metres of rock and earth separate Indian rescue teams from 41 workers who have been trapped inside a collapsed road tunnel for nearly two weeks, officials said Friday, saying they were optimistic of success within hours

North Korea said yesterday it would deploy stronger armed forces and new weapons on its border with the South, a day after Seoul suspended part of a 2018 military accord between the two Koreas in a protest over Pyongyang’s launch of a spy satellite.

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir released a prominent journalist on bail yesterday, nearly two years after he was arrested on charges of “glorifying terrorism” in the disputed territory and “spreading fake news”.

The World Health Organization has asked China for more data on respiratory illnesses spreading in the north of the country, but Beijing offered no public comment yesterday.

A Pakistani court yesterday ordered authorities to produce former prime minister Imran Khan for trial on November 28 on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer said, in what would be his first public appearance since he was jailed in August.

The efforts to rescue 41 workers from a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayan mountains tonight suffered a setback when the platform on which the drilling equipment is mounted developed cracks

A Pakistani court today ordered authorities to produce former Prime Minister Imran Khan for trial on November 28 on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer said, in what would be his first public appearance since he was jailed in August

The US has said it has foiled a reported plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil and has taken up the issue with the Indian government "at the senior-most levels", according to a report in The Financial Times of London

The operation to rescue 41 workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel in the Himalayas resumed this morning after an overnight hurdle delayed drilling by 12-14 hours, officials said

Rescuers hope to drill through the last third of the debris blocking a collapsed tunnel in the Indian Himalayas by yesterday to reach 41 workers trapped for ten days, an official said, so long as there are no new hurdles.

North Korea said yesterday it had succeeded in putting a military spy satellite into orbit, with state media claiming leader Kim Jong Un was already reviewing images of US military bases in Guam sent by Pyongyang’s new eye in the sky.

More than 200 Rohingyas came ashore in Indonesia’s Aceh province late on Tuesday, taking total arrivals of members of the Myanmar minority to more than 1,000 for the week, a leader of the province’s fishing community said.

US authorities thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist in the United States and issued a warning to India over concerns the government in New Delhi was involved, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday accepted a bail application from detained former prime minister Imran Khan, his lawyer said, a day after another court declared illegal his trial on charges of leaking state secrets.