Bankrupt Sri Lanka will drastically slash its military, the defence ministry said yesterday, as the government works to overhaul its shambolic finances after an unprecedented economic crisis.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed hope that diplomatic ties between Tehran and Riyadh could be restored through dialogue between the two regional arch-rivals, as he visited Lebanon on Friday.

The death toll of a suicide bombing near the foreign ministry in the Afghan capital this week has risen to 10, the United Nations mission said on Friday.

Sri Lanka will slash its army by a third to 135,000 personnel by next year and to 100,000 by 2030, the state minister of defence said on Friday, as the country tries to cut costs in the face of its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades.

Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean this year, a top government spokesman said today.

The United States and Japan have announced stepped-up security cooperation in the face of shared worries about China, and Washington strongly endorsed a major military buildup Tokyo announced last month.

The International Monetary Fund and other lending bodies had asked Sri Lanka not to print more money, and thus the government was finding it impossible to conduct the most basic functions, said the country's Cabinet Spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardane.

Bangladesh has shown interest in importing ethanol from India, India's Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said today.

Newsrooms around the world are hoping to win back audiences by producing more solutions-oriented stories and better climate coverage, according to an annual forecast of challenges and opportunities for the media.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the World’s Longest River Cruise, MV Ganga Vilas, and inaugurate a Tent City at Varanasi on 13 January at 10.30 am via video conferencing.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi vowed on Wednesday that Indonesia, as the ASEAN chair for 2023, would not allow the democratic crisis in Myanmar to stymie the bloc’s work toward enhanced unity in the region.

At least 20 people were killed as a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the foreign ministry in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul yesterday, according to an information ministry official.

Beijing yesterday said it would scrap visa-free transit for South Korean and Japanese citizens, stepping up a diplomatic tit-for-tat after both countries placed travel curbs on visitors from China.

Myanmar’s junta has carried out air strikes on an ethnic armed group’s base near the border with India, the rebels and media said yesterday, with one bomb landing close to the international boundary.

China has renewed its longstanding threat to attack Taiwan and warned that foreign politicians who interact with the self-governing island are “playing with fire”.

At least five people were killed and several wounded by a suicide bomber near the Afghan foreign ministry in Kabul Wednesday, where a Chinese delegation had been due to meet, officials and witnesses said.

Myanmar's junta has carried out air strikes on an ethnic armed group's base near the border with India, the rebels and media said Wednesday, with one bomb landing close to the international boundary.

China suspended issuing short-term visas in South Korea and Japan yesterday, after announcing it would retaliate against countries that required negative Covid-19 tests from Chinese travellers.

India will demolish some buildings in a northern Himalayan town near its border with China after evacuating families in the past few days, an official said yesterday, as hundreds of homes have developed cracks in an area thronged by pilgrims.

Bankrupt Sri Lanka yesterday announced sharp government spending cuts and warned it had barely enough revenue to pay public salaries and pensions despite huge tax hikes.