The United Nations yesterday urged the world to ramp up the pressure on Myanmar’s junta to cease violence against the country’s own people and quickly restore civilian rule.

As Omicron pushes Western countries towards reopening, Asia is hunkering down, sharpening an East-West divide on the balance between public health, the economy and basic rights and freedoms.

China has agreed that the UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet can visit Xinjiang after the Beijing Olympics, the South China Morning Post said, citing unidentified sources.

Pakistan today gave a visa to an Indian man who recently had a tearful reunion with his brother from Pakistan 74 years after the Indian subcontinent’s partition separated them.

Separatist insurgents have claimed responsibility for an attack on a Pakistani army post near a southwestern port in which China is investing, and the army said 10 soldiers were killed.

Japan will contribute UD$ 2 million in emergency grant aid for supporting the displaced Rohingyas living at Bhasan Char in Bangladesh.

India’s capital yesterday announced the end of a weekend curfew and eased other stringent coronavirus restrictions yesterday, with government data suggesting the country’s recent Omicron variant outbreak had slowed.

China has returned an Indian citizen who “illegally” entered into Chinese territory at the disputed border between the two Asian giants, a military official said yesterday.

North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles yesterday, Seoul said, its sixth weapons test this month.  Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected two suspected short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Hamhung city area towards the East Sea from around 8:00 am. North Korea has not tested

Scientists discovered more than 200 new species across the greater Mekong region in 2020, according to a WWF report, despite the threats posed by climate change and human activities such as logging.

China warned the United States to “stop interfering” in the Winter Olympics yesterday, a week before the controversy-hit Games are due to start in Beijing.

The Taliban must uphold the fundamental human rights of women and children, the United Nations chief said Wednesday, urging the international community to release frozen Afghan aid to prevent families from selling their babies to buy food.

Former chief minister and Marxist veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and versatile actor Victor Banerjee were among six persons from West Bengal who got this year’s Padma awards announced by the Indian government.

Thousands of youngsters in India have burned down empty train coaches and blocked rail traffic this week in protest against what they call irregularities in recruitment by the mammoth railways department, one of the world's largest employers.

Atar Sandler arrived in Singapore in 2019, seizing the opportunity to live in a buzzing global city that is also a convenient base to jet off to more exotic locales nearby.

India recently at a programme of the United Nations Security Council, raised the issue of genocide carried out by Pakistan army during Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war.

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tonight refused to accept the Indian government’s third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan this year, sparking a political row.

North Korea fired two suspected cruise missiles yesterday, Seoul said, its fifth weapons test this year as Pyongyang flexes its military muscles while ignoring US offers of talks.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday confirmed he had invited Myanmar’s junta chief to a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), on the condition he makes progress on a peace plan he agreed to last year. 

At least 19 people have died after a karaoke bar in Indonesia's West Papua was set ablaze following a brawl between rival gangs of youths in the area, police in the provincial capital of Sorong said on Tuesday.