Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday he would step down, setting the stage for a new premier after a one-year tenure marred by an unpopular COVID-19 response and rapidly dwindling public support.

Visas of foreigners stuck in India due to the Covid-19 pandemic for around one and a half years have been extended free of cost till September 30 this year, the Indian Home Ministry said last night.

INS Savitri, an Indian Navy offshore patrol vessel, arrived in Chattogram yesterday to deliver two mobile oxygen plants (MOP) each with a capacity of generating 960 litres of oxygen per minute.

The Taliban said yesterday they were close to forming a new government, as dozens of women held a rare protest for the right to work under a new regime that faces enormous economic hurdles and deep public mistrust.

Under their previous reign, they shocked the world by brutally oppressing women and girls. Now, back in power 20 years after a US invasion ousted them, the Taliban have promised a softer brand of rule, pledging that women will be allowed to work.

India reported the biggest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases in two months yesterday, as the government worries about the virus spreading from the most-affected Kerala state, schools reopening, and the start of the festival season.

The course of true love never did run smooth, but after public controversy and a wedding delay, Japan’s Princess Mako is reportedly set to tie the knot and move to America.

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi has warned the United States that political tension between Beijing and Washington could undermine efforts by the world’s top two sources of greenhouse gas to co-operate in the fight against climate change.

Most Afghan allies seeking to flee with the US withdrawal were unable to do so, an official acknowledged Wednesday, as the United States began to wrestle with painful choices in the chaotic final days of the war.

Even in the final days of Washington’s chaotic airlift in Afghanistan, Javed Habibi was getting phone calls from the U.S. government promising that the green card holder from Richmond, Virginia, his wife and their four daughters would not be left behind.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers were preparing on Thursday to unveil their new government as the economy teetered on the edge of collapse more than two weeks after the Islamist militia captured Kabul and brought a chaotic end to 20 years of war.

Indian authorities cracked down on public movement and imposed a near-total communications blackout Thursday in disputed Kashmir after the death of Syed Ali Geelani, a top separatist leader who became the emblem of the region’s defiance against New Delhi.

North Korea has rejected roughly three million Covid-19 vaccine doses of China's Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O), saying they should be sent to severely affected countries, the UNICEF said on Wednesday.

They move from place to place at a moment’s notice in a desperate bid to evade the Taliban — girls whose lives are in danger simply because they chose to play a sport they loved.

The new, Taliban-appointed head of Afghanistan's central bank has sought to reassure banks the group wants a fully-functioning financial system, but has so far provided little detail on how it will supply funds to sustain it, said four bankers familiar with the matter.

The Taliban said the formation of Afghanistan’s new government is in its final stages, as US President Joe Biden vehemently defended his decision to end the two-decade war amid growing criticism.

The evacuation process of the six Bangladeshi engineers from Kabul could only be described as a nightmare in which they saw horrific events, including bomb blasts and killings.

1945 - Japanese leaders aboard the US battleship Missouri signed an unconditional surrender, ending World War Two.

China’s special envoy for Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang visited Myanmar last week for talks with its military rulers, as a new route spanning the Southeast Asian nation opened up connecting Chinese trade flows to the Indian Ocean.

There is growing concern among Pakistani officials about security in neighbouring Afghanistan, as the Taliban tries to form a government and stabilise the country following the departure of US and other foreign forces.