India's Punjab state government has ordered schools -- all classes -- to reopen from August 2, as the state further relaxed Covid-19 restrictions.

Bharatiya Janata Party-led government will mark “Muslim Women Rights Day” across India tomorrow to celebrate the enactment of the law against instant triple talaq.

Hundreds of black-clad Malaysians staged an anti-government protest Saturday in defiance of a ban on public gatherings under coronavirus curbs, piling pressure on the embattled prime minister to resign.

India’s Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear next week the plea of senior journalist N Ram seeking a probe by a sitting or a retired judge into the Pegasus snooping matter.

Hundreds of thousands of people in China were in coronavirus lockdown yesterday as the country battled its worst outbreak in months, while India reported most new cases in three weeks and US intensified vaccination efforts in the face of a Delta variant-fuelled surge.

The Indian state of Assam has advised its residents to avoid travelling to neighbouring Mizoram after six policemen were shot dead in a rare border clash between the two regions. 

Sri Lanka yesterday announced it was ending its work-from-home option for civil servants, ordering all 1.2 million back to the office from Monday despite a surge in coronavirus infections.

Britain warned the United Nations Security Council Thursday that half of coup-wracked Myanmar’s population of 54 million could become infected with Covid-19 within the next two weeks.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has denied a report that Pakistani fighters have crossed the border into Afghanistan to aid the Taliban in its fight against the Afghan government. 

Imprisoned by the military, detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is isolated from the young protesters now forging their own struggle for democracy outside of her shadow. 

The first person convicted under Hong Kong’s national security law was jailed for nine years yesterday for terrorist activities and inciting secession, judges said, in a watershed ruling with long-term implications for the city’s judicial landscape. 

A Myanmar militia group opposed to military rule has found at least seven bodies with bullet wounds in a jungle area after clashes with the army and it was looking for more missing people on Friday, a militia member and media said.

Noor Mukadam’s last hours were terror-filled. Beaten repeatedly, the 27-year-old jumped from a window but was dragged back, beaten again and finally beheaded. A childhood friend has been charged with her killing.

India’s Supreme Court today agreed to hear next week the plea of senior journalists N Ram seeking a probe by a sitting or a retired judge into the Pegasus snooping matter.

A sub-inspector of Border Security Force was arrested yesterday for allegedly raping a 30-year-old Bangladeshi woman inside a camp at Gaighata in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, Indian media reports said today.

China yesterday reported small coronavirus outbreaks driven by the Delta variant in three provinces as Olympics host Japan

A pro-democracy Hong Kong radio host went on trial yesterday for sedition in the first use of the colonial-era law since the city’s handover to China as authorities broaden their criminalisation of dissent. 

1912 - Japanese Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by Yoshihito. During Meiji’s reign Japan was transformed into one of the modern world’s great powers.

Tsunami warnings were lifted for Alaska and the rest of Pacific after a huge earthquake of 8.2 magnitude struck the seismically active US state in the late hours on Wednesday.

Afghan villagers searched desperately for survivors after flash flood swept down a narrow valley in a Taliban-controlled area, killing at least 40 people and destroying dozens of houses in the early hours of yesterday, officials said.