Malaysia’s embattled leader was accused of treason and urged to quit yesterday after the king denounced his crisis-hit government for misleading parliament, a rare public rebuke from the revered monarch.

Authorities estimate overall economic losses at nearly 90 billion yuan ($14 billion), a devastating blow to the province’s heavily agrarian economy after the torrent of rain last week burst dams and collapsed bridges.

Eighteen migrant labourers sleeping on a highway in northern India after their bus broke down died when a truck rammed into the vehicle, police said yesterday.

Afghanistan would become a “pariah state” if the Taliban take control by force, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday, as a top-level delegation from the insurgent group visited China to assure officials of their international obligations. 

The Prime Minister “inserted a weapon in our phones”, used it to “hit the soul of India’s democracy” and now the government is trying to silence opposition demands for a discussion in Parliament, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said yesterday.

Three Armenian soldiers were killed in border clashes with Azerbaijani forces yesterday, in some of the heaviest fighting between the Caucasus rivals since last year’s war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung erupted yesterday, spewing a massive column of smoke and ash into the sky.

International calls yesterday mounted for the release of a Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and the repeal of anti-terror laws used to detain him for 15 months.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a veiled warning yesterday about Indian democracy backsliding in his first official visit to New Delhi. 

China told a visiting Taliban delegation on Wednesday it expected the insurgent group to play an important role in ending Afghanistan's war and rebuilding the country, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today made a strong pitch for a vibrant civil society in India and America in order to make their democracies more open, inclusive and equitable.

At least 18 people, mostly farm labourers, were killed and 25 injured when a truck rammed into a stationary double-decker bus in India’s Barabanki district of Utttar Pradesh state, police said today.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar yesterday called on the UN Security Council and member states to push for an emergency “Covid ceasefire” in light of an explosion of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Myanmar where attacks against the health workers escalated. 

The first person charged under Hong Kong’s national security law was found guilty yesterday of terrorism and inciting secession in a landmark case that carries long-term implications for how the legislation will reshape the city’s common law traditions. 

Antibodies triggered by Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine declined below a key threshold from around six months after a second dose for most recipients, although a third shot had a strong booster effect, according to a lab study.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence in New Delhi, their first meeting after the West Bengal state polls.

Bhutan has inoculated most of its eligible population with second doses of Covid-19 vaccinations in a week, in a speedy rollout hailed by Unicef as a “success story” for international donations. 

North and South Korea signalled a surprise thaw in relations yesterday, announcing the restoration of cross-border communications that were severed more than a year ago and an agreement between their two leaders to improve ties.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin yesterday said that Beijing’s expansive claims in the South China Sea have “no basis in international law”, taking aim at China’s growing assertiveness in the hotly contested waters. 

The bodies of three mountaineers who died during a winter expedition on Pakistan’s K2 have been found months after they went missing while scaling the world’s second-highest peak, officials said yesterday.