People returning to the Chinese capital Beijing from extended holidays are ordered to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine to help prevent spread of the new coronavirus, as hard-hit Hubei province reports more than 2,400 new cases.

After nearly two weeks cast away in search of a port that would take them, passengers aboard the MS Westerdam cruise ship spoke of an ordeal that was anything but harrowing.

India’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered top telecom companies to pay $13 billion in unpaid spectrum and licensing fees by March 17 or face punishment in a fresh blow to ailing mobile carriers.

The death toll from China’s epidemic nears 1,400, according to authorities, with six medical workers among the victims.

The death toll from China's virus epidemic neared 1,400, as the United States complained of a "lack of transparency" from Beijing over its handling of a crisis that has fuelled global panic.

A further 39 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the Japan coast have tested positive for the new coronavirus, authorities say, as thousands more steel themselves for a second week in quarantine.

Another 41 people on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan have the new coronavirus, the country's health minister says, confirming more on board will now be tested for the illness.

US President Donald Trump expresses his "confidence" in China's ability to tackle the novel coronavirus epidemic during talks with his Beijing counterpart Xi Jinping, the White House said.

The death of a whistleblowing doctor whose early warnings about China's new coronavirus outbreak were suppressed by the police unleashes a wave of anger at the government's handling of the crisis -- and bold demands for more freedom.

Myanmar has reimposed an internet shutdown in two conflict-torn western states, after partially lifting the blackout five months ago, says a leading telecoms operator.

Japanese officials begin screening more than 3,700 passengers and crew on a cruise ship quarantined off the port of Yokohama near Tokyo after a Hong Kong man who sailed on the vessel last month tested positive for coronavirus.

Hong Kong reports its first coronavirus death, a 39-year-old male who had been suffering from an underlying illness and had visited China's Wuhan city in January, hospital staff says, marking the second death outside mainland China.

China reported an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu at a farm in Shaoyang city of the southern province of Hunan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs says.

Four Indian airlines have banned a top stand-up comic over a mid-air confrontation with a star political television presenter that has become an internet sensation.

Twenty-six people including a seven-year-old girl were killed after the bus they were travelling in crashed with an autorickshaw and fell into a well in western India, officials said yesterday.

Indian police have launched a sedition investigation against a primary school over a play that allegedly criticised a contentious citizenship law, officials said yesterday.

Most major railway stations in India will use facial recognition to fight crime by the end of 2020, a senior official said, in a move that digital rights campaigners on Tuesday warned could breach people’s privacy in the absence of stringent laws.

India is now capable of making Pakistan “bite the dust” in less than 10 days in any new war with its arch-rival, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

Indian cabinet yesterday approved moves to ease abortion laws, enabling rape survivors and other vulnerable women to terminate pregnancies up to 24 weeks after inception.

Russia and China are working to develop a coronavirus vaccine and Beijing has handed over the genome of the virus to Moscow, a Russian diplomatic mission in China said yesterday.