Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected militants and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said yesterday.

Embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam yesterday ruled out making any concessions to pro-democracy protesters in the face of escalating violence, which police said was now “life threatening” citing the detonation of a small bomb.

Under pressure from China, Apple has removes a smartphone app that enabled Hong Kong protesters to track police.

Tens of thousands of rescuers worked into last night to find survivors of a powerful typhoon in Japan that killed at least 56 people, as fresh rain threatened to hamper their efforts.

Economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer win the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize for their work in fighting global poverty, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences say.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and riot police clashed in chaotic scenes around the city yesterday with police in full riot gear chasing protesters through crowds of horrified lunchtime shoppers.

Suspected ethnic Rakhine rebels disguised as a sports team stormed a bus in rural Myanmar and took 31 hostages -- mostly off-duty firefighters and construction workers -- authorities said yesterday.

Asserting that the Muslims in India are the “happiest”, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supremo Mohan Bhagwat said that people of other faiths have sought refuge in India due to the “Hindu culture”.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday visited Iran on a mission to act as a “facilitator” between Tehran and Riyadh and try to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said it would take four months for Jammu and Kashmir to return to normal after his government stripped the state of its special status in August and imposed harsh restrictions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wound up two days of meetings in Nepal yesterday with separate deals for a rail link to Tibet and a tunnel, an official said, as the Himalayan nation seeks to end an Indian dominance over its trade routes by increasing connectivity with Beijing.

Japan sends tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history, which kills 23 people and briefly paralyses Tokyo.

The Bangladesh Embassy in Tokyo opens a helpline to provide assistance to Bangladesh expatriates in Japan as Typhoon Hagibis made landfall on Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo.

Japan yesterday braced for a powerful typhoon barrelling towards Tokyo that has already forced the cancellation of two Rugby World Cup matches, disrupted the Suzuka Grand Prix and grounded flights.

Taiwan’s president yesterday rejected a “one country, two systems” formula that Beijing has suggested could be used to unify the island and the mainland, saying such an arrangement had set Hong Kong “on the edge of disorder”.

North Korea yesterday slammed a statement by European UN Security Council members urging strict enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang for its latest missile test, calling the move a “serious provocation”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that China’s treatment of Muslims, including the Uighurs, in western China was an “enormous human rights violation” and Washington will continue to raise the issue.

The number of ultra-wealthy individuals dipped in China this year, a report said yesterday, as the government seeks to rebalance the economy and tackle high levels of toxic debt. Those listed as the wealthiest -- with holdings worth at least 2 billion yuan ($281 million) -- fell to 1,819 this year

Top US and Chinese negotiators meet for the first time since late July to try to find a way out of a 15-month trade war as new irritants between the world's two largest economies threatened hopes for progress.

China is destroying burial grounds where generations of Uighur families have been laid to rest, leaving behind human bones and broken tombs in what activists call an effort to eradicate the ethnic group’s identity in Xinjiang.