Pakistan's finance minister yesterday promised to end the country's reliance on International Monetary Fund bailouts to shore up its

Southeast Asian nations seeking to combat the threat of militancy have agreed to share intelligence, Singapore's defence minister said

The former head of internet censorship in China, Lu Wei, pleaded guilty to accepting at least 32 million yuan in bribes at a trial yesterday. Lu, who oversaw a tightening of online censorship during his tenure at the Cyberspace Administration of China, was a fierce defender of China's policy of internet control.

The wife of fallen former Interpol chief Meng Hongwei has expressed fears for his life and her own safety, lashing out at what she called the "cruel" and "dirty" Chinese government that arrested him in mysterious circumstances.

The United States opposes a plan by South and North Korea to set up a no-fly zone over their heavily fortified border, the latest sign of a

The Kremlin yesterday said a deal to create a buffer zone in Syria's Idlib was going ahead, despite jihadists missing a deadline to leave the area the day before. The accord is a last-ditch effort to stave off a regime onslaught on Idlib, the largest rebel stronghold left in war-ravaged Syria.

Chinese authorities yesterday slapped penalties totalling a whopping $1.3 billion on a pharmaceutical company over a vaccine scandal that fuelled public fears of domestically-made medicine.

China yesterday issued an ardent defence of the alleged mass internment of minorities in its far west Xinjiang region, with a regional official insisting that authorities are preventing terrorism through "vocational education" centres.

North and South Korea yesterday agreed to begin reconnecting rail and road links, another step in an improving relationship that has raised US concern about the possible undermining of its bid to press the North to give up its nuclear programme.

Giant owaraji straw sandals have been newly made and will be dedicated to Sensoji temple in Taito Ward, Tokyo.

An ultra-nationalist monk -- dubbed the "Buddhist Bin Laden" -- condemns the international community for their calls to bring Myanmar's generals to justice over the Rohingya crisis.

China attracts the highest number of tourists in the region with a record number of inflow of 59.27 million people in the year 2016.

All nine members of a South Korean climbing expedition are confirmed dead after a violent snowstorm devastated their camp on Nepal's Mount Gurja, one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents to hit the Himalayan nation in recent years.

Indonesian state-owned train maker PT Industri Kereta Api (Inka) says Bangladesh orders 250 extra strong train cars from the company.

Shinzo Abe will pay the first visit to China by a Japanese prime minister since 2011 later this month, Beijing announced yesterday, in the

South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday called on the United States to move towards the nuclear-armed North's demands for a declaration the Korean War is over, as the allies pursue increasingly different approaches towards Pyongyang.

Critics say that, despite improvements at a national level in disaster management since a devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, local authorities often lack know-how and equipment, and so rescue efforts are delayed until the military can reach the area.

The chief priest at Japan's controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo will quit after "highly inappropriate language" criticising the emperor was leaked to a magazine, the shrine said yesterday. The shrine has frequently been at the centre of rows with Asian neighbours that suffered from Japan's wartime atrocities.

Sri Lanka rejected on Wednesday US claims that China might establish a "forward military base" at a strategic port leased to Beijing by the indebted Indian Ocean island nation. Sri Lanka last year granted a 99-year lease on the Hambantota deep-sea port to Beijing, after it was unable to repay Chinese loans for the $1.4-billion project.

Malaysia's cabinet agrees to abolish the death penalty, a senior minister says, with more than 1,200 people on death row set to win a reprieve following a groundswell of opposition to capital punishment.