A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has filed a petition in India's Allahabad High Court to open 22 closed rooms of the Taj Mahal to ascertain reports of “hidden” idols of Hindu deities.

An Elon Musk tweet saying Japan would "eventually cease to exist" without a higher birthrate set off a flood of sarcasm and anger on Monday - though much of the angst was aimed at a Japanese government many said did little to address the issue.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa today stepped down following nationwide protests, amid an unprecedented economic crisis the nation is facing, reports Deccan Herald citing local media and agencies.

Protests today erupted in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area, which was a key centre of a prolonged agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019-20, as hundreds of people opposed the local civic body’s anti-encroachment drive armed with bulldozers in presence of heavy police deployment.

Sri Lankan energy companies said on Monday they were running low on stocks of liquid petroleum gas mainly used in cooking, as shortages of foreign exchange put renewed pressure on the island nation.

Women in Afghanistan yesterday expressed defiance after the Taliban issued a directive ordering them to cover fully in public, including their faces, or stay indoors, saying the change would effectively leave them “imprisoned”.

A former security chief who oversaw the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy movement was anointed the business hub’s new leader yesterday by a small committee of Beijing loyalists. John Lee, 64, was the only candidate in the Beijing-backed race to succeed outgoing leader Carrie Lam.

Boos and heckles greeted Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday on his first public outing since nationwide protests erupted demanding his ruling family resign over the worsening economic crisis.

Sitting in an office lined with books overlooking a giant prayer hall, Mohammed Ashfaq Kazi, the main preacher at the largest mosque in Mumbai, checked a decibel meter attached to the loudspeakers before he gave the call to worship.

A start-up company in India’s IT city Bengaluru has allowed half-an-hour for power nap for its employees in office, in the latest of novel moves by such firms to be staff-friendly amidst rising attrition post-Covid-19 pandemic.

A Nepali sherpa scaled Mount Everest for a record 26th time, beating his own previous record set last year, a government official said on Sunday.

An Afghan insurgent group led by the son of late anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud yesterday claimed to have seized three northern districts from the hardline Islamists, after announcing a wide military offensive.

The 161st anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore is being observed in the country today after muted celebrations in the last two years due to the pandemic.

The devastating heatwave that gripped India and Pakistan over the last two months is unprecedented, but worse -- perhaps far worse -- is on the horizon as climate change continues apace, top climate scientists told AFP.

North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile yesterday, Seoul said, its second missile launch in three days, after the United States warned Pyongyang could be preparing for a nuclear test.

Streets in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital Colombo were calm yesterday after the president declared a state of emergency following escalating anti-government protests.

The Taliban yesterday imposed one of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan’s women since seizing power, ordering them to wear the all-covering burqa in public.

Afghanistan’s supreme leader and Taliban chief on Saturday ordered the country’s women to wear the all-covering burqa in public — one of the harshest controls imposed on women’s lives since the Taliban seized power.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency on Friday following a day of anti-government strikes and protests over the country's deep economic crisis that saw police use tear gas on two occasions.

The Asian Games scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Hangzhou in September have been postponed until 2023 because of the Covid-19 situation, the governing Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said on Friday.