Nepal's ethnic minorities have rejected a constitutional amendment, dashing hopes of an end to a political crisis that has led to fuel shortages and hampered deliveries of relief materials to survivors of last year's earthquakes.

The Taliban faction behind a massacre at a university in northwest Pakistan this week issues a video message Friday vowing to target schools throughout the country.

As grieving Pakistani parents lament the government's failure to keep their children safe, analysts say the Taliban have sent a message with their latest campus massacre -- a national crackdown on extremism has failed and they can hit targets at will.

Nepal police said yesterday they fired on demonstrators, killing three, after fresh violence erupted in the country's southern plains where ethnic minority protesters have mounted a months-long battle over a new constitution.

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed landed in Britain yesterday, his aide told AFP, after the Indian Ocean islands' government granted him prison leave for urgent surgery.

Legendary classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai has died at the age of 97 in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

A rocket fired from Afghanistan hit a shop in a restive Pakistani tribal region close to the Afghan border yesterday, killing three people, officials said. The

In the tiny hamlet of Mawlynnong in India's far north east, plastic is banned and spotless paths are lined with flowers -- but its reputation as Asia's cleanest village has proved a mixed blessing.

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) have agreed to begin discussions on the possibility of having a BBIN Rail Agreement drawing on the draft Saarc Regional Rail Agreement template.

21 people die in a Taliban assault on a university in Pakistan Wednesday, where witnesses report two large explosions as security forces move in under dense fog to halt the bloodshed.

Talks between the Nepali government and minority groups to resolve a dispute over a new constitution have fallen apart, opposition

Police in India's Madhya Pradesh state yesterday arrested some members of a Hindu group for attacking a Muslim couple on suspicion that they were carrying beef.

Pakistani authorities have shut down several religious schools run by the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group accused of masterminding an attack this month on an air base in India, the provincial law minister said yesterday.

Sri Lanka's prime minister yesterday promised greater political power to the island's Tamil minority under a new constitution aimed at preventing a return to ethnic war and healing the wounds of the past.

New Delhi yesterday wrapped up a trial of draconian driving restrictions that has taken around a million cars off the roads and seen even judges and diplomats

India's capital Delhi ends a two-week trial that imposed major restrictions on private cars to curb alarming levels of pollution.

This year for the first time the Biswa Ijtema is being held in four phases to deal with the huge crowd and lack of accommodation for the devotees.

According to the latest United Nations estimates, 244 million people, or 3.3% of the world's population, live in a country other than the one where they were born.

Tens of thousands of Nepalis left homeless after April's massive earthquake will have to spend years living in temporary shelters, the country's reconstruction chief has told AFP.

India and Pakistan have agreed to reschedule talks between their foreign secretaries, the Indian foreign ministry said yesterday, while an investigation into a deadly attack on an Indian military base is carried out.