North Korea fired two short-range missiles at the weekend, US and South Korean officials said, but Washington played down the first such tests under President Joe Biden and said it was still open to dialogue with Pyongyang.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan received a letter of goodwill from his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Tuesday, a Pakistani senior Cabinet minister said, as relations thaw between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

A Singaporean blogger was ordered yesterday to pay almost $100,000 in damages for defaming the prime minister by sharing an article on Facebook linking the leader to a corruption scandal.

A consortium of private Japanese firms and a Japanese state entity paid rent on a multi-million dollar hotel and office development that ultimately went to Myanmar’s defence ministry, six company and government officials told Reuters.

Myanmar activists plan more anti-coup protests, including a silent strike with many businesses due to close and calls for people to stay home, after a seven-year-old girl was killed in her home when security forces opened fire during a crackdown in Mandalay.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prospects for retaining power were uncertain after exit polls in the country’s fourth national election in two years projected yet another stalemate.

Hong Kong and Macau said they were suspending the use of Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine after being informed of a packaging problem with a batch of vials.

US President Joe Biden urged Congress to swiftly pass gun control laws and may take action on his own to stop mass violence, the White House said, a day after the second deadly mass shooting in a week.

The European Commission will extend EU powers to potentially block Covid-19 vaccine exports to Britain and other areas with much higher vaccination rates, and to cover instances of companies backloading contracted supplies, EU officials said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has got vaccinated against the Covid-19 with a vaccine and is feeling well, RIA said yesterday citing the Kremlin, as authorities seek to encourage more Russians to take the shot.

Norwegian police yesterday said they have begun questioning Prime Minister Erna Solberg over a birthday party she held last month, which could lead to a fine of 10,000 crowns ($1,165) for breaking Covid-19 social distancing rules.

Roughly 60 migrants are presumed dead after their boat engine caught fire off the Libyan coast during an attempted Mediterranean crossing, a rescue charity said yesterday.

Israelis yesterday voted in a fourth election in two years, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hoping a world-beating Covid-19 vaccine rollout will win him another term.

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet as an NFT for just over $2.9 million dollars on Monday. The tweet is in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) - a kind of unique digital asset that has exploded in popularity so far in 2021.

The West Bengal BJP yesterday released what could be its final list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls. It has 13 names - but no Mithun Chakraborty.

Russia and China yesterday said they wanted a summit of permanent members of the UN Security Council amid what they called heightened political turbulence, with Moscow saying they both believed the United States was acting in a destructive way.

Scores of people have died in the deadliest suspected jihadist massacre ever to hit Niger, the government said Monday, underscoring the huge security challenge facing new President Mohamed Bazoum.

UN human rights boss Michelle Bachelet was given a mandate yesterday to collect and preserve information and evidence of crimes related to Sri Lanka’s long civil war, which ended in 2009 with the defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers.

Leaked videos of staff from Australia’s conservative government performing sex acts in parliament, including one man performing a lewd act over a female MP’s desk, left Scott Morrison’s administration facing yet another major scandal yesterday.

Authorities in Delhi and Mumbai today banned public celebration of Holi, the Hindu festival of colour, next week amidst rising cases of Covid-19, our Delhi correspondent reports.