An Australian student arrested for spying and expelled from North Korea last year said he was forced to write a false confession while held incommunicado.

A new virus from the same family as the deadly SARS pathogen could have been spread between family members in the Chinese city of Wuhan, local authorities said yesterday.

Russia’s government resigned in a shock announcement yesterday after President Vladimir Putin proposed a shake-up of the constitution.

The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack on an army base in western Niger on January 9 that killed scores of soldiers, the monitoring group SITE said.

The United States warned Sudan Tuesday that payment of reparations for victims of terrorism is a priority for Washington as it considers removing Khartoum from a US blacklist.

China must rethink its hardline stance towards Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen said yesterday, as she warned the island was already independent and that any invasion would be “very costly” for Beijing.

The UN’s top court will deliver its decision next week on whether emergency measures should be imposed on Myanmar over alleged genocide against its Rohingya Muslims, the Gambian government tweeted yesterday.

New video footage has emerged showing two Iranian missiles tearing through the night sky and hitting a Ukrainian passenger plane, sending the aircraft down in flames and killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.

Three people, including two Rohingyas, were killed in separate “gunfights” with law enforcers in Cox’s Bazar and Faridpur districts early yesterday.

Amid huge criticism, the government yesterday withdrew the circular banning publication of any public hospital’s information without the consent from the authorities concerned.

At least 59 people were killed and many more were missing after avalanches in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir over the last 24 hours, senior government officials said yesterday.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has expressed his disappointment with India’s new Citizenship Amendment Act and expressed his desire that Bangladeshi immigrants would help create the next unicorn in India or become the CEO of Infosys.

The Mainamati-Lalmai hillocks on the campus premises of Comilla University are at risk.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the Bangladeshi envoys to strengthen the country’s relations with the Muslim countries.

The BNP lawmakers walked out of parliament last night following an argument with two senior Awami League MPs over holding the upcoming Dhaka city polls in a free and fair manner.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, today begins her final mission, which will last till January 23.

Time is running out for Washington and Pyongyang to reach a deal on North Korea’s nuclear weapons, the South’s President Moon Jae-in -- who brokered their talks -- warned yesterday.

Taal volcano in the Philippines could spew lava and ash for weeks, authorities warned yesterday, leaving tens of thousands in limbo after they fled their homes fearing a massive eruption.

A male tiger noses the bloodied carcass of its latest kill in a Thai national park, extraordinary footage conservationists are hailing as a rare spot of good news for the endangered big cats.

Hopes of containing Australia’s months-long bushfire crisis rose yesterday with heavy rain forecast, but toxic smoke in Melbourne disrupted warm-up events for the year’s first tennis Grand Slam.