The United Nations Human Rights Office pressed Singapore yesterday to “urgently reconsider” its scheduled execution of a man over one kilogram of cannabis.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday the country supports the development of industrial uses of generative artificial intelligence technologies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The number of Afghans in poverty nearly doubled to 34 million as the nation was racked by the collapse of the US-backed government and the Taliban takeover, the UN said yesterday.

A landslide during a thunder and lightning storm on the main road through northwest Pakistan's Khyber Pass buried more than 20 trucks on Tuesday, killing at least two people, with dozens more feared trapped, officials said.

G7 allies met yesterday for two days of “difficult” climate talks in northern Japan, facing pressure to show progress on key fossil fuel commitments in an example to other major economies including China.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unhurt after a suspect threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb at an outdoor speech in western Japan yesterday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), criticised for its inaction over the deepening Myanmar crisis, yesterday strongly condemned air strikes that reportedly killed dozens of people

Myanmar’s ruling junta has confirmed that it carried out an air strike on a village in which dozens of people were reported killed, drawing condemnation from the United Nations and Western powers.

Sri Lanka again postponed local polls yesterday in defiance of a court order, delaying a de facto referendum on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to restore the bankrupt island nation’s finances.

Pakistan yesterday condemned India’s decision to hold Group of 20 meetings in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir next month, calling the move “irresponsible”.

Thailand’s main opposition Pheu Thai party yesterday confirmed the daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as one of its candidates to be prime minister in the kingdom’s upcoming election.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered that elections in two provinces should go ahead by May 15 despite government reluctance to hold the votes now as it struggles with an economic crisis and a political challenge from the opposition.

Eight civilians including children were killed in an air strike on a village in northwest Myanmar, according to a human rights group, ethnic minority rebels and media, the latest violence as the ruling military battles to consolidate power.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif yesterday appealed to parliament to act against predecessor Imran Khan over accusations that his party was involved in violence that erupted when police tried to arrest him for alleged corruption.

The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the United Nations said yesterday.

North Korea unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads and vowed to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to expand the country’s arsenal, state media KCNA said yesterday, as a US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for military drills.

At least 184 Rohingya refugees, including many women and children, landed in Indonesia’s westernmost province yesterday, officials said, after they were dropped at sea by boat and made to swim ashore.

Myanmar’s junta chief, flanked by tanks and missile launchers, vowed no let-up in a crackdown on opponents and said yesterday elections would be held, weeks after the military conceded it did not control enough territory to allow a vote.

The European Union and Germany yesterday said they had struck a deal after a dispute over the planned phaseout by 2035 of the sale of cars using fossil fuels.

Russia’s backing for Myanmar’s military rulers is unacceptable and destabilising, with its supply of weapons helping to fuel a conflict that has become a catastrophe for the country, a top US official said on Thursday.