The bodies of 14 people have been found washed up on a beach in Myanmar, police said yesterday, with a local rescue group saying some were Rohingya attempting to reach Malaysia.

Long queues snaked around gas stations in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital and its outskirts yesterday even though the island nation’s government was scrambling to deliver fuel supplies and douse any unrest as it battles a devastating economic crisis.

President Joe Biden vowed yesterday that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily if China attempted to take control of the self-ruled island by force, warning Beijing was already “flirting with danger”.

The bodies of 14 people have been found washed up on a beach in Myanmar, police told AFP on Monday, with a local rescue group saying some were Rohingya attempting to reach Malaysia.

Women presenters on Afghanistan’s leading news channels went on air yesterday with their faces covered, a day after defying a Taliban order to conceal their appearance on television.

Women presenters on Afghanistan's leading TV channels yesterday went on air without covering their faces, defying a Taliban order that they conceal their appearance to comply with the group's austere brand of Islam.

The defence chief of Myanmar’s shadow government has called for international help to arm its resistance forces fighting the ruling military,

Thailand’s public health minister, who has spearheaded the country’s drive to decriminalize cannabis, says the government will distribute 1 million of the plants free when most legal restrictions on production and possession of the drug are lifted next month.

The son of the disgraced late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos yesterday vowed to work for all people after his stunning election victory, and told the world to judge him by his presidency, not his family’s past.

The Philippines woke to a new but familiar political landscape on Tuesday, after an election triumph by Ferdinand Marcos Jr paved the way for a once unimaginable return to the country's highest office for its most notorious political dynasty.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr looked on course for a huge victory in the Philippines presidential election on Monday, after an unofficial tally of two thirds of the votes showed the son of the notorious late dictator surging ahead of his nearest rival.

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.

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.

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.

The Supreme Court in military-ruled Myanmar on Wednesday struck down an appeal from deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi against a five-year jail sentence she was handed last week on corruption charges.

Law enforcers in Malaysia have arrested seven Bangladeshi workers in connection with the killing of their compatriot in Sitiawan, Perak.

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka announced a 40 percent price hike for dozens of commonly used medicines yesterday as the island nation labours through its worst economic crisis in decades.