Singapore will impose a stricter ban on smartphones and smartwatches in secondary schools starting January, its education ministry said, part of a global push to combat digital distractions

Sri Lanka yesterday declared a state of emergency and appealed for international assistance as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 132, with another 176 reported missing.

The men are aged between 23 and 40 years old

"As of tonight, 61 fatalities have been recorded," says

The worst flooding Sri Lanka has experienced since the turn of the century occurred in June 2003, when 254 people were killed

The party of Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan demanded a meeting with him yesterday, saying it was worried about his health as he has been barred from seeing his family and lawyers for over three weeks.

Most of the deaths occurred in the central tea-growing district of Badulla

Another four were killed in a similar manner in the adjoining Nuwara Eliya district.

Raids follow twin suicide bombings in Peshawar that killed three paramilitary personnel

A suicide bombing killed three Pakistani paramilitary personnel yesterday at a security headquarters in Peshawar city, officials said, the latest deadly violence in the province bordering Afghanistan.

'Three Federal Constabulary personnel deployed at the gate were martyred and four others were wounded'

Hundreds of thousands of new voters have registered to cast their ballot in Nepal’s first polls since a mass uprising in September ousted the government, election officials said yesterday.

Election Commission spokesman said there was "a total of 837,094 registered names" of first-time voters

A curfew was in force yesterday in a Nepalese town following clashes between young activists and loyalists of the former ruling party that was overthrown in a deadly September uprising.

Pakistan security forces killed 30 militants in two targeted operations near the Afghan frontier, the army said yesterday, a week after a suicide bombing killed 12 people in Islamabad.

Nine people were killed and 31 injured when confiscated explosives accidentally blew up at a police station in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said yesterday, just days after a car blast in Delhi killed a dozen people.

Pakistan’s top court called a meeting of all judges yesterday, after parliament passed a constitutional amendment this week that curbed its remit, prompting two judges to quit, saying the reform “stands as a grave assault on the constitution”.

Nepal has intensified anti-poaching operations to protect its prized tigers, elephants and rhinos after dozens of convicted poachers escaped prison during an anti-government uprising in September, conservation officers said yesterday.

A suicide bombing outside district court buildings in the Pakistani capital Islamabad killed at least 12 people and wounded 27 yesterday, the interior minister said.

Pakistani Taliban claimed a suicide bombing that killed at least 12 people in Islamabad