China is pleased to see Russia and the United States maintaining contact and improving ties to advance a political resolution of the Ukraine crisis, President Xi Jinping said in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Japanese stocks rallied Friday on a mixed day for Asian markets, fuelled by relief that Tokyo and Washington had settled a tariff issue that raised concerns about their trade deal.

The population of Japanese nationals fell by a record amount -- more than 900,000 people -- in 2024, official data showed, as the country battles to reverse its perennially low birth rates.

Indian authorities in Kashmir have banned 25 books, including a work by Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, saying the titles “excite secessionism” in the contested Muslim-majority region.

Indian exporters warned that additional US tariffs risked making businesses “not viable” after President Donald Trump ordered steeper levies on Indian goods over New Delhi’s purchasing of Russian oil.

A worst-case scenario for India on US tariffs is now the base case. New Delhi called Donald Trump’s decision on Wednesday to double the levy on the South Asian nation’s goods to 50 percent because of its Russian oil purchases “extremely unfortunate”.

Thai prosecutors indicted 23 people and firms on Thursday, in a case linked to the deadly collapse of a Bangkok high-rise in an earthquake.

Airline ANA yesterday said that, together with a US start-up, it hopes to have electric “air taxis” whizzing over Japan from as early as 2027.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said he will not compromise the interests of the country’s farmers even if he has to pay a heavy price, in his first comments after US President Donald Trump’s salvo of a 50% tariff on Indian goods.

482,336 Bangladeshis visited India on medical tourism visas in 2024, India’s Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told the country's parliament

The auto industry had a pre-existing 2.5 percent tariff, meaning the levy currently stands at 27.5 percent

Precision tools maker Disco Corporation gave up 1.3 percent and Sumco, which makes silicon wafers, lost 1.2 percent

The number of Japanese fell by 908,574, or 0.75 percent, to 120.65 million

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China for the first time in over seven years, a government source said yesterday, in a further sign of a diplomatic thaw with Beijing as tensions with the United States rise.

The United States has in recent days targeted India's oil imports from Russia

Students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph with the ruins of a domed building in the background

Sri Lanka’s parliament yesterday voted overwhelmingly to dismiss Police Chief Deshabandu Tennakoon for misconduct and criminal behaviour, making him the island’s first inspector-general to be impeached.

Japan logged a new heat record yesterday, with the mercury hitting 41.8C, the weather office said, warning temperatures may rise further still.

The level surpassed the previous record of 41.2C set only last week. The previous high was 41.1C -- seen in 2020 and in 2018.

Chinese authorities evacuated over 82,000 people across Beijing at risk from heavy rainfall, state media said, after dozens of people died in flooding in the capital's suburbs last week