The interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said many female city employees have been ordered to stay home by the country’s new Taliban rulers.

Hong Kong’s political elite began selecting a powerful committee yesterday which will choose the city’s next leader and nearly half the legislature under a new “patriots only” system imposed by Beijing.

Indian authorities seized over $20 million of heroin and detained seven Iranian men in a deep-sea drug bust off the country’s western coast, officials said yesterday.

Myanmar anti-junta dissidents have carried out a bomb attack on security forces near Yangon, with several killed in an ensuing firefight, the military and media said.

The Shanghai government will support companies applying for approval to sell duty-free goods, and encourage duty-free shops to be set up at airports, hotels, malls and other commercial venues, municipal authorities said.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has not ruled out seeking re-election to parliament within the next two years, he told Reuters in an interview, despite a corruption conviction that would block him from running.

Boxing star Manny Pacquiao said on Sunday he will run for president of the Philippines next year, after railing against corruption in government and what he calls President Rodrigo Duterte's cozy relationship with China.

With Covid-19 cases on a sharp decline over the last few months, India may soon allow foreign tourists for the first time in one and half years, the country’s home ministry officials said.

Myanmar anti-junta dissidents have carried out a bomb attack on security forces near Yangon, with several killed in an ensuing firefight, the military and media said.

Some Afghan girls returned to primary schools with gender-segregated classes on Saturday, but older girls faced an anxious wait with no clarity over if and when they would be able to resume their studies at the secondary school level.

Girls were excluded from returning to secondary school in Afghanistan yesterday, after the country’s new Taliban rulers ordered only boys and male teachers back to the classroom.

Taxi fleets in Thailand are giving new meaning to the term “rooftop garden,” as they utilize the roofs of cabs idled by the coronavirus crisis to serve as small vegetable plots.

At least three people were killed and about 20 wounded in a series of blasts in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Saturday, two sources in the city said.

Malaysia on Saturday expressed concerns that Australia's plan to build nuclear-powered submarines under a new pact with Britain and the United States could catalyze a nuclear arms race in the Indo-Pacific region.

Five including four Bangladeshis were charged at Malaysia’s Magistrate’s Court with abducting a Bangladeshi male and demanding Tk one million (about RM50,000) ransom in August.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has questioned the “acceptability” of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, saying it is not “inclusive”.

The U.S. military said on Friday that a drone strike in Kabul last month killed as many 10 civilians, including seven children, and it apologized for what the Pentagon said was a tragic mistake.

Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth yesterday after completing the country’s longest-ever crewed mission, the latest landmark in Beijing’s drive to become a major space power.

The head of the world’s largest vaccine maker said yesterday it was “unethical” to give third doses of the Covid-19 vaccine while developing nations are struggling to access first and second jabs.

Increasing extremism and radicalisation are the biggest threat to global peace, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday at the nine-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, and drew attention to the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan.