Indian police raided rural hamlets and made arrests to break up a bootlegging cartel after 86 people died from consuming illegally-produced alcohol in the northwestern state of Punjab, officials say.

As many as 11 people died after a huge rail-mounted crane collapsed at the premises of Hindustan Shipyard Limited in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam, District Collector Vinay Chand has informed.

Amidst a sharp spike in coronavirus cases, India’s West Bengal state has witnessed a subdued celebration of Eid-ul-Azha as Muslims offered prayers at mosques and homes by maintaining social distancing.

China yesterday accused the United States of stoking a new Cold War because certain politicians were searching for a scapegoat to bolster support ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra yesterday vacated her official bungalow at Delhi’s posh Lodhi Estate area before the deadline specified in a July 1 eviction order.

The biggest party in Malaysia’s ruling coalition yesterday said it will withdraw from a political alliance with the prime minister but will continue to support the government, potentially undermining the stability of his administration.

The first five Rafale fighter jets bought from France in a multi-billion-dollar deal landed in India yesterday and the defence minister used their arrival to launch a veiled warning to neighbouring China over territorial tensions.

Coronavirus infections in India passed 1.5 million and deaths neared 35,000 yesterday, but test results in Mumbai slums cast further doubt on official data in the world’s second-most populous nation.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held the first joint virtual conference with his counterparts from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal during which he proposed a four-point plan to contain the novel coronavirus pandemic, boost economic recovery and resumption of the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) infrastructure projects.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called his country’s nuclear weapons a solid security guarantee and a “reliable, effective” deterrent that could prevent a second war on the Korean Peninsula.

China yesterday announced the suspension of Hong Kong’s extradition treaties with Canada, Australia and Britain in a tit-for-tat move following similar decisions by those countries over a controversial new security law.

Chinese and Indian troops have “completed disengagement” on most parts of the disputed border between their two countries, China’s foreign ministry said yesterday, after violent clashes broke out earlier this year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared an emergency and a lockdown in a border town after a person suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border.

Vietnam is back on high alert for the coronavirus after medical officials in the central city of Danang detected the country’s first locally transmitted case for three months.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has announced his new Cabinet, in a reshuffle that will see six of the fifteen ministries headed by new ministers.

Malaysia reached a $3.9 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs yesterday over the Wall Street titan’s role in the 1MDB scandal in exchange for the country ending all criminal proceedings against the bank.

Vietnam’s PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has issued a directive to ban the Southeast Asian country’s wildlife trade with immediate effect in order to reduce the risk of new pandemics, a government statement said.

It has been almost two years since Bugra Arkin’s father Aierken was abruptly snatched from his home in China’s troubled Xinjiang region by national security agents.

Human Rights Watch has called for Japan to immediately cancel plans to donate money to Myanmar police to purchase vehicles and communications equipment, saying the force has a well-documented record of serious human rights violations, including against the Rohingya population in the country.

China orders the United States to close its consulate in the city of Chengdu, in a tit-for-tat response to being told to shut its consulate in Houston earlier, as relations between the two world powers deteriorates further.