The United States and its two main military allies in Asia, South Korea and Japan, pledged a combined push to secure a comprehensive, hard-hitting international response to North Korea's latest nuclear test. The leaders of the three countries, who have long sought to project a united front against the North Korean nuclear threat, spoke by phone a day after Pyongyang's shock announcement that it had tested its first hydrogen bomb.

Eleven miners were found dead yesterday after a Chinese coal mine caved in, state media reported, the latest fatal industrial accident in the country where work safety standards are poorly enforced.

Expressing concern at the recent nuclear tests carried out by the North Korea, Bangladesh urges the country to refrain from any activity which can potentially escalate the situation.

Beijing has rejected a protest from Vietnam after a Chinese plane landed on a contested reef in the South China Sea, saying the operation took place within Chinese territory.

A huge fire rips through a luxury Dubai hotel Thursday night, injuring 16 people, just a few hours before the emirate celebrated the new year with a spectacular fireworks display nearby.

The first-ever national contest for cremation workers cuts to the heart of Chinese ideas about death, land use and a desire to instill national pride in a stigmatised vocation.

The first hotline between China and Taiwan was launched yesterday, in a move designed to build ties between the two sides following a historic summit

Eight people were found alive in a Chinese gypsum mine yesterday, state media said, five days after it collapsed in an accident that reportedly prompted its

A group of street children is bound by a shared passion to bring out Balaknama (Voice of Children), an eight-page quarterly newspaper which focuses on children living and working on the streets.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lands in Pakistan on a surprise visit in which he will meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

The death toll from a ferry disaster in central Indonesia rises to 63 with a handful of people still missing as the search and rescue operation winds down, an official says.

More than 100 million people in China have been warned to stay indoors after at least 10 Chinese cities issued red alerts for smog, state media reported yesterday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet yesterday approved Japan's biggest ever annual defence budget, as the country bolsters its military amid territorial rows and concerns over China's expanding naval reach.

A local Taliban commander and 50 fighters have been killed in overnight fighting in the Sangin district of Helmand province, Afghan officials say.

A suicide vehicle bomb attack on a patrol near a base at Bagram in eastern Afghanistan kills six foreign soldiers and injured three, Nato says.

Beijing authorities have issued a second pollution "red alert", little more than a week after its first ever such warning.

China has summoned the US envoy to protest Washington's sale of warships to Taiwan, as part of a massive $1.8 billion arms package, Beijing said yesterday.

Pollution red alerts spread to more Chinese cities, state media reported yesterday as Beijing entered its third day of heavy smog, with officials warning poor

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says there is "no evidence" Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour is dead, after reports of an internal gunfight.

Schools in Beijing are closed and outdoor construction halted as the Chinese capital's first ever pollution "red alert"red alert" came into effect.