New Delhi will hold elections next month, officials said yesterday, in a key popularity test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party as it reels from nationwide protests over a new citizenship law.

Beijing’s new top envoy to Hong Kong said he hoped the protest ravaged city would “return to the right path” as he took up his post yesterday.

A Rohingya man is detained with fake passport and other documents after he lands at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka from Malaysia.

The UN General Assembly approves a resolution strongly condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention.

The death toll from Typhoon Phanfone's battering of the Philippines on Christmas Day has risen to 28, and will likely climb further, authorities say.

Twelve people died and dozens were injured when a passenger plane carrying 100 people crashed shortly after takeoff from Kazakhstan's largest city and slammed into a house, officials say.

At least two dozen people died and 13 others were injured after a bus plunged into a ravine in Indonesia, police say.

A lot of talk is going on about unconventional and extravagant works of art created by artificial intelligence (AI) -- currently on display in various places across the nation.

Hong Kong riot police yesterday broke up a solidarity rally for China’s Uighurs -- with one officer drawing a pistol -- as the city’s pro-democracy movement likened their plight to that of the oppressed Muslim minority.

A Pakistani court yesterday sentenced a university professor to death for blasphemy under a law that critics say is often used to target minorities and liberal activists.

North Korea yesterday warned Washington would only aggravate tensions and “pay dearly” for criticising Pyongyang over human rights, with nuclear negotiations between the two deadlocked.

US President Donald Trump spoke on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and claimed progress on issues from trade to North Korea and Hong Kong, but China said Xi accused the United States of interfering in its internal affairs. The two leaders spoke a week after their envoys sealed a “Phase 1” agreement aimed at ending an 18-month trade war that has rattled markets and raised tensions.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has criticised India’s new citizenship law, which is seen as discriminatory against Muslims and has sparked deadly protests across the South Asian country.

Donald Trump kicked off Christmas vacation on Friday after a series of legislative victories gave him one of his best weeks in office -- apart from becoming only the third US president ever impeached.

China yesterday urged the UN Security Council to unanimously back its joint proposal with Russia to ease sanctions on North Korea, warning that dialogue to resolve nuclear tensions must not regress.

Malaysia will this week host a summit of Muslim leaders billed as a forum to look at the Islamic world’s problems, but it will be closely watched for Middle East power plays and their stance on China’s Uighur minority.

China’s second aircraft carrier entered service yesterday, adding major firepower to its military ambitions as it faces tensions with self-ruled Taiwan as well as the US and regional neighbours around the disputed South China Sea.

India’s new citizenship law has stoked fears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to remould the world’s largest democracy as a Hindu nation, undermining the secular and pluralist roots of the world’s biggest democracy.

Bangladesh has been ranked the top country among its South Asian neighbours by performing the best in bringing down gender gap, World Economic Forum says in its latest report.

Fourteen miners were killed in a coal and gas blast at a mine in southwest China, leaving two people still trapped underground, authorities say.