Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's brother enters prison to begin a five-year sentence after he was convicted of corruption, the semi-official ISNA news agency reports, citing his lawyer.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vows to surmount US-led sanctions on his country in state media reports alongside evocative propaganda images of him riding a white horse seen as foretelling significant decisions before his own deadline for US movement on nuclear talks expires.

New Delhi banned the use of diesel generators yesterday as pollution levels in the Indian capital exceeded safe limits by more than four times.

The death toll in the worst typhoon to hit Japan for decades climbed to 66 yesterday as rescuers slogged through mud and debris in an increasingly grim search for the missing, and as thousands of homes remained without power or water.

Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected militants and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said yesterday.

Embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam yesterday ruled out making any concessions to pro-democracy protesters in the face of escalating violence, which police said was now “life threatening” citing the detonation of a small bomb.

Under pressure from China, Apple has removes a smartphone app that enabled Hong Kong protesters to track police.

Tens of thousands of rescuers worked into last night to find survivors of a powerful typhoon in Japan that killed at least 56 people, as fresh rain threatened to hamper their efforts.

Economists Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer win the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize for their work in fighting global poverty, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences say.

Asserting that the Muslims in India are the “happiest”, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) supremo Mohan Bhagwat said that people of other faiths have sought refuge in India due to the “Hindu culture”.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday visited Iran on a mission to act as a “facilitator” between Tehran and Riyadh and try to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said it would take four months for Jammu and Kashmir to return to normal after his government stripped the state of its special status in August and imposed harsh restrictions.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wound up two days of meetings in Nepal yesterday with separate deals for a rail link to Tibet and a tunnel, an official said, as the Himalayan nation seeks to end an Indian dominance over its trade routes by increasing connectivity with Beijing.

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and riot police clashed in chaotic scenes around the city yesterday with police in full riot gear chasing protesters through crowds of horrified lunchtime shoppers.

Suspected ethnic Rakhine rebels disguised as a sports team stormed a bus in rural Myanmar and took 31 hostages -- mostly off-duty firefighters and construction workers -- authorities said yesterday.

Japan sends tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history, which kills 23 people and briefly paralyses Tokyo.

The Bangladesh Embassy in Tokyo opens a helpline to provide assistance to Bangladesh expatriates in Japan as Typhoon Hagibis made landfall on Izu Peninsula, southwest of Tokyo.

Japan yesterday braced for a powerful typhoon barrelling towards Tokyo that has already forced the cancellation of two Rugby World Cup matches, disrupted the Suzuka Grand Prix and grounded flights.

Taiwan’s president yesterday rejected a “one country, two systems” formula that Beijing has suggested could be used to unify the island and the mainland, saying such an arrangement had set Hong Kong “on the edge of disorder”.

North Korea yesterday slammed a statement by European UN Security Council members urging strict enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang for its latest missile test, calling the move a “serious provocation”.