Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, slammed South Korea’s president as “a parrot raised by America” for calling the North’s recent missile test “concerning”, state media KCNA reported yesterday.

Nepal has ordered schools to close for four days after air pollution climbed to hazardous levels, forcing millions of students to stay home across the country.

A billionaire Thai opposition figure was charged yesterday with defaming the monarchy after he questioned the government’s alleged over-reliance on coronavirus vaccines from a company linked to the royal family.

Chinese leaders endorsed a sweeping overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system yesterday, creating powers to vet anyone standing for public office and slashing the number of directly elected politicians.

The United States will seize products made by Malaysia’s Top Glove after concluding the firm uses forced labour, officials said, dealing a fresh blow to the world’s biggest surgical glove maker.

Gunmen killed three Afghan women involved in a nationwide polio immunisation programme yesterday, officials said, a day after authorities launched a new drive against the crippling disease.

The number of US-bound migrant children crossing the dangerous Darien jungle in Panama on foot has increased more than 15-fold in recent years and is likely to rise further during the pandemic, the UN children’s agency has warned.

The cost of global warming will far outweigh the cost of rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, more than 700 economists from around the world said yesterday in an unprecedented call to climate action.

The United Nations will urge international donors to pledge up to $10 billion to help Syrians fleeing a decade of civil war in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that the need for humanitarian support has never been so great.

China approved a sweeping overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system, drastically curbing democratic representation in the city as authorities seek to ensure “patriots” rule the global financial hub.

Facebook has said it planned two new undersea cables to connect Singapore, Indonesia and North America in a project with Google and regional telecommunication companies to boost internet connection capacity between the regions.

Canadian health officials said they would stop offering AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to people under age 55 and require a new analysis of the shot’s benefits and risks based on age and gender.

Petr Kellner, the Czech Republic’s richest man, was killed in a helicopter crash on a skiing trip in Alaska.

Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 500 civilians in nearly two months of efforts to stop protests against a February 1 coup, an advocacy group said, as thousands of people took to the streets again despite the growing toll.

Shipping traffic through Egypt's Suez Canal resumes after a giant container ship which had been blocking the busy waterway for almost a week was refloated, the canal authority said.

A joint WHO-China study on the origins of Covid-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.

China generated 53% of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, nine percentage points more that five years earlier, despite climate pledges and the building of hundreds of renewable energy plants, according to a global data study.

US President Joe Biden has led global condemnation of an "absolutely outrageous" crackdown by Myanmar's junta that left more than 100 people -- including several children -- dead in the bloodiest day since the February 1 coup.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a Cabinet reshuffle following a series of damaging allegations.

Indonesian state oil company Pertamina has said it was trying to control a massive fire at its Balongan oil refinery in West Java that injured five people and led to the evacuation of 950 nearby residents.