North Korea fired two ballistic missiles early yesterday, South Korea’s military said, the nuclear-armed country’s fourth launch this week as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington ramp up joint military drills to counter Pyongyang.

The death toll of a suicide bombing on a Kabul classroom has risen to 35, the UN said yesterday, as Shia Hazara women who bore the brunt of the attack staged a defiant protest against the “genocide” of their minority community.

Myanmar’s junta sentenced an Australian economist to three years in prison yesterday while also handing down another conviction to ousted

A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case Thursday and sentenced Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison for violating Myanmar’s official secrets act, a legal official said.

UN investigators said yesterday that the Myanmar junta commanders who ordered an attack this month on a school that left a dozen children dead could be liable for war crimes.

Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said late on Sunday he planned to formally resign from the role, a change that comes as the country grapples with an economic crisis exacerbated by destructive flooding.

A blast outside a mosque attended by Taliban members in the Afghan capital killed seven people minutes after Friday prayers had ended, according to a hospital.

At least 13 people including seven children were killed when army helicopters shot at a school in Myanmar, media reports and residents said, as the military said it opened fire because rebels were using the building to attack its forces.

A Pakistan high court yesterday quashed terrorism charges against former prime minister Imran Khan, his defence lawyers said.

At least six children were killed and 17 wounded when army helicopters shot at a school in Myanmar, media reports and residents said on Monday, as the military said it opened fire because rebels were using the building to attack its forces.

The UN Human Rights Office has called out to countries to do more to cut the Myanmar military’s access to revenue and arms supply to halt its repression of the people.

North Korea has passed a law declaring its readiness to launch preventive nuclear strikes, including in the face of conventional attacks, state media said.

A fire tore through a karaoke bar in southern Vietnam killing 12 people and leaving 11 injured, a local official said Wednesday.

Engineers breached Pakistan’s biggest freshwater lake to drain water threatening nearby towns, officials said yesterday, as heavy rain poured misery on millions affected by the country’s worst floods in history.

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah yesterday called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to act more urgently in its efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and spur a peace process in junta-ruled Myanmar.

The leader of Myanmar’s military junta will travel to Russia next week for economic talks, state media in the Southeast Asian nation reported yesterday.

The toll from cataclysmic floods in Pakistan continued to climb yesterday with 57 more deaths, 25 of them children, as the country grapples with a relief and rescue operation of near unprecedented scale.

Deposed Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa faced calls for his arrest yesterday after returning home from self-imposed exile under the protection of the government that took charge when he fled.

Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s deposed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to end his self-imposed exile in Thailand and return home early today, a top defence official told AFP yesterday.

A Myanmar junta court yesterday sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail “with hard labour”, for electoral fraud in the 2020 polls that her party won in a landslide, a source said.