North Korea said on Sunday the United Nations Security Council applied double standards over military activities among U.N. member states, state media KCNA said, amid international criticism over its recent missile tests

More than five months after leading her party Trinamool Congress to a landslide victory in the state assembly polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee roared back in style today.

Japan will compile a considerably large supplementary budget immediately after the upcoming general election to ease pandemic pain and back long-term growth in areas such as green, digital and infrastructure, a ruling party heavyweight said on Sunday.

A family of seven, including two children, died when their car fell into a river amid heavy rains in the suburbs of Pakistan’s capital early Saturday, police said.

Confidence among major Japanese manufacturers has improved for the fifth consecutive quarter, a key business survey showed Friday.

Fully vaccinated travellers from any country can now book holidays to tourism haven Phuket, the Thai government has announced, under tweaks to a struggling quarantine-free travel scheme.

Global manufacturing activity took a big hit from supply chain bottlenecks and escalating costs, exacerbated by pandemic-induced factory shutdowns in Asia and signs of slowing Chinese growth, surveys showed on Friday.

Ho Chi Minh City on Friday lifted a stay-at-home order that had kept its nine million residents indoors for three months and devastated business in Vietnam’s economic hub.

Afghan interpreters who worked for the Netherlands have been summoned to appear in court by the Taliban who have threatened their families, Dutch public television NOS reported on Friday. 

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday on North Korea’s recent missile tests but failed to agree on a joint statement, diplomats said. 

Taiwan yesterday accused Beijing of bullying and damaging regional peace after Chinese fighter jets and bombers made their largest ever incursion into the island’s air defence zone. 

An Indonesian man named Khoirul Anam has created a stir on social media by ‘marrying’ his rice cooker. Khoirul Anam shared a series of pictures last week that show him dressed up in fancy wedding finery for the ceremony.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said he will not run for vice president in 2022 and will retire from politics, potentially paving the way for his daughter to contest the country’s highest office. 

Children are dying of starvation in Afghanistan, local and international sources said yesterday, following warnings that a million youngsters there could face life-threatening malnutrition by the end of the year.   

Deftly parrying her son with a bamboo cane, Meenakshi Amma belies her 78 years with her prowess at kalari, thought to be India’s oldest martial art. 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday he was retiring from politics, a surprise move that fuelled speculation he was clearing the way for his daughter to run to succeed him, despite her filing for re-election as mayor.

Myanmar is facing a “severe crisis” with the number of people needing aid tripling to three million in the eight months since the military launched a coup, the UN humanitarian coordinator to the country said has said.

Myanmar’s junta has said it was unlikely an Asean special envoy tasked with facilitating dialogue in the coup-hit country would be allowed to meet ousted pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a retaliatory move, India has decided to impose a mandatory 10-day home quarantine for all British nationals, irrespective of vaccination status, arriving in the country from October 4.

Armenia has detained on corruption charges the former defence minister who headed the country’s military during last year’s disastrous war with Azerbaijan, officials said yesterday.