Giant pumps whir deep underground at a plant in Singapore that helps transform sewage into water so clean it is fit for human consumption while reducing ocean pollution. 

Myanmar’s junta had “nothing to do” with an alleged plot to attack the country’s ambassador to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun, who has defied the military and backed the pro-democracy movement, state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said yesterday.

1966 - A treaty to end three years of hostilities between Malaysia and Indonesia was signed in Jakarta.

India today asked all citizens living in and around Afghanistan’s third largest city Mazar-e-Sharif to return home by a special flight this evening, amidst reports that the Taliban are preparing to launch an attack to capture the city.

The United States said it was up to Afghan security forces to defend the country after Taliban militants captured a sixth provincial capital on Monday, along with border towns and trade routes.

South Korea’s health minister apologised for Covid-19 vaccine shortages yesterday, saying US drugmaker Moderna Inc would deliver less than half its planned shipment this month due to production issues.

Sri Lanka has begun mass cremations to clear a backlog of dead bodies from Covid-19 as cases surge across the island, officials said yesterday.

Nepal’s indigenous peoples have been subjected to human rights violations including torture and unlawful killings under the country’s conservation policies, Amnesty International and a local activist group said yesterday.

The threat to human rights and bodily integrity are the “highest in police stations”, Chief Justice of India Justice N V Ramana said at a function on Sunday, expressing concern about custodial torture, reports NDTV online.

More than seven decades after the Indian communists gave the slogan of “ye azadi jhoota hai,”  the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to mark the country’s independence day with fanfare on August 15 and will hoist the national flag in all its party offices.

Rohingyas have no desire to be citizens of Bangladesh and their only goal is to go back to Myanmar, said Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights today in response to recent World Bank report that suggested refugee integration in 14 of the host countries.

South Korea and the United States will begin preliminary military drills on Tuesday, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, despite North Korea's warning that the exercises would dent signs of an inter-Korean thaw.

Indian security agencies have apprehended 740 infiltrators along the India-Bangladesh border within the first six months of this year, Indian Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt told Rajya Sabha today.

More than seven decades after the Indian communists gave the slogan of “ye azadi jhoota hai”, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to mark the country’s independence day with fanfare on August 15 and will hoist the national flag at all its party offices.

Taliban fighters overran three provincial capitals including the strategic northeastern city of Kunduz on Sunday, local officials said, as the insurgents intensified pressure on the north and threatened further cities.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested five people for allegedly posting defamatory content against judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court

The Congress yesterday said its leader Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account had been “temporarily locked” after the social media platform countered the

Myanmar protesters yesterday marked the anniversary of a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that brought Aung San Suu Kyi to prominence, with flash mobs and marches of defiance against the ruling junta. 

More than a thousand homes were damaged and about 5,000 people evacuated in North Korea after flooding caused by heavy rains, the country’s state broadcaster reported, with swathes of farmland also inundated by the deluge.

The Taliban tightened the noose around northern Afghanistan yesterday, capturing three more provincial capitals as they take their fight to the cities after seizing much of the countryside in recent months.