India is proud of its pluralistic traditions and happy to discuss the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit beginning on Tuesday, foreign ministry sources said after Washington said he planned to raise New Delhi's human rights record.

India has no plan to print new banknotes to tide over the economic fallout triggered by Covid-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the parliament today.

Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi rode a tractor to the parliament today -- protesting the three contentious farm laws.

Al Qaeda is present in at least 15 Afghan provinces, primarily in the eastern, southern and southeastern regions, says a United Nations report prepared for the Security Council.

Malaysia’s Parliament reopened Monday for the first time this year after a seven-month suspension due to a coronavirus emergency that has failed to curb a worsening pandemic.

Asking for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Pegasus controversy, India’s senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said that the government should either go for the investigation or appoint a sitting judge of the Supreme Court to take the issue further.

Typhoon In-Fa uprooted trees and drenched communities in knee-deep water in parts of eastern China, but there were no reports of major damage as it made landfall yesterday. 

Nine people were killed by a landslide in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradeshin yesterday as boulders fell and hit the vehicle they were travelling in, news agency ANI reported.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has suggested that the Afghan security forces’ first job was to make sure they could slow the Taliban’s momentum before attempting to retake territory, as Afghan forces plan to consolidate forces around strategically important parts of the country. 

Indonesia is preparing more intensive care units after logging several days of record-high Covid-19 deaths last week, while President Joko Widodo yesterday announced an extension of restrictions by a week to August 2 to try to curb infections.

Chinese tech giant Tencent must relinquish its exclusive music label rights, the market regulator said Saturday, after finding that the firm had violated antitrust laws.

China’s growing presence in Myanmar, the Rohingya refugees, illegal immigration, and drug trafficking have serious security concerns for north east India, according to India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday that the Afghan security forces' first job was to make sure they could slow the Taliban's momentum before attempting to retake territory, as Afghan forces plan to consolidate forces around strategically important parts of the country.

Parts of India’s west coast have received up to 594 mm (23 inches) of rain, forcing authorities to move people out of vulnerable areas as they released water from dams about to overflow. The hill station of Mahabaleshwar recorded its highest ever rainfall - 60 cm in 24 hours.

A warehouse fire in northeastern China yesterday left at least fourteen people dead and twelve seriously injured, state media reported. 

China has supplied over 10,000 Covid vaccines to a Myanmar rebel group operating near its southern border, its spokesman said yesterday, as Beijing seeks to halt the influx of cases from the coup-wracked country. 

Philippine authorities moved thousands of residents in the capital, Manila, out of low-lying communities yesterday as heavy monsoon rains, compounded by a tropical storm, flooded the city and nearby provinces.

Beijing has announced sanctions on seven American citizens and entities in response to a US advisory on deteriorating freedoms in Hong Kong, just days ahead of a visit from a senior Biden administration official.  

The Indonesian island of Bali is running out of oxygen for its Covid-19 patients as infections surge, the chief of its health agency said, as Southeast Asia’s biggest country struggles with the region’s worst Covid epidemic. 

China shut down ports and railways yesterday as it braced for Typhoon In-Fa as parts of the country struggled to recover from devastating floods earlier this week.