A group of young men were recently stopped at a security checkpoint in Yangon and asked to hand over their mobile phones. After being questioned about social media apps on their phones, one was fined for using a virtual private network (VPN).

A UN report seen by Reuters says the Taliban and its allies are believed to have killed scores of former Afghan officials, security force members and people who worked with the international military contingent since the U.S.-led pullout.

Bhutan’s success in avoiding coronavirus is almost unrivalled but a rare patient death -- just the kingdom’s fourth -- shows more work was needed to fight the pandemic there, its leader says.

Indian troops yesterday killed five militants, including a top commander from the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) group, in stepped-up anti-militancy operations in Kashmir, police said.

Gunmen shot dead a Christian priest and wounded his colleague in an ambush in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday, police said.

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will meet next month to discuss humanitarian aid for Myanmar, the current chair of the grouping, Cambodia, said yesterday. Cambodia’s foreign minister, and Asean special envoy, Prak Sokhonn, is a preparing for his first visit to Myanmar, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The world must work to avert more violence and even civil war in Myanmar, China’s ambassador to the UN said Friday.

The army takeover in Myanmar a year ago that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi not only unexpectedly aborted the country’s fledgling return to democracy: It also brought a surprising level of popular resistance, which has blossomed into a low-level, but persistent, insurgency.

The United Nations yesterday urged the world to ramp up the pressure on Myanmar’s junta to cease violence against the country’s own people and quickly restore civilian rule.

As Omicron pushes Western countries towards reopening, Asia is hunkering down, sharpening an East-West divide on the balance between public health, the economy and basic rights and freedoms.

China has agreed that the UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet can visit Xinjiang after the Beijing Olympics, the South China Morning Post said, citing unidentified sources.

Pakistan today gave a visa to an Indian man who recently had a tearful reunion with his brother from Pakistan 74 years after the Indian subcontinent’s partition separated them.

Separatist insurgents have claimed responsibility for an attack on a Pakistani army post near a southwestern port in which China is investing, and the army said 10 soldiers were killed.

Japan will contribute UD$ 2 million in emergency grant aid for supporting the displaced Rohingyas living at Bhasan Char in Bangladesh.

China has returned an Indian citizen who “illegally” entered into Chinese territory at the disputed border between the two Asian giants, a military official said yesterday.

North Korea fired two suspected ballistic missiles yesterday, Seoul said, its sixth weapons test this month.  Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected two suspected short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Hamhung city area towards the East Sea from around 8:00 am. North Korea has not tested

Scientists discovered more than 200 new species across the greater Mekong region in 2020, according to a WWF report, despite the threats posed by climate change and human activities such as logging.

China warned the United States to “stop interfering” in the Winter Olympics yesterday, a week before the controversy-hit Games are due to start in Beijing.

The Taliban must uphold the fundamental human rights of women and children, the United Nations chief said Wednesday, urging the international community to release frozen Afghan aid to prevent families from selling their babies to buy food.

India’s capital yesterday announced the end of a weekend curfew and eased other stringent coronavirus restrictions yesterday, with government data suggesting the country’s recent Omicron variant outbreak had slowed.