A South Korean has crossed the heavily fortified border in a rare defection to North Korea, South Korea’s military said yesterday.

The Air Force’s inquiry into the chopper crash that killed CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 armed forces personnel is almost complete and will be submitted soon, sources told NDTV yesterday.

Married off at seven to a man old enough to be her great-grandfather, Fatema endured rapes, beatings and starvation until she could take no more and tried to kill herself. Through tears she recalls the beatings she received -- like the time, aged 10, she was flung against a wall and “my head crashed against a nail... I almost died”.

Sri Lanka’s food prices rose by a record 22.1 percent in December, official figures showed yesterday, as the country struggles to finance urgent imports to tackle an acute shortage of essentials.

Twelve people were crushed to death in a stampede at an Indian religious shrine in the early hours of yesterday as tens of thousands of pilgrims massed to offer prayers, officials said.

Bangladesh and India have resumed monitoring the water level of the Ganges and Padma rivers at different points under the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty 1996.

At least 12 people were killed and 14 injured in a stampede caused by a surge of devotees on the New Year's Day at a famous hill-top Hindu shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian media reported today.

India hit out at China for giving “invented” names to several places in a disputed Himalayan region on their border as Beijing looks to assert sovereignty over the territory.

In a sprawling settlement of mud brick huts in western Afghanistan housing people displaced by drought and war, a woman is fighting to save her daughter.

More than 100 Rohingya refugees who had been adrift on a sinking boat off the western coast of Indonesia were allowed to disembark early today after authorities relented following international pressure to allow the group to seek refuge.

The European Union yesterday called for an international arms embargo on Myanmar’s junta and for toughening its own sanctions following last week’s massacre of more than 30 people.

A Myanmar junta court yesterday sentenced two close aides of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to two years in jail for sedition, a legal

India’s tiger conservation body said 126 of the endangered big cats died in 2021, the highest toll since it began compiling data a decade ago. The

The Taliban’s supreme leader has ordered fighters not to punish members of Afghanistan’s former regime for past “crimes”, days after a video of an army commander being beaten went viral on social media.

The Indian government yesterday extended a special law giving armed forces sweeping powers in the north-eastern state of Nagaland, days after a botched army ambush killed 14 people.

An Indonesian navy ship on Thursday was towing a boat carrying 120 Rohingya Muslims into port after it had drifted for days off the country’s northernmost province of Aceh, a navy official said.

China will take “drastic measures” if Taiwan makes moves towards independence, a Beijing official warned yesterday, adding that Taiwan’s provocations and outside meddling could intensify next year. 

Vietnam reported economic growth for 2021 of just 2.58 per cent on Wednesday, beating a 30-year low set last year as the pandemic continues to take a toll.

Indonesia yesterday said it will let dozens of Rohingya refugees come ashore after protests from locals and the international community over its plan to push them into Malaysian waters. 

Hong Kong pro-democracy media outlet Stand News shut down yesterday after police raided its office, froze its assets and arrested senior staff on suspected “seditious publication” offences in the latest crackdown on the city’s media.