China yesterday reported small coronavirus outbreaks driven by the Delta variant in three provinces as Olympics host Japan

A pro-democracy Hong Kong radio host went on trial yesterday for sedition in the first use of the colonial-era law since the city’s handover to China as authorities broaden their criminalisation of dissent. 

1912 - Japanese Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by Yoshihito. During Meiji’s reign Japan was transformed into one of the modern world’s great powers.

Tsunami warnings were lifted for Alaska and the rest of Pacific after a huge earthquake of 8.2 magnitude struck the seismically active US state in the late hours on Wednesday.

Afghan villagers searched desperately for survivors after flash flood swept down a narrow valley in a Taliban-controlled area, killing at least 40 people and destroying dozens of houses in the early hours of yesterday, officials said.

Malaysia’s embattled leader was accused of treason and urged to quit yesterday after the king denounced his crisis-hit government for misleading parliament, a rare public rebuke from the revered monarch.

Authorities estimate overall economic losses at nearly 90 billion yuan ($14 billion), a devastating blow to the province’s heavily agrarian economy after the torrent of rain last week burst dams and collapsed bridges.

Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung erupted yesterday, spewing a massive column of smoke and ash into the sky.

International calls yesterday mounted for the release of a Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and the repeal of anti-terror laws used to detain him for 15 months.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a veiled warning yesterday about Indian democracy backsliding in his first official visit to New Delhi. 

Eighteen migrant labourers sleeping on a highway in northern India after their bus broke down died when a truck rammed into the vehicle, police said yesterday.

Afghanistan would become a “pariah state” if the Taliban take control by force, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday, as a top-level delegation from the insurgent group visited China to assure officials of their international obligations. 

The Prime Minister “inserted a weapon in our phones”, used it to “hit the soul of India’s democracy” and now the government is trying to silence opposition demands for a discussion in Parliament, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said yesterday.

Three Armenian soldiers were killed in border clashes with Azerbaijani forces yesterday, in some of the heaviest fighting between the Caucasus rivals since last year’s war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

China told a visiting Taliban delegation on Wednesday it expected the insurgent group to play an important role in ending Afghanistan's war and rebuilding the country, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken today made a strong pitch for a vibrant civil society in India and America in order to make their democracies more open, inclusive and equitable.

At least 18 people, mostly farm labourers, were killed and 25 injured when a truck rammed into a stationary double-decker bus in India’s Barabanki district of Utttar Pradesh state, police said today.

A new World Bank financing mechanism will allow developing countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines collectively through the Covax facility, it was announced Monday.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut this year’s economic growth forecast for emerging Asia, as a spike in coronavirus cases from new variants and slow vaccinations cloud the region’s recovery prospects.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar yesterday called on the UN Security Council and member states to push for an emergency “Covid ceasefire” in light of an explosion of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Myanmar where attacks against the health workers escalated.