Indian income tax authorities tonight said it has found tax “evasion” of Rs 700 crore over six years by the Dainik Bhaskar business group whose leading Hindi newspaper and TV channel were critical of the government’s Covid handling.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been named the new chairperson of the parliamentary party of Trinamool Congress in a move aimed at giving her a higher national profile ahead of next parliamentary elections in 2024. 

Myanmar has appointed a new temporary head of its embassy in London, Britain's foreign ministry said on Friday, replacing the previous ambassador who was ousted after breaking ranks with the military government over its February 1 coup.

Pakistan called on the United Nations on Friday to investigate whether India used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to spy on public figures including Prime Minister Imran Khan.

An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 struck south of the Philippine capital early on Saturday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

Indian tax authorities have raided a prominent newspaper and a TV channel that have been critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, triggering accusations of intimidation. 

Indian PM Narendra Modi’s main political rival Rahul Gandhi yesterday demanded an inquiry into the Pegasus spyware scandal, accusing the government of “treason”, according to an AFP report.

Thirty-seven people have been rescued from a migrant boat with 45 people on board that sank south of Turkey, and Turkish naval ships and an aircraft are continuing search and rescue operations, the defence ministry said on Friday.

At least 67 people have died in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said on Friday, after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooded low-lying areas, cutting off hundreds of villages.

A Trinamool Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, Shantanu Sen, was today suspended for the remaining period of the month-long monsoon session.

Afghanistan's Vice-president Amrullah Saleh has hit out at Pakistani trolls by tweeting the iconic picture of the signing of the instrument of surrender by Pakistan’s army in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.

India has reported the first human death due to Avian influenza as an 11-year-old boy succumbed to the virus H5N1 in Gurugram, a satellite city of Delhi, in Haryana state.

If ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan by Trinamul Congress set the ball rolling for the 2021 Bengal assembly polls, then this time it will set the pitch for 2024 parliamentary elections to oust the BJP from Centre, declared the Bengal chief minister and Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee as she announced that the state will observe ‘Khela Hobe Diwas’ on August 16.

Russia is cooperating closely with Myanmar to supply military hardware including aircraft, the Interfax news agency cited Alexander Mikheev, the head of Russian state arms trader Rosoboronexport, as saying.

Malaysian police have arrested 49 men -- 48 of them Bangladeshis -- in connection with a prayer gathering, in violation of Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP), outside a surau (Islamic assembly building) in Taman Pelangi area of Johor state.

At least three rockets landed in the Afghan capital Tuesday ahead of a speech by President Ashraf Ghani marking the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Azha.

To quell the growing debate surrounding Indian parliament’s youngest cabinet member Nisith Kumar Pramanik’s citizenship, a visit was paid to his ancestral home in Gaibandha where his family alleviated concerns and reiterated that he is in fact Indian.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the Taliban should "end the occupation of their brothers' soil", and played down a warning from the militant group of consequences if Turkish troops remain in Afghanistan to run Kabul airport.

Taiwan’s government yesterday said it had granted emergency-use approval to a coronavirus vaccine made locally by Medigen, with experts saying early data suggested it was similarly effective to AstraZeneca’s jabs. 

At least 28 people were killed yesterday when a bus packed with people heading home for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday in Pakistan crashed into a truck, officials said.