Asia

    Bangladesh has expressed grave concerns at the successive nuclear tests conducted by North Korea. With utter disregard to the concerns expressed by the international community, North Korea has carried out its 6th nuclear test on September, said the Foreign Ministry here on Monday. Such act of North Korea constitutes a threat to regional peace, security and stability, it said Bangladesh called upon DPRK to refrain from such unilateral act that deviates from the principles, commitment and obligation of states in promoting and maintaining international peace as well as regional peace and security.

    North Korea has carried out its biggest ever nuclear test, a direct challenge to Donald Trump and an act which will sharply raise tensions in north-east Asia. South Korean media said the blast was 9.8 times the strength of Pyongyang’s test last September. Fears that Kim Jong-un's regime had carried out the country's sixth nuclear test came after an earthquake was detected in the reclusive state’s north-east. Related: North Korea boasts development of advanced H-bomb - Provided by Reuters North Korea state television said Pyongyang had tested a hydrogen bomb, and the test was a 'complete success. Japan later confirmed that it was a nuclear test and lodged an official protest through North Korea's embassy in Beijing. After analysing information from the Japan Meteorological ...

    More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar’s northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades. About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope. Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive. But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out. The treatment of Myanmar’s roug...

    A North Korean envoy has warned of catastrophic consequences in a new threat to the US after justifying the secretive country's latest missile launch. The envoy told a UN disarmament forum: My country has every reason to respond with tough counter-measures as an exercise of its right to self-defence. He added: And the US should be fully responsible for the catastrophic consequences it will entail. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sparked fresh fears of military conflict after firing a ballistic missile which flew over Japanese territory before landing in the sea. Japan said the missile was an unprecedented, grave threat to the nation and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss how to respond. The missile passed over northern Japan early on Tues...

    Self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh inspired extraordinary devotion in India, where huge crowds flocked to hear his teachings even after he was accused of rape in a high-profile case that ended in conviction. Singh counted film stars, cricketers and politicians among his legions of supporters. But the most devoted were the vast numbers of ordinary Indians, many of them poor, who flocked to the sprawling headquarters of his controversial sect in the northern Indian state of Haryana to hear his teachings. There, delirious devotees were said to weep with joy and fall at his feet for blessings. They called Singh pita-ji, or revered father, and said his message of living simply and eschewing meat and alcohol had changed their lives. That Singh's own life was far from sim...

    Twenty-nine people have died in riots by followers of an Indian guru after he was found guilty of raping two women. Rampaging supporters of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh set fire to government buildings, vehicles and railway stations. They also attacked garages, TV trucks, police and journalists in towns across India's northern states of Punjab and Haryana. More than 100 people were injured in the mob violence, with reports of more than half being in a critical condition in hospital. Around 1,000 of Singh's followers have been detained while almost 250 trains passing through the area have been cancelled The quasi-religious sect, of which Singh is the leader, is described as a social welfare and spiritual organisation. Tens of thousands of Singh's supporters had gathered outside ...

    North Korea has warned that Britain "faces a miserable end" if it becomes involved in the joint US-South Korean military exercises presently taking place in the South. British forces are not taking part in the present drills, although RAF Typhoons were involved in four days of exercises with their South Korean counterparts in November, while members of the Royal Tank Regiment also observed manoeuvres with South Korean units earlier in the year. A statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday has denounced Washington and Seoul as warmongers for carrying out the provocative Ulchi Freedom Guardian war exercises. FILE - In this May 10, 2016 file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves at parade participants at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North ...

    A new toilet installed at Marora village, in Haryana, India. Narendra Modi’s government launched a campaign in 2014 to end open defecation by 2019. The drive to build more toilets in India has been given an unusual twist with a Rajasthan judge granting a woman a divorce because her husband’s failure to provide her with one amounted to cruelty. Sangeeta Mali, 23, told the court in Bhilwara district that her husband, Chotu Lal Mali, had agreed to build her a toilet when they married in 2011, but never did. Mali told the judge that she was ashamed of having to defecate in the fields around her home in Pur village with no privacy or comfort. He kept saying he would build it but it was just talk. In the end, he refused point blank. My in-laws also refused. Every day was agony w...

    Singapore has raised the prospect of renegotiating terms on a long-awaited free trade deal with the European Union (EU) due to the impact of Brexit, a Square Mile official has revealed. Sherry Madera, the City of London Corporation's special adviser for Asia, told the Press Association questions have been asked at meetings in Singapore about the nation's right to a "remedy" if access to UK financial markets no longer form part of the deal. The EU and Singapore completed their negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) back in 2015, but the deal is still awaiting the backing of the European Parliament and member states. Any move to revisit the terms may encourage other countries to demand revisions on FTAs in order to reflect Britain's exit from the bloc. Ms Madera said: F...

    North Korea's military on Tuesday presented leader Kim Jong Un with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam and wring the windpipes of the Yankees, even as both Koreas and the United States signaled their willingness to avert a deepening crisis, with each suggesting a path toward negotiations. The tentative interest in diplomacy follows unusually combative threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea amid worries that Pyongyang is nearing its long sought goal of accurately being able to send a nuclear missile to the U.S. mainland. Next week's start of U.S.-South Korean military exercises that enrage the North each year makes it unclear, however, if diplomacy will prevail. During an inspection of the North Korean army's Strategic Forces, which handles the m...