Asia

    Millions of people across India are twisting themselves into complex yoga positions as the country celebrates International Yoga Day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined a crowd of 30,000 schoolchildren and other residents of the northern city of Chandigarh for a mass yoga session Tuesday. Before beginning the exercises, Modi urged people to make yoga a part of their lives, saying the practice — which began in ancient India — doesn't differentiate between the rich and poor, and is accessible to all. Similar yoga events were being held in villages, towns and cities all over India. Last year, the United Nations proclaimed June 21 as International Yoga Day. Many believe that practicing yoga is the best way to calm the mind and the best form of exercise for the body.

    Police in China's north-western region of Xinjiang are asking some residents to provide DNA samples and other biological data when applying for travel documents. People in the multi-ethnic area of Yili will have to provide the samples before being allowed to go abroad. The Chinese government is trying to crack down on periodic violence, which it blames on Islamist militants. Many Muslims in Xinjiang say they are discriminated against. They say the Chinese authorities often refuse to issue documents allowing them to travel. Most of the Uighur ethnic minority, which makes up about 45% of Xinjiang's population, practise the Muslim faith. Over the years China's authorities have attributed violent attacks to Uighur militants, who they say are inspired or aided by overseas terro...

    A Malaysian court today imprisoned a Bangladeshi national for 10 years, finding him guilty of trafficking three fellows through Andaman Sea of Songkhla province of Thailand between 2014 and 2015. Nurul Islam, 32, admitted to a court in Malaysian state Perlis that he had trafficked three Bangladeshis – Mohammad Nurbasa, Delwar and Joy – between October 2014 and April last year, reports Malaysian daily The Star. Meanwhile, a Thai national Biau Wong Chumpo, 46, was charged with trafficking in Bangladeshi national Md Tofajir Hussain between October 2014 and May 2 last year. The report, however, did not elaborate the incidents of the trafficking. Contacted to Musharrat Jebin, first secretary (labour) at Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, told The Daily Star that they h...

    The Rohingya refugees who arrived in Malaysia after being stranded in the Bay of Bengal a year ago must be released from detention, says United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). UNHCR Malaysia representative Richard Towle said the refugees needed to be looked after properly and this could not be done effectively or fairly in the immigration detention system. “That’s why after the Bay of Bengal crisis we have been saying give us access, let them out of detention and we will look after them,” Towle told reporters after the launch of Odysseys: A Photographic Exhibition of the Asia and Europe refugee crises by Agence France-Presse (AFP) here on Wednesday. In May last year, over 1,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar had arrived by boat after being stranded in t...

    Manohar Aich, the bodybuilder who became the first Indian to take the Mr. Universe title in 1952 and won the nickname 'Pocket Hercules' for his tiny stature, has died aged 104. Aich, who stood just 1.5 metres (four feet, 11 inches) tall, started lifting weights in 1942 when he was working as a gym instructor in the Royal Indian Air Force. That job ended when he slapped a British officer who had made an offensive remark about Indians, earning him a brief jail term -- a punishment he later described as a "blessing in disguise". "The jailor had been very kind and allowed me to train. In fact, he encouraged it," Aich told the Indian Express newspaper in an interview to mark his 100th birthday. He emerged from prison as India won its independence in 1947 and decided to settle i...

    Laying on a stretcher surrounded by medics, this is one of the first images of the seven-year-old boy who was left by his parents in bear-infested woods as a punishment. Young Yamato Tanooka was discovered at a remote Japanese military base about 2.5 miles from where he vanished almost a week ago. He was dumped by the side of the road in Hokkaido, Japan by his parents who wanted to discipline him for throwing stones at cars. But after nearly a week's search, involving up to 130 police officers, the youngster was found alive and unharmed. In images captured shortly after the youngster was found, the boy can be seen being led away on a stretcher by medics as an emergency helicopter hovers overhead. Rescue officers who found the boy said his first words were: "I'm hungry." Th...

    Afghanistan's spy agency Sunday said Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US bombing raid, the first confirmation from regional officials of his death, which marks a potential blow to the resurgent militant movement. The Taliban have not commented officially on the very rare American drone attack deep inside Pakistan on Saturday, authorised by President Barack Obama, which could scupper any immediate prospect of peace talks. The apparent elimination of Mansour, who had consolidated power following a bitter Taliban leadership struggle over the past year, could also spark new succession battles within the fractious movement. "Mansour was being closely monitored for a while... until he was targeted along with other fighters aboard a vehicle," Afghanistan's Nat...

    Experts are predicting a bumpy start to Tsai Ing-wen's presidency as Taiwan's new head of state -- the first female head of an ethnic Chinese territory -- squares up to the mainland. Fifty-nine year old Tsai, who won a landslide victory in January on a platform of boosting Taiwan’s separate identity from China, takes office Friday. Tsai has said she will not seek to provoke Beijing -- but China is deeply suspicious of her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which until the 1990s publicly called for formal independence from the mainland. Beijing has said it would use force if Taiwan formally declared itself an independent state. Beijing has claimed the island as part of its territory since 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) fled there after losing ...

Mahbub Hussain: With the world going after greener electric cars, China has joined in the rat race too. A lot of automotive startups have realized that electric cars are the future of everything and they are going berserk in making their electric vehicles, which are mere knock offs of Teslas. To make things worse for Tesla, the Chinese government offers generous subsidies to people who buy electric cars, but only if they are built in China; which Teslas obviously are not. So what are these clones? Huang Xiuyuan, a 28-year-old Chinese entrepreneur formed a company called Youxia, gathered a team of 50 engineers and designers and put the Ranger X in just 16 months. That is a mad feat, but seems quite possible given the fact the Youxia Ranger looks like an identical twin of the Tesla Model S f...

    A Chinese film tycoon has splashed out nearly £22m on a 124-character letter that was penned nearly 1,000 years ago by a Song dynasty scholar. Wang Zhongjun, a self-made billionaire who some say is China’s answer to Shakespeare in Love producer Harvey Weinstein, purchased the letter at an auction in Beijing on Sunday, according to reports in the Chinese media. Wang, the 55-year-old chairman of Huayi Brothers Media, one of China’s largest entertainment groups, reportedly paid 207 million yuan (£21.9m/US$31.7m). Related: Cultural Revolution reduced to footnote as Communist party says China has moved on The letter – thought to be the only surviving work by Song dynasty scholar and government official Zeng Gong – was written on 27 September 1080, according to China Radio Inter...