Asia

    North Korean state television aired footage on Friday of the latest test, said to have taken place in DecemberFootage of a North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test released by Pyongyang two days after it announced it had conducted the country's fourth nuclear test last week was faked, according to an analysis by a California-based think tank. In defiance of a UN ban, the isolated country has said it has ballistic missile technology which would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine, although experts and analysis of North Korean state media cast doubt on the claim. North Korean state television aired footage on Friday of the latest test, said to have taken place in December. Unlike a previous SLBM test in May, it had not been announced at...

    The beauty of transit has never been this dramatic. Amidst its final moments, a girl in Japan gave a train station its last reason to run: to help her finish her studies. Located in the island of Hokkaido, the Kami-Shirataki train station has been in operation for more than three years. But as time passed by, the number of its passengers drastically went down because of the station’s remote location. According to CCTV News, the management of Japan Railways had thought of shutting down the station – but suddenly had a change of heart upon knowing the story of their only passenger. A report said that the girl's only means of transportation to and from the school is the Kami-Shirataki train station. Inspired with the girl's situation, the management even made some adjustments...

    A gargantuan gold-painted statue of Communist China's founding father Mao Zedong has suddenly been demol-ished, apparently for lacking government approval, state media said yesterday, days after images of it went viral. Images of the statue of a seated Mao towering some 37 metres (121 feet) over empty fields in the central province of Henan made worldwide headlines this week. But the 3 million yuan ($460,000) structure has been destroyed, the People's Net news portal cited local officials as saying, adding the reason was "unclear". The website is linked to the People's Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party. It cited reports from unspecified media as saying the likeness of the man who ruled China with an iron grip for nearly three decades until his death in ...

    Even by the standards of news about North Korea, this story is bizarre: Two North Korean doctors working in Cambodia died over the weekend, apparently after they got so drunk that their wives, also doctors, injected them with some mystery liquid to counteract the alcohol. Both men then had heart attacks, according to a report in the Phnom Penh Post. Now, we’re used to stories about strange deaths in North Korea. There's Jang Song Thaek, the mercurial uncle who North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had shot. (Although rumors went around that he was savaged by a pack of 100 hungry dogs. Not true.) Or the singer and former girlfriend of Kim Jong Un who reappeared after her reported execution. Just last week, we heard about the sudden death of Kim Yang Gon, a key liaison with South ...

    As the year 2015 came to a close, we look at some of the best Bollywood's candid shots we managed to capture on our camera. Kangana & Priyanka in one frame! It was the party organised by Kangana Ranaut to celebrate her National Award win for "Queen". The party was attended by who's who of Bollywood. But what grabbed our attention was, two contemporaries actress Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut shared one frame. Salman Khan & Shah Rukh Khan friends again! It was a moment no fan of Salman Khan and Shah Rukh would want to miss. After Arpita Khan's wedding in 2014, Rhoit Shetty's recently released "Dilwale" managed to bring these two Khans together at the same stage on the hit TV reality show. Ranveer offered his heart to Deepika! After breaking up with Ranabir Kapoo...

    An investigation has been launched after a Malaysian Airlines plane appeared to fly in the wrong direction after taking off from New Zealand on Christmas Day. Flight MH132 usually takes a direct route heading north-west over Australia on its way from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur but radar data showed the aircraft heading south for almost an hour. The New Zealand Herald reported that the pilot questioned the Airbus A330’s path just eight minutes into the flight, which took off at 2.23am local time. Passengers were not alerted during discussions with air traffic controllers at the Auckland Oceanic control centre, as the plane Tasman Sea before turning north. The Independent Malaysia-Airlines-flight-path.jpg Airways, which manages air traffic control for New Zealand, said there w...

    The head of Myanmar's military joined growing criticism Sunday against the death sentences handed down to two men from Myanmar for a double murder on a Thai resort island, calling on Thailand's military government to review the case. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing's comments, carried prominently by state media, came three days after the men were convicted of murdering two British tourists on the island of Koh Tao last year. The verdict has sparked daily protests in Myanmar and attracted global attention. The army chief urged Thailand to "review the evidence" that led to the convictions of the two migrants, Win Zaw Htun and Zaw Lin, both 22, who say Thai police tortured them into confessing. The men were found guilty of killing David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, whose batte...

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has landed in Pakistan on a surprise visit in which he will meet his Paki-stani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Modi was on his way back to India from Afghanistan when he stopped off in the eastern city of Lahore. The visit coincides with Sharif's birthday. Modi is the first Indian PM to visit Pakistan since 2004. Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been high in recent years but relations have begun to warm. The pair met briefly in Paris last month on the sidelines of the COP21 climate change conference. The two countries have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two of them over Kashmir. Kashmir, claimed by both countries in its entirety, has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years. A ceasefire agreed...

    Akhtar Soomro pakistan The year ahead will bring no shortage of international issues that will keep the US and its partners occupied, ranging from the fight against ISIS to the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement. But there's been another serious impending crisis building in the background — one involving terrorism, nuclear weapons, interstate power politics, and an important US ally. The crisis isn't likely to explode in 2016. Its eruption is currently far from inevitable. But there's a good chance, depending on what happens in 2016, that it could become more likely. As Georgetown University associate professor C. Christine Fair explained in a December 21 article for Quartz, Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is growing at an alarming clip, with Islamabad acquiring some ...