Region

BERLIN: German authorities are investigating 40 cases in which Islamic militants are suspected of having entered the country with the recent flood of refugees from the Middle East, the federal police said on Wednesday. That represents a doubling of such cases since January and is likely to deepen concerns about the threat level in Germany, […]

SEOUL: North Korean state media on Wednesday released high-resolution headshots of more than two dozen top officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, that appear to be missing something Pyongyang-watchers have come to expect: signs of retouching. It’s common for photos of Kim released through North Korea state channels to show signs of manipulation, though North […]

  KATHMANDU: Two Nepali sherpa guides have died of suspected altitude sickness in the Himalayas, a tour operator said Wednesday. The guides were assisting an 11-member team on the 8,481-metre (27,825-feet) tall Makalu peak, the fifth-highest mountain in the world. Parsuram Karki of the Thamserku Expedition tour agency said the two men had complained of […]

BANGKOK: Thailand on Wednesday defended its curbs on freedom of expression at a review of its rights record by the U.N. Human Rights Council, saying the measures were aimed at “those who stir up violence”. At a time of fresh arrests of online critics accused of criticising Thailand’s junta, U.N. member states attending the review […]

NEW DELHI: India’s top court criticised the government Wednesday for failing to set up a disaster fund to help drought-hit farmers and villagers suffering crop losses and severe water shortages. India is in the grip of its worst water crisis in years, with the government saying about 330 million people, or a quarter of the […]

MANILA: The Philippines started the process to strengthen its anti-money laundering and bank secrecy laws on Tuesday, aiming to plug loopholes that allowed $81 million stolen in one of the world’s biggest cyber heists to pass through Manila banks and casinos. The Department of Finance said it was working with the country’s anti-money laundering council […]

  BEIJING: China, fighting to stamp out poverty, will this year move more than two million of its poorest citizens from remote, inland regions to more developed areas, an official of the cabinet, or State Council, said on Tuesday. The mass relocation of people is a strategy targeted at lifting 10 million citizens out of […]

YANGON: The new ambassador of the United States to Myanmar said on Tuesday he will keep using the term Rohingya for the persecuted Muslim minority, even after the government controlled by Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi asked him to refrain from it. Members of the 1.1 million-strong group, most of whom live in […]

  JERUSALEM: A leader of the international boycott movement against Israel on Tuesday accused Israeli authorities of imposing a travel ban on him as retribution for his political activities. The travel restrictions come weeks after Israel’s interior minister, who oversees immigration policy, was quoted as saying that he would consider revoking residency rights of Omar […]

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Tuesday executed the leader of the country’s largest Islamic party for ‘war crimes’, officials said, a move set to exacerbate tensions in the volatile Muslim-majority nation. MotiurRahmanNizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at a prison in the capital Dhaka, just days after the nation’s highest court dismissed his final appeal […]