News Headlines

K-pop sensation BTS scored another record on Friday, becoming the first Korean act to top Britain's album chart.

SHAOXING, China: Wang Jianfeng is no ordinary barber. The 39-year-old from Shaoxing in eastern China specialises in sculpting images of famous faces on to the backs of his clients' heads. From the likes of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong to KFC's Colonel Sanders, to film stars such as Bruce Lee ...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday (May 19) he remained in charge of negotiating with North Korea despite the regime's demands to exclude him, as he voiced guarded hope with Japan on securing a deal.

A schoolgirl was burned to death in Bangladesh on the orders of her head teacher after she reported him for sexually harassing her, police said on Friday (May 19).

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that he would not hesitate to make more changes to his cabinet if required a day after a major reshuffle that saw the appointment of a new finance minister and nine other ministerial switches.

WASHINGTON: Top leaders of the United States and Japan gathered for talks Friday (Apr 19) amid a standstill in diplomacy aimed at reaching a deal with their mutual adversary North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Foreign Minister Taro Kono for talks ahead of a planned expanded ...

BEIJING: China said Friday (Apr 19) leaders from 37 nations and North Korean representatives will attend a summit for its Belt and Road Initiative next week as it hit back at criticism of the massive trade infrastructure project. Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet project is a US$1 trillion ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will revive a US$34 billion Chinese-backed transport and property development that was abandoned in 2017, the prime minister said Friday (Apr 19), adding the project would contribute to Beijing's global infrastructure drive. The announcement came after the countries agreed ...

Indonesia's presidential challenger on Friday slammed pollsters as untrustworthy and said they should move to Antarctica so they could "lie to the penguins", as he refused to concede defeat in this week's election.

Two Australian cave divers who were instrumental in the rescue last year of 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave received on Friday a royal honour from King Maha Vajiralongkorn in a ceremony in Bangkok.

BEIJING: Germany's Leica Camera AG drew criticism on Chinese social media over a video depicting a news photographer covering the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square three decades ago. The five-minute dramatisation, released this week, touches on a highly ...

NEW DELHI: An Indian man chopped off his index finger in desperation after voting for the wrong party in the country's national election. In a video that has gone viral on social media, Pawan Kumar said he became confused by the symbols on the electronic voting machine and voted for Prime Minister ...

Indonesia's presidential challenger on Friday slammed pollsters as untrustworthy and said they should move to Antarctica so they could "lie to the penguins", as he refused to concede defeat in this week's election.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is negotiating with several countries to acquire military assets through barter trade, said Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu on Friday (Apr 19).  Pakistan, Russia and China have shown their readiness to accept palm oil in exchange for military equipment, he said at a press ...

A senior Thai government official on Friday urged a U.S. man and a Thai woman on the run from a possible death sentence for building an off-shore "sea home" to fight the charge in court.

The Cantopop singer has also appealed to the media to stop requesting for interviews with her ageing parents.

MOSCOW: With Russia's Vladimir Putin set for his first talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this month, Moscow is eyeing a major role in yet another global flashpoint. The situation on the Korean peninsula seemed to be stabilising after a historic meeting between Kim and US President Donald ...

BEIJING: China's Belt and Road project is not a "geopolitical tool" or a debt crisis for participating nations, but Beijing welcomes constructive suggestions on how to address concerns over the initiative, the government's top diplomat said on Friday (Apr 19). Beijing will host a Belt and Road ...

NEW DELHI: India has suspended trade across its disputed Kashmir border with Pakistan, alleging that weapons and drugs are being smuggled across the route, as tensions simmer between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Kashmir has been on edge since a February suicide attack that killed 40 Indian ...

TOKYO: The world's smallest baby boy, who was born in October in Japan weighing as much as an apple, is now ready for the outside world, his doctor said Friday (Apr 19). Ryusuke Sekiya was delivered via emergency Caesarean section, after 24 weeks and five days of pregnancy as his mother Toshiko ...

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines: Hundreds of barefoot men beat themselves with flails and at least 10 were to be nailed onto crosses throughout Good Friday in a blood-soaked display of religious fervour in the Philippines. Frowned upon by the Church, the ritual crucifixions and self-flagellation are ...

The 28-year-old singer apologised to his fans on Instagram after the gig was cancelled.

SINGAPORE: India’s Jet Airways was finally grounded on Wednesday (Apr 17) after a long battle against losses and debt.  This came after the release of a stock exchange statement a day earlier, in which the carrier said it faced a “critical liquidity position” and that its operations “have been ...

SINGAPORE: India’s Jet Airways was finally grounded on Wednesday (Apr 17) after a long battle against losses and debt.  This came after the release of a stock exchange statement a day earlier, in which the carrier said it faced a “critical liquidity position” and that its operations “have been ...

The US does not believe North Korea successfully launched a fully operational new weapon after Pyongyang claimed it had conducted a "new tactical guided weapons firing test" on Wednesday, according to a US official directly familiar with the latest assessment.

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has said he's in love with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. But if there's someone with whom the US president is even more smitten, it's Mike Pompeo. North Korea on Thursday (Apr 18) demanded that the United States remove the secretary of state from future negotiations ...

NEW DELHI: Millions of voters across swathes of southern India cast ballots on Thursday (Apr 18) in the second phase of a mammoth, staggered general election, as sporadic violence flared in the east and the insurgency-wracked state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Election Commission said 66 per cent of ...

NEW DELHI: India suspended cross-border trade with Pakistan-controlled Kashmir because it was being used to funnel weapons and drugs, the government said on Thursday (Apr 18), in a further crackdown in the volatile territory. Trade across the "Line of Control" (LoC), or the heavily militarised de ...

HONG KONG: Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran's concert in Hong Kong was cancelled on Thursday (Apr 18) because of a lightning storm.  The 28-year-old singer apologised to his fans on Instagram after the gig that was set to be held at the Fantasy Road Outdoor Venue Hong Kong Disneyland was cancelled ...

The US State Department said Thursday it remained ready to negotiate with North Korea after the regime called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be excluded from future nuclear talks.

The US State Department said Thursday it remained ready to negotiate with North Korea after the regime called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be excluded from future nuclear talks.

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday (Apr 18) declared victory in a presidential election to lead the world's third-largest democracy but his challenger also claimed he had won and complained of widespread cheating. Unofficial results from private pollsters based on vote samples ...

TAIPEI: An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck Taiwan's coastal city of Hualien on Thursday (Apr 18), said Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau, shaking buildings and temporarily halting subway services in the capital Taipei. Seventeen people were injured. The quake struck at about 1pm in eastern ...

While Foxconn chairman Terry Gou enters Taiwan's rancorous political arena free of any political baggage, he could yet find himself weighed down by connections to Beijing forged during his pragmatic commercial rise.

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday (Apr 18) declared victory in a presidential election to lead the world's third-largest democracy but his challenger also claimed he had won and complained of widespread cheating. Unofficial results from private pollsters based on vote samples ...

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday (Apr 18) congratulated Indonesia President Joko Widodo on the “peaceful and successful” presidential and legislative elections held in Indonesia. Responding to a media query, a spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office said Mr Lee had a ...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's finance minister Asad Umar has stepped down from cabinet, he announced Thursday (Apr 18), ahead of securing a crucial bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Umar, one of cricketer-turned-premier Imran Khan's most powerful ministers, had been entrusted with ...

China was stepping up a campaign to exert influence over Taiwan, including its upcoming presidential election, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, at a time of heightened tension between the self-ruled island and Beijing.

BEIJING: China plans to launch an ambitious asteroid exploration mission and has invited collaborators to put their experiments on the probes, space agency officials said Thursday (Apr 18). The 10-year mission will involve a probe sent to a near-Earth asteroid to collect samples, said Liu Jizhong ...

PAMPANGA: Dozens of barefoot penitents in the Philippines whipped themselves and carried large wooden crosses in sweltering heat on Thursday (Apr 18) as they participated in a ritual ahead of Easter in Asia's biggest Catholic nation. Some of the men, wearing red robes with their faces covered and ...

TAIPEI: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan's coastal city of Hualien on Thursday (Apr 18), shaking buildings and temporarily halting subway services in the capital Taipei, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties. Television footage showed school children being ...

Cantopop diva Sammi Cheng seems prepared to forgive husband Andy Hui, according to a statement she posted online on Thursday (Apr 18). Hui, 51, was filmed behaving intimately at the back of a taxi with TVB starlet Jacqueline Wong, 30, in a dashcam clip which was posted by Apple Daily earlier this ...

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian inquiry into the 2015 discovery of suspected human-trafficking camps and graves in the jungle heard Thursday police found one of the sites months before authorities publicly revealed their existence. The public inquiry, which began this week, is examining the conduct of ...

Japanese Emperor Akihito made his last pilgrimage to the country's holiest Shinto shrine on Thursday, as people lined the route to catch a glimpse of the 85-year-old ahead of his abdication this month.

A peaceful polling day was embraced by many quarters as voters showed enthusiasm in exercising their democratic rights.

SEOUL: North Korea on Thursday (Apr 18) demanded the removal of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, accusing him of derailing discussions. "I am afraid that, if Pompeo engages in the talks again, the table will be lousy once again and the ...

QUETTA, Pakistan: Unidentified gunmen killed 14 people in southwestern Pakistan after pulling them from several passenger buses, sifting through their identity cards and kidnapping them, a Pakistani official said on Thursday (Apr 18). No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the ...

JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities warned Thursday (Apr 18) against mass protests as a firebrand ex-general rejected unofficial election results that appeared to hand President Joko Widodo a second term as leader of the world's third-biggest democracy. National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said ...

Incumbent President Joko Widodo is leading Prabowo Subianto with a larger margin than in 2014, an affirmation of Indonesians’ support for his moderate agenda, says ISEAS-Yusof Ishak’s Norshahril Saat and Najib Burhani.

TAIPEI: An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck Taiwan's coastal city of Hualien on Thursday (Apr 18), said Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau, shaking buildings and disrupting traffic.  The quake struck at about 1pm in eastern Hualien, at a depth of 18km.  In the capital Taipei, buildings swayed ...