Myanmar elections | 5 things to know

Myanmar was holding a general election yesterday, its second since polls in 2010 ended almost a half-century of military rule. Five things to know about the Southeast Asian country: REFORMS President Thein Sein’s

Myanmar | With excitement and hope, millions vote in polls

With tremendous excitement and hope, millions of citizens voted yesterday in Myanmar’s historic general election that will test whether the military’s long-standing grip on power can be loosened, with opposition leader

Nature | Toxic air in India worse than Singapore haze a test for Modi

The air pollution meter buzzed and spat out a stunning result: levels of PM2.5 - tiny, toxic particles that lead to respiratory diseases - were 27 times the safe limit near the

Myanmar | Suu Kyi eyes post ‘above the president’

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday that she will be the true power above the country’s president if her party wins historic elections this Sunday, circumventing a constitutional

Maldives | Parliament impeaches VP accused of plotting to kill president

A Pakistani official says the death toll in the collapse of a factory building under construction in the eastern city of Lahore has risen to 18. Jam Sajjad Hussain from

Press freedom | Myanmar’s fledgling journalists gird for historic election

Their predecessors suffered torture, imprisonment and death at the hands of a die-hard military regime for more than half a century. Now, Myanmar’s journalists — newly fledged, muscle-flexing but also

Singapore | Young Australian jockey dies in high-rise fall

An up-and-coming Australian jockey died after falling 12 floors to the ground from his Singapore apartment, police said yesterday. Tim Bell, 22, “was found lying motionless at the foot of the

South China Sea | No joint declaration at ASEAN defense meet amid rising China tensions

Divisions within Asia over China’s claims in the disputed South China Sea spilled over yesterday to a meeting of U.S. and Asian defense ministers, where China insisted the group make no public mention of the

Maldives | President declares state of emergency

The president of the Maldives declared a state of emergency yesterday sharply curtailing key rights of citizens for 30 days following an explosion on his speedboat and the discoveries of a homemade

Indonesia | Volcanic eruption closes 3 airports

Thousands of tourists are stranded on three Indonesian islands after ash from the Mount Rinjani volcano forced the closure of airports and blanketed villages and farmlands. Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island

Afghanistan | Woman accused of adultery stoned to death

The woman, identified only as Rokhshana, was forced to stand in a deep hole in the ground during the Oct. 24 attack in a village in remote Ghor province of

Philippines | Filipino militants demand USD60m ransom for 3 foreigners

Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen have demanded more than USD60 million for two Canadians and a Norwegian they are holding in the jungles of the southern Philippines in the largest ransom the Muslim

Comfort women | Japan, S Korea agree to work to resolve WWII sex slave issue

The leaders of South Korea and Japan resumed formal talks Monday after a 3½-year freeze and agreed to try to resolve the decades-old issue of Korean women forced into Japanese

Malaysia | UN group says Anwar jailing politically motivated

Imprisoned Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was prosecuted for political reasons and should be released, a U.N. body concluded after reviewing the case widely seen as politically motivated. The government

Myanmar | Anti-Muslim backlash casts shadow over election

Standing before a glistening monastery, Myanmar’s most infamous monk adjusts his saffron robe and then does something that would have seemed unthinkable a few years ago: He launches into the formerly untouchable

Myanmar | Ethnic minorities fear election victory by military 

During nearly seven decades the villages of the Karen have been torched, their men summarily executed and their women raped as the ethnic minority battled Myanmar’s military regime in the world’s longest-running

Diplomacy | S. Korea, Japan, China leaders agree to mend strained ties 

The biggest result of the first meeting of South Korean, Chinese and Japanese leaders in more than three years? More meetings. But for three Northeast Asian economic and diplomatic heavyweights who

Nepal | Kathmandu turns to China for fuel after India restricts supply

Fuel-starved Nepal has signed an agreement with China to import gasoline, diesel and cooking gas, effectively ending monopoly on supply from India, which has restricted fuel convoys as a result of political

Myanmar | Open-for-business factories struggle for global foothold 

After Myanmar’s military yielded to a civilian government in 2010, foreign investors rushed to set up factories and raze old neighborhoods to build luxury housing estates. Five years on, the country has

South Korea| Seoul, Tokyo bickering days before 3-way summit with China

Leave it to perpetually squabbling Northeast Asia to spice up that most vanilla of diplomatic activities: the meet-and-greet, photo-op-ridden international summit. South Korea and Japan finally announced yesterday what has long

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