Myanmar’s junta is holding talks with three ethnic rebel groups on staging elections in areas they control, a rebel spokesman said yesterday, as the military prepares for polls the US has said will be a “sham.”

Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said it would hold “free and fair” multiparty elections as it marked Independence Day yesterday, days after increasing Aung San Suu Kyi’s jail term to 33 years. The junta is preparing for fresh elections later this year

Sri Lanka began a fresh austerity drive yesterday, freezing government recruitment as new taxes and higher electricity prices kicked in with authorities trying to secure an IMF bailout.

Islamic State yesterday claimed responsibility for an attack on Taliban forces in Kabul.

Kim Jong Un has called for an “exponential” increase in North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, including mass producing tactical nuclear weapons and developing new missiles for nuclear counterstrikes, state media said yesterday.

The United Nations said Thursday it would not stop providing help to Afghanistan despite the Taliban ban on women working in the country’s aid sector.

Ousted Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to another seven years in jail as her long series of trials ended on Friday, with the Nobel laureate now facing more than three decades behind bars.

At least 19 people were killed and up to 30 were missing after a huge fire tore through a casino-hotel complex in a Cambodian town on the Thai border, officials said yesterday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has kicked off a key meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, state media reported yesterday, a venue he has often used to announce major policy decisions marking the New Year.

South Korea accused the North of flying several drones across their shared border yesterday, prompting Seoul’s military to deploy warplanes to shoot them down -- with local media reporting one of the planes later crashed.

A Myanmar junta court will give its verdicts on five remaining charges in the 18-month trial of jailed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday, a legal source told AFP.

Christmas Day floods in the Philippines forced the evacuation of nearly 46,000 people from their homes, civil defence officials said yesterday.

Nepal’s new government, led by the former Maoist rebel chief, will try to balance ties with its immediate neighbours China and India as it seeks economic growth in one of the world’s poorest countries, officials of the ruling coalition told Reuters.

A Myanmar junta court will give its verdicts on five remaining charges in the 18-month trial of jailed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday, a legal source told AFP.

The criminal court of Maldives yesterday found the country’s former president Abdulla Yameen guilty on corruption and money laundering charges related to receiving kickbacks from a private company.

A former Maoist guerrilla who led a decade-long insurgency against Nepal’s Hindu monarchy was on Sunday appointed prime minister for a third time, in alliance with the main opposition after last month’s election returned a hung parliament.

A broken-down boat carrying 57 Rohingya refugees landed on Indonesia's western coast today after a month at sea, police said.

The UN Security Council called for Myanmar's junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday as it adopted its first ever resolution on the situation in the turmoil-ridden Southeast Asian country.

Nepal’s top court yesterday ordered the release of Charles Sobhraj, the French serial killer portrayed in the Netflix series “The Serpent” who was responsible for a string of murders across Asia in the 1970s.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday won a confidence vote in parliament, cementing his mandate a month after an inconclusive election result forced him to ally with the graft-tainted party of his former political rivals.