Voting has begun across key Indian regions, with turnout gaining momentum in Assam while Kerala remains slightly behind in the current phase of elections. On Thursday, polling opened for high-stakes contests in Assam, Kerala and Puducherry, setting the tone for a competitive electoral round. Th
In a significant recognition of international media leadership and South Asian representation in global governance, Raju Lama, International President of the SAARC Journalist Forum, will participate in the 25th Session of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (CEPA) at th
India's sugar production is set to fall below consumption for a second straight year, as lower cane yields force mills to close faster than usual, trade officials told Reuters on Thursday. Lower output, coupled with rising exports, is likely to reduce domestic stockpiles and support local prices,
Myanmar's parliament will hold a bicameral vote to elect a president on Friday, house speaker Aung Lin Dwe said on Thursday, with the country's former military chief and junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in the running for the position. The 69-year-old general, who led a 2021 coup that ousted the democ
The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had killed a senior Hezbollah official in an overnight attack. Israel's navy killed Haj Youssef Ismail Hashem, the commander of Hezbollah's southern front, the country's military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement on X. Hezbollah later confir
Indonesia's foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned "in the strongest terms" the attacks in southern Lebanon that killed three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia, adding that ongoing Israeli military operations have placed U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon at grave risk. The three Indon
Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was nominated by a lawmaker on Monday for a parliamentary vote that will select the new president of the war-torn Southeast Asian nation, as the powerful veteran general seeks a political role. Min Aung Hlaing, who currently also serves as Myanmar's military chi
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has ordered the acceleration of waste-to-energy development, stressing that waste in major cities should be immediately processed into energy as part of efforts to address the country's long-standing waste problem. The directive was delivered during a meeting
A fire broke out around lunchtime at a car parts factory in the South Korean city of Daejeon on Friday, leaving 10 people dead, 25 seriously injured and 34 with minor injuries, the country's safety ministry said on Saturday. Four other workers were still missing, and the government has activated a
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a joint press conference earlier on Thursday. Al-Thani, who is also Qatar's foreign minister, said that Iran had destroyed Qatar's trust with its "aggression," and that trust needed to be r
Human factors rendered ineffective almost all the fire safety measures at the site of a Hong Kong blaze that killed 168 people in November, the lead lawyer for a panel led by a judge that is investigating the inferno said on Thursday. The Independent Committee set up by Hong Kong leader Joh
Almost all the civilians killed in Iranian missile and drone attacks in the United Arab Emirates were from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, with only one victim from outside South Asia. Authorities in the UAE have released the names of the six civilians killed in the attacks. The list shows that on
At least 10 people were killed in a fire that broke out in the trauma care unit of a hospital in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Monday, officials said. Five people were critically wounded, but it was not clear if it was from the fire or earlier injuries. The fire was likely to have been
