Asia News Feeds

When Ratan Tata recently rode in the Nano, he revived the frenzy over India’s “most affordable car”.

US shares saw their biggest one-day drop since 2020 after renewed signs of waning consumer confidence.

Chinese social media users say they are shocked the 11,100 yuan ($1,642; £1,329) item will not stop rain.

Rights group Amnesty International on Thursday urged football’s governing body FIFA pay compensation equal to the total 2022 World Cup prize money for migrant workers “abused” in host nation Qatar.

Climate-driven disasters are converging with key financial decisions like never before, experts say.

Sri Lanka’s giant neighbour is emerging as one of its biggest providers of aid, after years of mistrust.

Like Colombo, Dhaka has also taken on massive foreign loans to embark on what critics call "white elephant" projects. The economic turmoil in Sri Lanka should serve as a cautionary tale, say experts.

Bombs and weapons used in Afghanistan by militants and US forces are making their way into India-administered Kashmir, raising fears that they could bolster an Islamist insurgency in the area.

The man’s lawyer said his client gambled the pay-out after it was mistakenly paid to his bank account.

Following the arrest of pro-democracy Cardinal Joseph Zen, some Catholic community members in Hong Kong worry the government may now shift the focus of its crackdown to the religious community.

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic crisis in decades, facing depleted petrol reserves, food shortages and a chronic lack of medical supplies. More than a month of mainly peaceful protests against the government’s handling of the economy turned deadly last week when supporters of the former prime minister stormed an anti-government protest site in the commercial capital Colombo. We discuss the depth of protesters’ grievances, as well as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s chances of weathering the storm, with Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and activist Bhavani Fonseka.

Scott Morrison was playing five-a-side on the campaign trail ahead of Australia’s election on Saturday.

As a heatwave scorches residents in India’s western state of Rajasthan, special trains carrying water have brought much-needed relief to struggling residents in the Pali district. “This time the crisis is severe. Never have we seen this crisis in April, but this year the water scarcity started in April. That’s why we had to run these water trains”, Pali Manwar railway station manager Prakash Purohit says.

North Korea on Wednesday reported 232,880 new cases of fever and another six deaths as leader Kim Jong Un accused officials of “immaturity” and “slackness” in their early handling of the COVID-19 outbreak ravaging across the unvaccinated nation.

Several villages in the mountainous state of Assam have been cut off due to floods and landslides.

Flight data reportedly indicates someone in the cockpit made the China Eastern Airlines jet crash.

The teachers fear being arrested or beaten after the Taliban banned most teenage girls from education.

A UK study says record-breaking temperatures in NW India and Pakistan are now 100 times more likely.

BBC Eye investigates the disappearance of Sophia Huang Xueqin, a high-profile feminist journalist who kick-started China’s #MeToo movement.

A growing number of young people are getting into crypto trading – despite the risks.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said his country only has enough gasoline to last one more day, and is $74 billion short of funds to pay for essentials.

Australians go to the polls on 21 May, for the country’s first election since 2019.

Hundreds of Pakistanis studying in Ukraine were brought home after Russia invaded the Eastern European country. Now they can neither go back nor find a place in local universities.

The recent failure of an Indian court to deliver a clear verdict criminalizing marital rape has highlighted the public divide on the issue.

Ranil Wickremesinghe says the country’s central bank will print money to pay government wages.

Australia is counting down to its next federal election on May 21. The environmental crisis is high on voters’ minds and smaller parties and independents are gaining momentum by riding a wave of disillusionment over the conservative coalition’s lack of climate action. With a hung parliament looking likely, these minor players could force the traditional parties to do more to tackle global warming. Climate change is an increasingly hot-button issue since the country’s devastating bushfires of 2019-20. Our correspondents Richelle Harrison Plesse and Gregory Plesse report.

India’s largest insurer has made its debut on the stock market after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government divested a small stake in it. But a big privatization drive in the near future appears unlikely.

The remote workers allegedly aim to help fund Pyongyang’s advanced weapons programmes.

Nobody gave India a chance but the team defied the odds to cause a huge sporting upset.

Nearly 80% of those who took part in a government survey said they wanted at least one son in their lifetime.

Authorities say the suspect was a Chinese immigrant who harbored grievances against Taiwan. He is facing one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder.

Seven Indigenous people explain their most pressing concerns for Australia’s next government.

The Chinese economy is slowing down markedly as strict lockdowns send big cities into hibernation. Repercussions will be felt in Germany, too.

Sri Lanka’s new prime minister won crucial support from two main opposition parties on Monday, easing the pressure on the ruling Rajapaksa clan in the face of the island’s worsening economic crisis.

Since North Korea reported its first official coronavirus case last week, the WHO has warned it might spread rapidly in the unvaccinated country. Ruler Kim Jong Un wants the military to turn the tide.

The local government said that life would go back to normal from June 1, but “many residents don’t believe it”. Fabian Kretschmer reports from Beijing.

The military has been ordered to intervene as a wave of Covid cases sweeps the unvaccinated country.

Kim Jong Un slammed North Korea’s pandemic response and ordered the army to help distribute medicine, state media said Monday, as the country said 50 people had died since first reporting an outbreak of Covid-19.

The Taliban earlier this month issued a decree urging women to stay home and ordering those who have to go out to cover their faces with a burqa. But a few brave Afghan women have vowed to defy the restrictive edict.

Shanghai has been under complete lockdown for six weeks now. Around 26 million inhabitants have been confined to their homes and the government has been adamant in its pursuit of zero Covid cases.

Nursimangul Abdureshid was born in the Kashgar region of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and moved to Turkey to pursue an academic career. Her family stopped calling her in 2018. But a leaked list of thousands of detained Uyghurs has helped her shed some light on the whereabouts of her missing relatives.

South Asia was in the grip of an extreme heatwave on Friday, with parts of Pakistan reaching a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius as officials warned of acute water shortages and a health threat.

India has big ambitions to slash crude oil imports and push for an electric vehicle future, but high costs and a lack of infrastructure could hamper the country’s green narrative.

Nepal relies heavily on electricity imported from India, where generation is running low amid one of the worst power crises in years.

With anger over misogyny in the Australian parliament, women’s rights have dominated the election campaign as Australia heads to the polls later this month with a record number of female candidates standing as independents. Also the Taliban has ordered women in Afghanistan to cover their faces when in public while encouraging the use of the burqa. Plus fury over the fact that only five out of 22 directors competing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival are women. Annette Young talks to French talent agent, Solène Edouard, about why this is happening despite a pledge by organisers in 2018 to improve gender representation.

Sri Lanka’s new prime minister will begin forming a unity government on Friday, but his appointment has failed to appease anti-government protesters demanding the resignation of the president for the country’s disastrous economic crisis.