Asia Today

Today's headlines: former President Rajapaksa returns to Sri Lanka; a well-known imam close to the Taliban among victims of mosque bombing in Herat province; Gazprom plans to open a new gas pipeline to China; In Iraq, protests against sectarianism return following clashes between Shiite factions; In Moscow, the Catholic on trial for posting the pope's prayer for peace on Facebook is acquitted.

Today's headlines: Popular Hindu leader of religious sect in Karnataka arrested for alleged rape; Marcos promises to raise the number of Filipino nurses allowed to go abroad; two Tibetan monks given three years in prison for possessing photos of the Dalai Lama; more than 200 church buildings destroyed in Ukraine conflict.

Today's headlines: India's rice crops at risk from abnormal rainfall; Sri Lanka signs agreement with the International Monetary Fund; Vietnam grants amnesty to less than 2,500 prisoners but not to activists; Russian savers have lost almost everything since the invasion of Ukraine.

Today's headlines: Mikhail Gorbachev has died; Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida said his party to sever ties with the Unification Church; Taiwan fires warning shots at three drones; Afghanistan increases the number of female street vendors; Israel sentences an aid worker accused of sending money to Hamas to 12 years in prison.

Today's headlines: India's flood displaced by floods are forced to live on highways; the International Monetary Fund approves Pakistani bailout; The Solomon Islands ban US ships; in Japan a rest home 'hires' children; in Kazakhstan the most multi-ethnic orchestra in history is to assemble for the meeting of religious leaders.

Today's headlines: India demolishes two skyscrapers after a long legal dispute; the Taliban accuses Pakistan of allowing US drones to invade their airspace; Japan promises investments in Africa; Uzbekistan grants subsidies to the Karakalpakstan region to quell protests.

Today's headlines: food, showers, haircuts: Filipino Catholics in aid of Manila''s poor; rains and floods of "historic" magnitude in Pakistan, more than 900 victims since June; Tokyo approves 2.5 million fund for funeral of former PM Abe; in Iran, women attended a men's top league soccer match for the first time since 1979.

Today's headlines: Former UK ambassador, married to Burmese activist, arrested in Myanmar; In Thailand Prayut remains Defence Minister after being suspended from leading the government; In Afghanistan 180 people died in this month's floods; Armenia cedes three more population centres in Nagorno Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

Today's Headlines: Taiwan wants to increase military spending by 14.9%; Modi's billionaire friend in takeover of NDTV TV network, concerns over freedom of information in India; Qatar promises investment to Pakistan mired in a foreign currency crisis; In Chechnya, activist Salman Tepsurkaev, opponent of the Kadirov government, is killed.

Today's headlines: China's autumn harvest is severely threatened by drought; Protests erupt among Afghans parked in the UAE for a year after fleeing Kabul; US air raids in eastern Syria against Iranian-backed militias; In India a Syro-Malabar bishop leaves his diocese to live as a hermit.

Today's headlines: A possible meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan in mid-September; Japan grants refugee status to 98 Afghans; After two years of closure due to the pandemic, Manila students sent home on first day of school beacuse of typhoon alert; Israel opens Ramon airport to overseas flights for Palestinians.

Today's headlines: at least four victims in the collapse of a Shia shrine in Kerbala; heavy rains and floods claim dozens of lives in India and Afghanistan; Tokyo is ready to deploy a thousand missiles as a deterrent to Beijing and Pyongyang; Singapore has cancelled a rule criminalising homosexuality; allegations over responsibility for Daria Dugina's death.