Asia

Saudi Arabia intercepted a “hostile target” over Riyadh on Saturday, said state media in the kingdom which has come under repeated attack from Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels since 2015. It was unclear who was behind the incident, with the kingdom’s brief statement stopping short of accusing anyone and the Huthis …

Omar’s heart sinks when he trudges past his closed school gates in the Jordanian capital Amman — now part of his trip to work, to repair and clean kerosene heaters. The 14-year-old, who dreams of becoming a pilot, is one of many minors experts say have been forced prematurely into …

A young man was hit and killed by a train in Pakistan while being filmed walking along the tracks for a TikTok stunt, police and rescue officials said Saturday. The accident happened on Friday in the Shah Khalid neighbourhood of Rawalpindi city, near the capital Islamabad. Hamza Naveed, 18, was …

Five people died as a fire tore through a building in the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturing hub in India Thursday, but the company insisted the production of drugs to counter the coronavirus pandemic would continue. Rescue workers discovered five bodies in the under-construction building after the blaze at the Serum …

Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Chinese internet behemoth Alibaba, made his first public appearance in over two months in an online video Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation about his whereabouts. Ma — one of China’s richest people with a fortune estimated at around $58 billion — disappeared from the …

The World Health Organization and Beijing could have acted faster when Covid-19 first surfaced in China, a group investigating the global response has concluded. In its second report, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response said that an evaluation of the “chronology of the early phase of the outbreak …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged new US President Joe Biden to “strengthen” a long-standing alliance between the two countries, partly to confront the “threat” posed by Iran. “I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the US-Israel alliance, to continue expanding peace between Israel and …

Iran’s president on Wednesday hailed the White House departure of “tyrant” Donald Trump, saying “the ball is in America’s court” to return to a landmark nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Tehran. Biden, who became the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, has signalled a willingness to return …

A 6.3-magnitude quake rocked the Philippines Friday, the US Geological Survey said, with residents in the capital Manila reporting buildings shaking and Christmas Day masses interrupted but there were no reports of damage. The quake struck in Batangas province on the main island of Luzon at a depth of 114 …