JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan security forces laid siege to a prison seized by Islamic State fighters in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Monday, with at least 29 people killed after the militants’ overnight assault led to a mass jailbreak. More th... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told parliament on Tuesday he had no doubt that India was behind an attack on the stock exchange building in the southern city of Karachi. Four gunmen armed with grenades attacked the Pakistan Stock Exc... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese Beidou navigation network will be complete this month when its final satellite goes into orbit, giving China greater independence from U.S.-owned GPS and heating up competition in a sector long dominated by the United States. Th... More »
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Indian police have released a pigeon belonging to a Pakistani fisherman after a probe found that the bird, which had flown across the contentious border between the nuclear-armed nations, was not a spy, two officials said on Friday.... More »
(Reuters) – It is a Ramadan like never before for Muslims across Asia as mosques that would normally be packed for prayers are deserted and in some places locked up as governments enforced measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. At Indonesia’s ma... More »
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – India and Pakistan are planning to partially open up some parts of the economy, officials in the two countries said on Monday, as the costs of harsh lockdowns to limit the outbreak of the coronavirus mount across the region. Ind... More »
ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) – Health authorities across South Asia reported rising tallies of coronavirus cases on Monday, raising the prospect of rapidly spreading outbreaks overwhelming poor medical facilities in a region that is home to a quarter of the world... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – The Swiss government has filed a criminal complaint over the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s alleged use of a cryptography company as a front to spy on various governments’ secret communications, the Swiss attorney general’s office said o... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Monday identified the country’s first case of coronavirus as reported cases outside China jump. Ferozuddin Feroz, the minister of public health, told a press conference in Kabul one of three suspected cases had been confirmed i... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – After a busy afternoon walking the catwalk in a luxury hotel in Kabul on Friday, Salma Hussaini was named Afghanistan’s first “Ms Valentine”. The 20-year-old from Bamiyan province took a final walk down the runway clad in a pink and yellow to... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said it will take down misinformation about China’s fast-spreading coronavirus, in a rare departure from its usual approach to dubious health content that is presenting a fresh challenge for social media companies.... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – More than 100 activists protesting against a new Indian citizenship law were injured in New Delhi on Sunday as they clashed with police who used tear gas and baton charges to disperse demonstrators at a major university. Prime Minister Na... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will on Monday honor the two people who were killed when a militant knife man went on a stabbing spree near London Bridge in an attack that has thrust criminal justice to the center of the election campaign. Jack Merritt, 25, and Sas... More »
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Swvl, an Egyptian startup with an app to book bus tickets, plans to launch operations in the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh by the end of next year, a senior official said. The startup, which operates buses along fixed ro... More »
SRINAGAR (Reuters) – One person died and at least 14 were injured on Monday in a grenade attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, two Indian officials told Reuters. Nine people were admitted to hospital, with one still in a critical condi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The treatment of U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch – disparaged by President Donald Trump and abruptly recalled from Ukraine – exemplifies what current and former U.S. officials describe as a campaign by Trump against career diplomats. A... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – In a small office at the Pakistani Television Corporation (PTV) headquarters in Islamabad, producers are preparing to air a video interview of a Pakistani man and his Chinese bride. The woman in the footage is dressed in traditional Pakis... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – An Indian team will travel to Pakistan for a Davis Cup tie in September, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) has said, despite strained relations between the nations. The nuclear-armed neighbors have gone to war three times since indepen... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan said on Thursday it aims to send its first astronaut into space by 2022 and will begin selecting candidates next year. Neighbour and long-time rival India put its first astronaut into space in 1984 as part of a Soviet-led mission... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – England ended their 44-year wait for a maiden 50-overs World Cup title by beating a gutsy New Zealand side on boundaries after a tied Super Over amidst heart-stopping drama on Sunday. Chasing 242 for victory, Ben Stokes’ scintillating 84 not... More »
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with an alarming spike in reported cases that has raised doubts over the quality of vaccination reporting and prompted officials to review their approach to... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France returned more than 400 stolen artifacts to the government of Pakistan on Tuesday, including ancient busts, vases, urns and goblets, some dating to the second and third millennia B.C. Many of the pieces turned up in France in September ... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Qatar is making $3 billion dollars worth of new investments in Pakistan, in the form of deposits and direct investments, state news agency QNA said on Monday. Following this investment, the economic partnership between Qatar and Pakistan will... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – After condemning the series of deadly bomb attacks on Sri Lankan churches and luxury hotels on Sunday that killed more than 200 people, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told voters that they needed to elect him to a second term as only... More »
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – India and Pakistan are quarrelling over reports of an alleged kidnapping and religious conversion of two Hindu girls in mostly Muslim Pakistan last week. The spat began on Sunday when India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweet... More »
CHRISTCHURCH (Reuters) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday she would announce new gun laws within days, after a lone gunman killed 50 people in mass shootings at two mosques in the city of Christchurch. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a ... More »
CHRISTCHURCH/WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand Muslim leaders on Monday conveyed messages of love, compassion and appreciation for the community support they had received after a lone gunman attacked two mosques, killing 50 people and injuring dozens more. Mu... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India will hold a general election in seven stages starting on April 11, the election commission said on Sunday, in what will be the world’s biggest democratic exercise with Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to benefit from tensions wit... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian traders will export raw sugar to Iran for March and April delivery, five trade sources said, the first Indian sugar sales to Tehran in at least five years as Iran struggles to secure food supplies under sanctions imposed by the United... More »
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – The captain of a Bangladeshi aeroplane “seemed to have an emotional breakdown” before a deadly crash last March, Nepali investigators said in a final report on the Himalayan nation’s worst aviation disaster in 26 years. They blamed the cr... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Police in Australia are investigating suspicious packages sent to a wide range of embassies and consulates on Wednesday, which officials said included the U.S. and British missions in Melbourne, but there were no reports of harm to staff.... More »
KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – As moves toward peace pick up in Afghanistan, the Taliban are trying to show they have changed since the brutal days of the 1990s when they banned music and girls’ education and carried out public executions in Kabul’s foot... More »
DHAKA/NOAKHALI, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Bangladesh has a general election this weekend, but opposition candidate Abdul Moyeen Khan says he has yet to hold a single public meeting in his constituency about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Dhaka, the capital. Thousa... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in prison for corrupt practices linked to his family’s purchase of upscale London flats, in a major blow to his party ahead of general elections on July ... More »
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An explosion hit the center of the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Sunday, killing at least 20 people, including several members of the small Sikh minority, provincial government officials said. The blast, hours after Pre... More »
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen killed five mine-clearance workers in Afghanistan on Monday who were preparing for construction of an international gas pipeline, while one worker was kidnapped, officials said. The $8 billion TAPI pipeline... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The shipping industry has long been criticized by campaigners for allowing vessels to be broken up on beaches, endangering workers and polluting the sea and sand. Now, it is being called to account from a quarter that may have a bit more clo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An American diplomat, who was initially barred from leaving the country after being involved in a fatal traffic accident, has left Pakistan, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Monday. “We can confirm that the American diplomat ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, sought to withdraw over concerns about her role in the agency’s interrogation program, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday. Haspel’s offer to withdraw... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – An explosion at a mosque used as a voter centre in the eastern Afghan province of Khost on Sunday killed at least 17 people and wounded 34, local officials said, in the latest attack on preparations for long-delayed parliamentary elections. B... More »
WUHAN, China (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get a tour of a museum and dinner with President Xi Jinping on Friday, the first day of an ice-breaking visit to China in which the giant neighbors will seek to re-set a troubled relationship. M... More »
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia’s most externally vulnerable economies – India, Indonesia and the Philippines – have just taken a one-two punch. U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yields US10YT=RR hit 3 percent this week, a level long touted as one to watch for p... More »
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – Marvia Malik made headlines when she debuted last month on a private television channel in Pakistan, becoming the conservative country’s first transgender news anchor. Opinions are mixed about the slim 21-year-old who appears regul... More »
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive this week to reach 38.7 million children and eradicate the paralyzing and potentially deadly virus in one of the last countries where it is endemic. Nearly 260,000 volunteers ... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai left Pakistan for London on Monday after a four-day whirlwind visit back to her homeland, her first since militants nearly killed her in 2012, an official said. Yousafzai and her family were taken... More »
SRINAGAR (Reuters) – Indian security forces killed at least three civilians and wounded about 70 in restive Kashmir on Sunday when hundreds of people tried to prevent them from carrying out operations against suspected militants, police and residents said. At ... More »
Pakistan’s new finance ministry chief Miftah Ismail speaks with a Reuters correspondent during an interview in Islamabad, Pakistan December 28, 2017. Picture taken December 28, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s de facto finance mini... More »
An ambulance carries victims near the site of an attack at the Marshal Fahim military academy in Kabul, Afghanistan January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked an army outpost near one of Afghanistan’s main military academies on... More »
Russian climber Denis Urubko, French climber Elisabeth Revol, and Polish climber Adam Bielecki pose for a picture at the base of the Diamir Face of Nanga Parbat, Pakistan January 28, 2018. Courtesy of Adam Bielecki fb.com/adambieleckiteam/Handout via REUTERS W... More »
Hilary Howes packs up the ‘Doomsday Clock’ after it was announced by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the hands have been moved to two minutes until midnight at a news conference in Washington, U.S. January 25, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis (Reuters) – S... More »
Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa arrives to attend the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 23, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s army chief told a top U.S. general the nation... More »
FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators hold placards calling for the release of Raza Mehmood Khan, a member of Aghaz-i-Dosti (Start of Friendship), a group that works on peace building between Pakistan and India, during a protest in Lahore, Pakistan December 11, 2017. REUT... More »
Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party, gestures as he addresses members of the media, after Pakistan’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition to disqualify him from parliament for not declaring assets, outside Jinnah Internatio... More »
Israeli police preparing for a Palestinian "day of rage" increased their presence in Jerusalem on Friday but set no extra restrictions on access for worshippers at the flashpoint Al Aqsa Mosque, saying they had no indication of unrest there. More »
U.S. Secretary for Defense, Jim Mattis, sits opposite Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson, before a meeting at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in central London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – U.S. De... More »
Afghan National Army (ANA) troops keep watch at a check point in Aqcha district of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan November 27, 2017. Picture taken November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer JAWZJAN, Afghanistan/KABUL (Reuters) – When a Taliban commander defected to Is... More »
Rescue personnel inspect a vehicle damaged by a suicide bomber which killed a senior Pakistani police official on his way to work in Peshawar, Pakistan November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed... More »
Hafiz Saeed is showered with flower petals as he walks to court before a Pakistani court ordered his release from house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza LAHORE/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A firebrand Pakistani Islamist accused of mas... More »
U.S. lawmakers will grill top Trump administration officials on Monday about a new authorization for the use of military force for the campaign against Islamic State and other militant groups, Congress' most significant step in years toward taking back control... More »
Australia will not be allowed to walk away from legal, financial and moral responsibility for nearly 800 men when it closes its asylum seeker detention center in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Tuesday, PNG's immigration minister said. More »
President Bashar al-Assad and his family have no role in the future of Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday ahead of peace talks aiming at a political transition scheduled to resume next month. More »
Annual deaths from measles dropped below 100,000 worldwide last year for the first time, to 90,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international agencies said on Thursday. More »
A Pakistani court on Friday delayed the extradition hearing of a Pakistani-American man accused of plotting attacks in New York City for Islamic State without fixing a new date, the man's lawyer said. More »
The son-in-law of ousted Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif was arrested at Islamabad airport on Monday by Pakistan's anti-corruption body on his return from London, officials said, a rare instance of a powerful Pakistani politician being detained. More »
Pakistan's ruling party on Tuesday re-elected ousted premier Nawaz Sharif as its leader, saying he was "back with full force", a day after using its parliamentary majority to amend a law to allow him to re-take the job. More »
The top U.N. human rights official on Monday denounced Myanmar's "brutal security operation" against Muslim Rohingyas in Rakhine state which he said was "clearly disproportionate" to insurgent attacks carried out last month. More »
Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed four members of a Shi'ite Muslim Hazara family, including a 12-year-old boy, on Sunday, in the latest sectarian attack on the minority community, a senior police official said. More »
Nancy Hatch Dupree, a historian from the United States who helped set up the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University, has died in the country whose culture she worked for more than five decades to preserve, the university said on Sunday. She was 89. More »
Asian giants China and India have great potential for cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday, seeking to cast the neighbors' difficult ties in a positive light ahead of a visit next week by India's prime minister. More »
Zhang Yang, a businessman from Chongqing in southwest China, is searching online forums for fellow stout-hearted entrepreneurs willing to cast aside security concerns and join him on a scouting mission to Pakistan. More »
It will be President Donald Trump's turn on Monday to address a problem that vexed his two predecessors when he details his strategy for the war in Afghanistan, America's longest military conflict. More »
Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has shown an affinity, and perhaps even a deference, to the generals he has surrounded himself with in his Cabinet and at the White House, save one exception: the war in Afghanistan. More »
Pakistan’s former Petroleum Minister and Prime Minister designate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi leaves after submitting his nomination papers to become the new Premier at the Parliament House in Islamabad, Pakistan July 31, 2017. Former petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan... More »
Lawyers chant slogans against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during Panama leaks hearing outside Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan July 17, 2017. Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Monday began hearings that will decide the fate of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is... More »
A Saudi woman shows the Careem app on her mobile phone in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, January 2, 2017. Ride-hailing firm Careem, a Middle East rival to Uber Technologies Inc, has bought a minority stake in a three-month-old Egyptian start-up that connects commuters ... More »
FILE PHOTO: A protester holds a placard in Sydney, Australia, February 4, 2017 during one of several rallies across Australia condemning U.S. President Donald Trump’s order temporarily barring refugees and nationals from seven countries and demanding an end to... More »
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington, U.S. June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Two senior Republican U.S. senators criticized Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday for saying that Russia may have the “right approach” on Syria and for what... More »
A general view of the scene of an oil tanker explosion in Bahawalpur, Pakistan June 25, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer Pakistan’s oil and gas regulator on Friday ordered a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to pay about 257 million rupees ($2.4 million) in damages and co... More »
U.S. Senator John McCain speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan July 4, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visiting Afghanistan on Tuesday called for a new strategy from the Trump administration to turn the ti... More »
FILE PHOTO: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a gathering after he inaugurated Kochi Metro at a stadium in Kochi, India, June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Sivaram V/File Photo The United States is expected to authorize India’s purchase of a naval variant of ... More »
A soldier covers a body after a blast in Quetta, Pakistan June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Naseer Ahmed A suicide car bomber killed at least 11 people, including four police officers, in an attack near a checkpoint in the volatile southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta o... More »
FILE PHOTO: Actor/comedian Kumail Nanjiani, recipient of the Comedy Star of the Year Award, and his wife writer Emily Gordon pose on the red carpet during CinemaCon, a convention of movie theater owners, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Stev... More »
Police in Pakistan have arrested a man who took his pet lion for a night-time drive through the streets of the bustling southern port city of Karachi after video of the incident went viral on social media, police said on Thursday. More »
Democratic Republic of Congo has suffered two separate outbreaks of polio, a debilitating and potentially deadly disease that the world is trying to eradicate, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. More »
Two of the men shot dead by police following the attack on London Bridge and Borough Market on Saturday are seen in this undated combination image of two photographs, received in London via the Metropolitan Police in London on June 5, 2017. On left is Khuram S... More »
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech during the welcoming banquet for the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China May 14, 2017. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj Lin Wong More »
A map illustrating China’s silk road economic belt and the 21st century maritime silk road, or the so-called ”One Belt, One Road” megaproject, is displayed at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, China January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Bobby Yip When leaders of 28 ... More »
India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09) carrying GSAT-9 communications satellite blasts off from the Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota, India May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer India launched a communications satellite on Friday for its s... More »
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb is pictured in this undated handout photo. Elgin Air Force Base/Handout via REUTERS The United States dropped “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear device it has ever unleashed in combat, on a ne... More »
As many as 36 suspected Islamic State militants were killed in Afghanistan when the United States dropped “the mother of all bombs,” its largest non-nuclear device ever unleashed in combat, the Afghan Defence Ministry said on Friday. More »
China’s regional governments are falling over each other to curry favor with President Xi Jinping, jostling for roles in his New Silk Road plan to boost economic and cultural links through Asia to Europe. More »
Smoke rises from a military hospital area at the site of blast and gunfire in Kabul, Afghanistan March 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail The death toll from an attack on a military hospital in Kabul by gunmen dressed as medics has risen to 49 with dozens wounde... More »
A bomb exploded in an upscale market in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 21, officials said. More »
A powerful explosion hit near a second upscale market in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, a government official said, the latest in a new surge of violence across the country. More »
A man mourns the death of a relative who was killed in a suicide blast at the tomb of Sufi saint Syed Usman Marwandi, also known as the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine, on Thursday evening in Sehwan Sharif, Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, February 17, 2017. RE... More »
I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Gunmen in Afghanistan kidnapped 52 farmers on Wednesday, most of them members of the minority Uzbek community in the remote northern province of Jowzjan, regional officials said, but the motive for the abductions was not immed... More »
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a government office in Pakistan on Wednesday, killing five people, the army said, the latest attack in a new surge in militant violence. More »
Malala Gul, a local singer, performs to record a song at a studio in Peshawar, Pakistan, January, 28, 2017. Picture taken January 28, 2017. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz For years, violence kept most of Pakistan’s aspiring young musicians from following their dreams, whe... More »
The Bay family is reunited after Hamed Bay was separated from other passengers and questioned as a result of U.S. Donald Trump’s executive order travel ban, at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. January 28, 2017. Hamed Bay was traveling back to the U... More »
Activists gather outside the White House to protest President Donald Trump’s executive actions on immigration in Washington January 29, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday tempered a key element of his move to ban... More »
