Asia news headlines

Extrajudicial executions, rape, forced abortions, jail without trial, torture, starvation rations that leave prisoners so hungry some turn to eating insects.

Videos and images of the zebra wandering through the streets of Seoul flooded social media after it escaped from the Seoul Children's Grand Park Zoo on Thursday.

With thousands of kilometres of border, you either get along very well or very badly. Beijing and Moscow have done both.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit Tuesday to Kyiv, stealing some of the attention from Asian rival President Xi Jinping of China, who met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to promote Beijing's peace proposal for Ukraine that Western nations have already criticised.

The visit sends a powerful message to Western leaders allied with Ukraine that their efforts to isolate Moscow have fallen short.

The South Korean government was this week forced to rethink a plan that would have radically increased its cap on working hours.

Before Biden's staff could even start planning a call with the Chinese president, Xi announced plans to travel to Russia.

The pair allegedly consumed coffee and pastries inside the cockpit.

The Kremlin on Friday also announced the visit, saying it will take place “at the invitation" of the Russian president”

After three years of pandemic border restrictions, China is fully reopening to foreign visitors — including tourists.

The Bali governor has announced plans to ban visitors from renting motorised bikes and has requested the power to revoke visas for tourists breaking traffic laws.

President alleges China is preparing to invade the self-ruled island of Taiwan, and has engaged in bribery, political interference and even "direct threats".

Chinese leader Xi Jinping was awarded a third five-year term as the nation's president on Friday, putting him on track to stay in power for life.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will sign multiple agreements with his Indian counterpart across three subject areas but has refused to be drawn on the nation's ties with Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine.

An explosion in a seven-storey commercial building in Bangladesh's capital has killed at least 14 people and injured dozens, officials say.

The country has also set a surprisingly conservative economic growth target as it bounces back from COVID-19.

China accused Washington on Friday of improperly attacking Chinese companies after genetics analysis giant BGI Group and 17 others were hit with curbs on access to US technology on security or human rights grounds.

A large fire broke out at a fuel storage depot in Indonesia's capital on Friday, killing at least 17 people, injuring dozens of others and forcing the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents

Out of nearly half a million pictures submitted to the Sony World Photography of the Year competiton, these are some of the best.

Over the past three months, hundreds of young girls attending different schools have become overpowered by what are believed to be noxious fumes wafting into their classrooms.

Police in Thailand have caught up with a suspected drug kingpin who they say underwent extensive plastic surgery in order to look like a Korean man.

The case has gripped many in a Chinese territory where any violent crime is rare.

Missing Chinese CEO Bao Fan is cooperating in an investigation by "certain authorities in the People's Republic of China," his company said in a statement.

Russia's experience in the Ukraine war is giving China's president second thoughts, the CIA chief said.

The father of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia who died this week after contracting bird flu has tested positive for the virus but has not displayed any major symptoms, health authorities said.

China, a firm Russian ally, has called for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Moscow and the opening of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict.

Simon Chipperfield and Karthi Santhanam from Adelaide were among four on board the Cessna 340 when it crashed into a volcano on Saturday.

Philippine authorities on Monday launched a search mission atop a restive volcano after spotting the suspected wreckage of a missing plane carrying two Australians along with a Filipino pilot and crew member.

North Korea claims its nuclear forces are capable of destroying its rivals, and often follows its provocative weapons tests with launch details.

The suspected wreckage of a plane has been spotted at an altitude of 1,823 metres - near a "permanent danger site" and a determined "no-fly zone".

The state-run Korean Central News Agency on Sunday said a Hwasong-15 ICBM was fired on Saturday in a "surprise ICBM launching drill" under the written orders of leader Kim Jong-un.

One of China's top investment bankers has become unreachable, according to his company.

China and Iran have urged mutual neighbor Afghanistan to end restrictions on women's work and education.

The captain of the Thai boys' football team that was trapped in a cave for two weeks in 2018 has died in England, where he was attending a sports academy.

A Chinese coast guard ship allegedly hit a Philippine patrol vessel with a military-grade laser that briefly blinded some of its crew.

Experts believe the young girl is being groomed to one day lead the secretive nation.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his young daughter took centre stage at a huge military parade, fueling speculation that she is being primed as a future leader of the isolated country as her father showed off his latest, largest nuclear missiles.

South Korean lawmakers have voted to impeach the country's interior and safety minister over a crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people, including two Australians.

Residents digging through a collapsed building in town in north-west Syria discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble.

The communist government's tough zero-COVID policy has seen it lose influence, a think tank says.

The country has revealed that over the next few years it will build a herd with more than 1000 "super" bovines. So, what makes them so special?

The city state is proving a perfect breeding ground for the mosquito-borne disease.

A suicide bomber detonated explosives during crowded prayers at a mosque inside a police compound in Pakistan on Monday, causing the roof to cave in.

A passenger bus has crashed into a pillar and fallen off a bridge, catching fire and killing 40 people in southern Pakistan, a government official says.

The Lunar New Year 2023 begins on Sunday, January 22. Here's a look at how millions of people across the world will be celebrating the Year of the Rabbit.

Iran's brutal crackdown on anti-government protests has resulted in a number of executions in a nation that already carried out more judicial killings than almost any other in the world.

The co-pilot of the Yeti Airlines flight that crashed in Nepal earlier this week had a husband who died while flying for the same airline years earlier.

The population declined in 2022 to 1.411 billion, down some 850,000 people from the previous year.

The loved ones of a Sydney teacher killed in the recent plane crash tragedy in Nepal have spoken out, saying he had "lived his life to the fullest".

From far-flung tropical destinations, to war torn countries in the Middle East; the "worst" passports, from a visa-free travel perspective, to hold in the world have been revealed.