Myanmar junta chief to visit Russia
The leader of Myanmar’s military junta will travel to Russia next week for economic talks, state media in the Southeast Asian nation reported yesterday.
Gotabaya ‘to return home’
Bankrupt Sri Lanka’s deposed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to end his self-imposed exile in Thailand and return home early today, a top defence official told AFP yesterday.
Suu Kyi gets jail with hard labour
A Myanmar junta court yesterday sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail “with hard labour”, for electoral fraud in the 2020 polls that her party won in a landslide, a source said.
‘Pakistan is awash in suffering’
The United Nations yesterday appealed for $160 million to help Pakistan as army helicopters rescued stranded families and dropped food packages into inaccessible areas following “epochal” rains and flooding.z
Tens of millions battle Pakistan floods
Tens of millions of people across swathes of Pakistan were battling the worst monsoon floods in a decade yesterday, with countless homes washed away, vital farmland destroyed, and the country’s main river threatening to burst its banks.
Pakistan providing airspace for US drones: Kabul
Afghan defence minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid yesterday accused Pakistan of providing airspace for US drones to enter his country, characterising the incursions as a continuation of Washington’s “invasion”. Mujahid’s comments came less than a month after US President Joe Biden announced the killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul.
Japan pledges $30b in African aid
Japan pledged $30 billion in aid for development in Africa yesterday, saying it wants to work more closely with the continent, with the rules-based international order under threat after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Children ‘going to bed hungry’
The UN yesterday said that children in Sri Lanka are “going to bed hungry” because of the island nation’s economic crisis, warning other South Asian countries could be approaching similar situations.
Ex-PM loses final appeal, sent to jail
Malaysia’s top court ordered former prime minister Najib Razak to begin a 12-year prison sentence yesterday after upholding a guilty conviction on charges related to a multi-billion dollar graft scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Malaysia's ex-PM Najib fails to overturn conviction, to serve 12 years in jail
Malaysia's former premier Najib Razak on Tuesday (Aug 23) failed in his final appeal against a graft conviction, which is set to see him serve 12 years in jail for misappropriating millions of funds from a company linked to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).