MADINAH — The first batch of Umrah pilgrims, as part of the Guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program for Hajj, Umrah, and Visit, arrived in Madinah on Thursday. This initial group, under the initiative led by the Ministry of Islamic (...)
Myanmar is now the world's largest producer of opium, overtaking Afghanistan, a UN report says.
Its opium production this year is estimated to rise by 36% to 1,080 tonnes, far ahead of the 330 tonnes Afghanistan reportedly produced.
Poppy (...)
Fifty years after Henry Kissinger drove American foreign policy in Southeast Asia, the region continues to live with the fallout from the bombing and military campaigns backed by the former secretary of state, who died last week.
In Cambodia, (...)
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Sunday sent a strong message to the oil and gas industry: the pledges made at COP28 in Dubai fall well short of what's needed to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis.
As the fourth day of this year's UN (...)
The death of contentious former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has drawn nostalgia and compliments in China at a time when relations between the two countries have nosedived.
"You are forever a friend of Chinese people, rest in peace," a (...)
A Kashmir journalist who was arrested under India's sedition and anti-terror laws has returned home Thursday after being released on bail following nearly two years behind bars.
Fahad Shah, founding editor of The Kashmir Walla, an independent news (...)
For Chinese tourists in Bangkok, 76 Garage, an open-air restaurant on the northern outskirts of the Thai capital, has long been near the top of the list of places to visit.
There was a time when 76 Garage was so popular you needed to book a month in (...)
RIYADH — Leaders from Southeast Asia have begun arriving in the Saudi capital for the inaugural Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit scheduled for Friday.
The summit is anticipated to conclude with the issuance of a (...)
TAIF — The Saudi women's national football team kicked off their participation in the friendly international tournament with a goalless draw against Malaysia on Monday.
The match took place at the King Fahd Sports City Stadium in Taif, western Saudi (...)
People who use drugs in Thailand are receiving more help to reduce the harm caused by their habit thanks to a change in formerly punitive drug laws and support from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"I first started taking drugs when I was (...)
Humans originated in Africa, but when exactly our earliest ancestors left the continent and how they spread around the world has been intensely debated by archaeologists.
Two fossils unearthed in a cave in northern Laos suggest that Homo sapiens, (...)
Southeast Asian countries will hold their first-ever joint military exercise in the South China Sea, Indonesian officials said on Thursday.
The decision was taken at a meeting of military commanders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian (...)
Every day, countless mopeds crisscross the congested city of Hanoi, in Vietnam, with commuters traveling to work or motorbike taxis dropping off everything from parcels to cooked food and clients.
One of them is Phong, 42, who starts his shift at 5 (...)
Drug traffickers have found new ways of smuggling crystal methamphetamine, known as ice, out of South East Asia to high-paying customers outside the region, according to a UN report.
Criminal gangs are moving more drugs by sea to evade land patrols (...)
A Laos political activist who was reported to have died after being shot point blank in the face and chest is alive, activists say.
The family of Anousa Luangsuphom, 25, has told Human Rights Watch (HRW) he is recovering in hospital after being shot (...)
A well-known critic of the Laos government has been shot dead in a late-night attack in the capital.
Anousa 'Jack' Luangsuphom, 25, was shot point-blank in the face and chest while sitting at a coffee shop on Saturday.
He had run the Kub Kluen Duay (...)
Temperature records are being shattered in countries across Asia as a brutal April heat wave continues to grip large portions of the continent, with little relief in sight.
In Southeast Asia, some countries posted their highest ever recorded (...)
JAKARTA — Minister of Islamic Affairs Dr. Abdullatif Al-Sheikh handed over, on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's support for the construction of the mosque of the Faculty of Education at Sharif Hidayatullah University.
The support was received by the (...)
The 2nd ASEAN Conference "Khayr Ummah", organized by the Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance in Bali, Indonesia, is scheduled to kick off tomorrow with the participation of around 130 figures of ministers, muftis, presidents of (...)
Typhoon Noru made landfall near Vietnam's popular beach resort city of Da Nang on Wednesday morning, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain as hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated.
Noru hit Vietnam at 5 a.m. Wednesday local time, according (...)
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan has held two phone calls with Lithuanian and Lao counterparts Gabrielius Landsbergis and Saleumxay Kommasith on Thursday.
Prince Faisal reviewed with his counterparts ways of developing bilateral (...)
Sri Lanka is in the midst of a deep and unprecedented economic crisis that has sparked huge protests and seen its president quit after fleeing the country - but other countries could be at risk of similar troubles, according to the head of the (...)
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called on Myanmar's junta leaders to talk to their opponents amid concerns over escalating violence and deteriorating human rights in the Southeast Asian country.
Wang is in Myanmar for his first visit since the (...)
A 300kg (661lb) stingray caught in the Mekong river in Cambodia is the biggest freshwater fish ever documented, scientists say.
It unseated the previous record-holder, a 646lb (293kg) Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005.
There is no (...)
More than one billion methamphetamine tablets were seized in East and Southeast Asia last year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has warned.
The staggering drugs haul across the vast region is further proof that illicit manufacturing there (...)