Indonesia's disaster agency warned Thursday of more deaths after torrential rains pounded the Jakarta region, triggering floods and landslides that killed at least 29 and left vast swaths of the megalopolis underwater.Tens of thousands fled to temporary shelters across the capital region - home to some 30 million - with scores of houses damaged in the deadliest flooding in years, after torrential rains on New Year's Eve.Images showed waterlogged homes and cars covered in muddy flood

Nine people died after Indonesia's capital was hit by its deadliest flooding in years, authorities said Wednesday, as torrential rains on New Year's Eve left vast swathes of the megalopolis submerged.Thousands were evacuated to temporary shelters as electricity was switched off in scores of waterlogged neighbourhoods across greater Jakarta, home to about 30 million people, with some train lines and one of the city's airports also shut.Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigati

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a US$3.07 billion operating budget which for the first time includes funding for the investigation of war crimes in Syria and Myanmar.The budget represents a slight increase from 2019's figure of US$2.9 billion.The increase is due to additional missions assigned to the UN Secretariat, inflation and exchange rate adjustments, according to diplomats.These include the observer mission in Yemen, a political mission established in Haiti, t

For the more or less 10 million people living in Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok, flooding is a common and recurring phenomenon. This is partly due to the city’s geographic location at the southern end of the Chao Phraya River Basin, as well as its low-lying terrain of around 1.5 metres average elevation above mean sea level. The city normally experiences six months of rainy season every year from May to October.However, conditions are soon expected to worsen for much of Bangkok.

A rom-com about a lesbian flight attendant and a romance in a gay spa are among the shows featured on Asia's first LGBT-focused streaming service, which is pushing boundaries in an often highly conservative region. GagaOOLala brings more than 1,000 feature films, shorts, web series, and documentaries to people across Asia, where censorship and traditional attitudes mean there has been little in the way of gay content in the mainstream media. After launching in 2017 in T

A Nepalese worker was killed Monday after he fell into a meat-mincing machine in Malaysia's Malacca state, an official confirmed.The Malacca fire department's Zulkhairani Ramli told the media the 47-year-old man was working at a meat-processing factory near Masjid Tanah when the incident occurred."The victim was doing maintenance with three other workers when suddenly the machine was turned on," he said."The machine caught him at his waist.

The number of deaths from a powerful storm that hit the Philippines on Christmas has climbed to 41, authorities said Sunday, with tens of thousands still in evacuation centres.Typhoon Phanfone left the Philippines on Saturday after devastating several islands in the central Visayas, including popular tourist destinations, but the extent of the damage continued to grow as assessments came in.The death toll of 41 - up from 28 on Friday - included three boat crew who died after their vessel caps

A Thai Navy SEAL who aided with the rescue of a youth football team trapped in a flooded cave last year has died from an infection he contracted during the dramatic recovery mission. Petty Officer Beirut Pakbara fell ill with a blood infection while working to retrieve the 12 young boys and their coach, the Thai Navy said in a statement posted late Friday on their Facebook page. After the 18-day ordeal came to an end last June - with the entire team emerging safely from Tham

A typhoon that swept across remote villages and popular tourist areas of the central Philippines on Christmas day claimed at least 16 lives, authorities said on Thursday.Typhoon Phanfone, with gusts reaching 200 kilometres an hour, tore roofs off houses and toppled electric posts as it ripped through the central Philippines on Wednesday.Videos from the typhoon's path showed fallen trees and strong winds pummelling flimsy houses.