Five Muslim rebels and a soldier were killed during a weekend ground and air assault by Philippines security forces on militants supportive of the Islamic State group in a restive southern region, the military said Monday. The Philippine army pounded some 50 militants with artillery in a five-hour attack on the island of Mindanao Saturday, according to regional military spokesman Captain Arvin Encinas. One soldier and at least five members of the rebel Bangsamoro Islamic Fre

Vietnamese police have seized US$3 million worth of heroin hidden inside packets of tea and smuggled from Laos on Thursday, which is the largest recorded haul of the drug in the country.According to AFP, “a police sting in the mountainous northern Vietnamese province of Dien Bien on Tuesday caught a man aged 44 and a woman in her late 30s, carrying 170 kilogrammes of heroin on the back of their motorbikes.” The drugs were also said to be smuggled over from Laos and packed into scores of packe

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) needs to beef up its disaster management efforts after the region was hammered by deadly storms that left a path of destruction in their wake, its new chief said Friday.Secretary-general Lim Jock Hoi, a veteran Bruneian diplomat, pointed to a tropical storm that battered the southern Philippines last month leaving at least 240 dead and tens of thousands displaced.Also in December, a tropical cyclone pounded Indonesia's main island of Jav

North Korea accepted a proposal to hold talks with South Korea on January 9 aimed at reducing tensions ahead of the Winter Olympics next month.The agenda would include North Korea’s offer to send a delegation to the Games as well as overall inter-Korean relations, South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman, Baik Tae Hyun, told reporters Friday.

ASEAN was touted to admit its 11th member last year – The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste also known as East Timor – but that failed to happen.Timor-Leste is located at the eastern tip of the Indonesian archipelago. It encompasses the eastern half of the island of Timor, two nearby islands (Atauro and Jaco) and an exclave on the western side of the island (Oecusse District) – surrounded by Indonesia.It is a fresh democracy – having gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.

At 4:20 am – a time which was deemed auspicious by a Burmese astrologer – on the 4th of January 1948, a new nation was born. Myanmar celebrates the 70th anniversary of its independence from the British today.

Myanmar is set to raise the minimum wage to around $3.60 a day, state media announced Wednesday, as Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government struggles to project economic progress after almost two years in power.The new daily figure of 4,800 kyats represents a 33 percent increase on Myanmar's first-ever minimum wage introduced in 2015 by the previous army-backed administration."The new minimum wage will be applied across all regions and states to all businesses with 10 or more wo

A baby and a five-year-old girl were killed in an explosion east of Vietnam's capital Hanoi early Wednesday that destroyed several houses and wounded at least six other people.Authorities are investigating the cause of the blast in Bac Ninh province's Yen Phong district, which occurred at 4:30 am demolishing buildings and sending debris flying through the air.The explosion completely razed five homes and shattered the windows of surrounding buildings, according to an AFP reporter at

North Korean authoritarian leader, Kim Jong-Un, in a New Year address, warned that he had a “nuclear button” on his desk. In response, United States (US) President Donald Trump tweeted that he has his own nuclear button on his table that is “bigger and more powerful.”Does it really matter?Yes and no. Yes, it does matter that North Korea has nuclear weapons and if it will deploy those weapons against its enemies like the US or Japan.

South Korea Tuesday proposed high-level talks with Pyongyang on January 9, after the North's leader Kim Jong-Un called for better relations and said his country might attend the Winter Olympics in the South.Kim used his annual New Year address to warn he has a "nuclear button" on his table, but sweetened his remarks by expressing an interest in dialogue and taking part in the Pyeongchang Games next month.South Korea's unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon told a press confe