The widow of a slain Islamist militant leader will be charged for allegedly using social media to recruit Islamic State sympathisers to join a five-month siege of a southern city, Philippine authorities said Friday.Hundreds of local and foreign gunmen who had pledged allegiance to IS rampaged through Marawi, the principal Islamic city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, starting in May -- sparking the nation's longest urban war that claimed more than 1,100 lives.

Pope Francis will lead an open-air mass Friday for around 100,000 Catholics in Bangladesh, which is grappling with a rise in Islamist extremism and a massive influx of Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.The head of the Catholic Church will also meet refugees in Dhaka, a day after urging the world to take "decisive measures" to resolve a crisis that has forced more than 620,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar.Francis arrived Thursday from Mya

From an undisclosed location north of Pyongyang, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which flew for approximately 50 minutes at an altitude of 4,000 kilometres before landing 250 kilometres from the northwest coast of Japan. Dubbed the Hwasong-15, the testing of this ICBM shattered a two-month long missile testing silence by Pyongyang.

A Vietnamese court on Thursday rejected the appeal of a prominent blogger known as "Mother Mushroom", in jail for anti-state propaganda, days after one of her lawyers was disbarred in a case that has drawn global ire.Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was sentenced to 10 years in jail in June, a heavy term decried by rights groups that accuse the communist government of waging a harsh crackdown against critics this year.

Thousands of villagers living in the shadow of a rumbling Bali volcano have been fleeing for days, but some are now risking life and limb by sneaking back into the danger zone – along with thrill-seeking tourists.The 10-kilometre radius around Mount Agung is littered with roadside signs that read "Volcanic danger zone.

In the shadow of one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history, Pope Francis who is in Myanmar for a four-day visit, refrained from mentioning the word “Rohingya” throughout his speech at the capital, Naypyidaw.

Known for its dynamic and diverse community, the Southeast Asian region as a whole makes for the fifth largest economy in the world and the region is expected to grow even further. Despite its accomplishments, the region still falls short in terms of gender equality in key leadership roles, the general workforce and the global environment.

North Korea shattered a two-month period of relative quiet by test-firing a missile that analysts say may put the US east coast in range.Japan said the intercontinental ballistic missile flew for 53 minutes on a lofted trajectory and may have reached an altitude of more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) before landing in waters about 250 kilometers from its northwest coast.

Pope Francis will hold talks with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a key moment of a tour aimed at soothing religious and ethnic hatreds that have driven huge numbers of Muslim Rohingya from the country.

The Belt Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambition that undoubtedly turns heads and raises eyebrows – but for vastly different reasons.Plans are already underway – ports, roads, rail infrastructure, oil and gas pipelines, fibre optics networks – and slowly, China’s estimated five trillion-dollar ambition is taking shape.