The warnings are stark and coming from inside and outside of North Korea. Defectors based in South Korea have told us that their families in the North are going hungry. There is a concern as winter approaches that the most vulnerable will starve.

The Taliban has banned the use of foreign currencies in Afghanistan, a move that could further disrupt an economy on the brink of collapse.

Millions of Afghans will face starvation this winter unless urgent action is taken, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un should pay damages for a 1959-84 scheme that saw more than 90,000 people move there from Japan, a Tokyo court is hearing.

The man regarded as the "father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb", Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has died aged 85 after being hospitalised with Covid-19.

The Taliban's notorious former head of religious police has said extreme punishments such as executions and amputations will resume in Afghanistan.

The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says they are willing to resume talks with the South if it ends its "hostile policies".

Philippine boxing star Manny Pacquiao says he is to run for president in next year's election.

"We're working to establish an inclusive government that represents all the people of Afghanistan," promised Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar when he recently arrived in Kabul to start talks aimed at forming a leadership to move the movement from guns to government.