Asia: Saturday, Jan - 19 - 2019

Indonesian officials have shut the international airport in Bali for a second day, as Mount Agung spews volcanic ash into the atmosphere.

Massive plumes of dark ash were seen reaching as high as 3km (2 miles) above the summit of the rumbling volcano, which began erupting last week.

Officials raised the alert to the highest level on Monday, fearing an imminent major eruption.

A boat carrying eight men claiming to be North Korean fishermen has washed ashore the coast in Japan.

Japanese police said the men were found at Yurihonjo city's marina late on Thursday, and taken into custody.

The men had told authorities that their boat experienced difficulties and they ended up drifting into Japanese waters.

South Korea has delayed its nationwide college entrance exam for the first time ever, after the country was struck by an earthquake on Wednesday.

Students and parents usually spend months preparing for the crucial exam.

The 5.4 magnitude tremor hit the south-eastern port city of Pohang in the afternoon, and dozens of aftershocks have occurred since.

Journalists, media groups and users of social media in Afghanistan have accused the government of censorship after it moved to block the WhatsApp and Telegram messaging services.

The editor of one of the country's biggest newspapers said the move was a retrograde step and would be resisted.

Four men have been arrested for allegedly gang raping a teenager in the central Indian city of Bhopal.

The 19-year-old was returning from a study centre on Thursday evening when two men attacked her under a bridge.

After raping her for hours, they tied her up and called two other men who also took turns to assault her.

Big crowds are gathering for a five-day funeral ceremony for Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died last October aged 88.

The monarch will be cremated in Bangkok on Thursday, in a royal pyre representing heaven.

Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

The Supreme Court convicted her of mishandling a rice subsidy scheme which allegedly cost Thailand at least $8bn.

Ousted in 2014, weeks before a military coup, and later impeached, Ms Yingluck denies all charges and fled before the verdict, reportedly to Dubai.

People are voting in a landmark referendum on independence for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq - a move which has been criticised by foreign powers.

Polls are open in the three northern provinces that make up the region, as well as disputed areas claimed by the Kurds and the government in Baghdad.

Iraq's prime minister has denounced the referendum as "unconstitutional".

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai says the "global community" needs to intervene to protect Myanmar's Muslim minority.

She urged Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi to speak up for the Rohingya.

"We can't be silent right now. The number of people who have been displaced is hundreds of thousands," Malala told the BBC.

A prominent Indian journalist critical of Hindu nationalist politics has been shot dead in the southern state of Karnataka, police say.

Gauri Lankesh, 55, was found lying in a pool of blood at her doorstep in the city of Bangalore.

She was shot in the head and chest by gunmen who arrived by motorcycle. The motive for the crime was not clear.

Pakistani police say armed men opened fire on a group of transgender people, killing one, in an affluent neighbourhood in Pakistan's city of Karachi.

Aurangzeb Khattak, a police officer, said the shooting occurred overnight on Wednesday. He said passengers in a 4WD vehicle first harassed the group by throwing rotten eggs at them and then opened fire, resulting in the death of Chanda Sharmeeli.

India's top court has ruled the practice of instant divorce in Islam unconstitutional, marking a major victory for women's rights activists.

In a 3-2 majority verdict, the court called the practice "un-Islamic".

India is one of a handful of countries where a Muslim man can divorce his wife in minutes by saying the word talaq (divorce) three times.

Philippine police have killed 32 people in drug raids, thought to be the highest death toll in a single day in the country's war on drugs.

The raids took place over 24 hours on Tuesday in Bulacan province, north of the capital Manila.

Police said that those killed were suspected drug offenders who were armed and resisted officers.

The US and South Korea have held a ballistic missile drill after North Korea tested long-range missile experts believe may reach Alaska. Self-restraint was "all that separated armistice and war" and could be changed at any time, the two allies said.

They were destitute and had been reduced to begging to make a living because their environment could no longer support them.

North Korea says it has successfully tested its first "intercontinental ballistic missile" (ICBM). A state television announcement said the missile, which landed in the Sea of Japan yesterday, could hit targets anywhere in the world.

Sila Sutharat, a roasted chicken street vendor from Phetchaburi, Thailand, has come up with an ingenious way of cooking chicken.

At least 22 people were killed when a wall collapsed during a wedding party in northern India.

The guests had taken shelter from heavy rain under a tin shack when a wall collapsed on to it in the storm.

An American citizen has been detained in North Korea as he tried to leave the country, South Korean media say.

The man was identified only by his surname, Kim.

A North Korean missile has detonated soon after launch, South Korean and US military officials have said, a day after Pyongyang warned the US amid rising tension in the region.

The US said a ballistic missile exploded within seconds of launch.

Hours earlier, North Korea paraded what appeared to be long-range ballistic missiles at a major military display.