The top performer, Singapore, had high levels of illiteracy into the 1960s, said Mr Schleicher, showing how much progress could be made.

Four Afghan men have been sentenced to death over a mob attack in which a woman was beaten to death after being falsely accused of burning the Koran.

More than 100 people are known to have died in a powerful earthquake that struck Nepal, wrecking many historic buildings, officials have said.

A former school principal in Japan says he paid for sex with more than 12,000 women -- some of them girls as young as 14 -- during repeated visits to the Philippines over more than a quarter of a century, according to police.

A family of seven drowned in a doomed attempt to rescue their daughter from a reservoir after they all fell in while forming a human chain to pull her out.

Singapore is bidding farewell to its founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, who died on Monday aged 91.

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) has taken delivery of the Izumo, the largest Japanese military vessel to see service since World War II.

A Hong Kong pianist who murdered his parents before chopping up their bodies and cooking them in a microwave has been jailed for life.

A Passenger train has derailed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, killing at least 34 people, a railway spokesman told the BBC.

A militant Korean nationalist has slashed the face of the US ambassador to South Korea at a breakfast meeting in Seoul, but the envoy was not seriously hurt.

An attack on a Shia mosque in Peshawar has killed at least 19 people and injured more than 60 others, hospital sources said.

Female high school students wishing to graduate in the Indonesian city of Jember will have to undergo ‘virginity tests’ under new proposals.

Hong Kong (CNN) China has executed a mining tycoon found guilty of murder and running a "mafia-style" organization, state media reported Monday.

Liu Han, 48, the former chairman of Hanlong Group, was executed along with his brother, Liu Wei, and three associates, official news agency Xinhua reported.

The men met with their families before they were executed, Xinhua said.

Liu has been linked by state media to former security czar Zhou Yongkang -- the most senior official snared in China's anti-corruption campaign.

Hanlong's interests included mining, real estate, electricity, energy and finance and the company remains a shareholder in two Australian companies - Moly Group and Sundance Resources.

Liu was detained in 2013 along with his younger brother. They were sentenced to death in May 2014.

The Liu brothers started out running gambling dens in their base in Guanghan, in China's southwestern Sichuan province, in the e

Japan has seized the passport of a journalist planning to travel to Syria following the brutal killing of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State group there, local media said Sunday.

In the nightlife district of Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, six African male asylum seekers, between the ages of 27 to 44, were arrested for allegedly trafficking drugs. Police seized 730,000 USD in cash and illegal drugs valued at approximately 67,000 USD.