Sri Lanka is planning to introduce plain packaging of all tobacco products in a new step to curb its consumption, President Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday.

Security at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International airport was beefed up yesterday following a knife attack that left a security guard dead and three other security personnel injured.

The government is preparing legislation to trigger the procedure to leave the EU, Sky News reported yesterday, despite Prime Minister Theresa May saying she is confident of overturning a court decision that may delay Brexit.

Kanu Ramdas Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a former Nasa scientist, died in a private hospital here yesterday evening.

Pakistani police arrested dozens of people in a crackdown on more than 90 seminaries in Karachi, following a series of sectarian shootings in the country’s largest city, officials said yesterday.

British Prime Minister Theresa May offered India a possible improved visa deal yesterday, as the two countries kicked off talks on boosting trading links ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

A thick smog engulfed major cities in Pakistan yesterday, causing air traffic disruption and widespread outbreaks of allergies, officials reported.

Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara (right) welcomes Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera at the presidential palace in Abidjan yesterday at the start of a state visit.

Soweto gospel singers perform during the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) ceremony in Lagos Sunday night.

Mohanlal’s action thriller Puli Murugan (Leopard Murugan) has become the first Malayalam film to enter the “billion club” registering a gross collection of Rs1.5bn ($16mn) in just a month.

Over a million school children were forced to stay at home, thousands of employees reported sick and long queues formed outside shops selling face masks yesterday as New Delhi struggled with its worst pollution for nearly 20 years.

A Philippine senator and the biggest critic of President Rodrigo Duterte filed a “test case” before the Supreme Court yesterday, seeking to fend off what she called harassment by the volatile leader and his public tirades against her.