World

A projectile set the Panama-flagged tanker On Peace on fire off Oman’s Musandam coast, injuring 12 of its 19 crew, 11 of them Indian. India condemned the attack. A day later, Houthi missiles struck near the runway at Aden airport minutes before a flight was due to land.

Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing landed in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday for a two-day visit. He meets Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday. Malaysia says the return of Myanmar nationals will lead the agenda; the UN refugee agency and rights groups oppose the returns.

The march led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi left Mattani for Khyber on its fourth day. Sand-filled containers block the Khairabad bridge into Punjab, Dawn reported, and the government says it will not accept demands made under pressure.

France’s Henri Kagan and Japan’s Kenso Soai share the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for reactions that amplify one mirror-image form of a molecule over the other. The work bears on how medicines are made and on why life uses molecules of a single handedness.

The main stories from across Asia on Wednesday, 7 October 2026: a US Marine held over a killing in Okinawa, Thailand’s flood plan for the IMF–World Bank meetings, Nepal’s Gen Z protest cases, a spy charge involving Taiwan’s first family, Yemen’s claim on Mocha and the PTI march.

US prosecutors say a 34-year-old real estate agent from Irvine filmed the Seattle-area home of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s son on the orders of Chinese officials. She was arrested at Los Angeles airport before a flight to China. Taiwan calls it transnational repression.

A government-appointed panel in Nepal has concluded that most people charged over the September 2025 Gen Z protests face allegations such as murder, arson and looting that the law does not allow the state to drop. The Cabinet has sent the report for implementation.

Days before finance ministers and central bankers from 191 countries arrive in Bangkok, Thailand has drawn up a four-step flood plan for the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings. Forecasters expect about 50 mm of rain a day during the opening weekend.

A 20-year-old US Marine is in Japanese custody over the killing of a 39-year-old woman in a Naha hotel. He denies the allegations. Tokyo has protested to Washington and Okinawa’s governor wants the Status of Forces Agreement revised.

Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on his own, for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from deep space. Universities in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are part of the project.

Saudi Arabia's aviation authority says attacks on Jazan and Najran airports caused three minor injuries and damage. The Houthis claim they also hit Riyadh's main airport and an Aramco refinery, which Riyadh has not confirmed. Iran's president says talks with Washington are meaningless.

Air quality in every region of Singapore was in the unhealthy range on Tuesday, with the 24-hour PSI reaching 135 in the central region by 5pm. The National Environment Agency says smoke from fires in southern Sumatra and West Kalimantan is drifting towards the island.