French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that an EU rule allowing companies to send temporary workers from low-wage countries to other member states without paying local social charges was a “betrayal of the European spirit”.

Europe’s contaminated egg scare has cost Dutch poultry farmers at least €33mn ($39mn), according to a preliminary estimate by the government.

Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik has accused German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of copying the “far-right and racists” in his statements on a festering diplomatic crisis with Turkey.

At least four endangered rhinos that were swept away by floods into India have been rescued and brought back to their home in south-central Nepal, wildlife officials said yesterday.

Thousands of Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since Myanmar announced a military build-up in Rakhine state earlier this month, community leaders said yesterday.

Bangladesh actor Razzak’s body being carried to his grave yesterday by film star Sakib Khan and other actors

Sri Lanka’s new navy chief Vice Admiral Travis Sinniah speaks to reporters a day after taking office, in Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s justice minister was sacked yesterday after criticising the government’s decision to sell a majority stake in a newly built deep sea port to a state-owned Chinese company.

Despite international pressure the Maldives will reintroduce the death penalty after a 60-year moratorium to try and reduce the rising number of murders and stop drug trafficking, a senior adviser to President Abdulla Yameen has said.

Former first lady of Pakistan Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, who left for London last week where she underwent medical tests, has been diagnosed with throat cancer. Her younger son Hassan Nawaz confirmed her ailment.

Angry and offended Pakistanis fired back yesterday against Donald Trump’s accusations that their country harbours militants, highlighting the heavy toll they have paid fighting extremism and slamming his embrace of arch-rival India.

Pakistan has rejected US criticism of its efforts to fight terrorism, saying it should not be made a scapegoat for the failure of the US military to win the war in Afghanistan.