The maiden session of Pakistan's newly-elected National Assembly began here on Monday, with the outgoing speaker administering the oath to 329 members of the Lower House of the Parliament as part of the country's second democratic transition of power.

About 100 soldiers of the Afghan Special Force have gone missing in the Ghazni province, where government troops are battling Taliban militants backed by US airstrikes, authorities said on Monday.

Indonesian authorities on Monday raised the death toll from a devastating 7-magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Lombok on August 5 to 436.

At least six people have been killed and eight are still trapped following a gas explosion in a coal mine in Pakistan's Balochistan province, police said on Monday.

The death toll in the flooding caused by a dam collapse in Laos has climbed to 36 while 98 are still missing, national daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

Pakistan jail authorities here on Sunday released 26 Indian fishermen as a goodwill gesture on the eve of the inaugural session of the National Assembly where newly-elected members will take oath of their office, the media reported.

A surfboard was returned to its Australian surfer after it was stolen from him 40 years ago, local media reported on Sunday.

Peter Gilson said his mother saved some A$1,800 Australian dollars ($1,315) and bought him the surfboard in Newcastle, New South Wales state in the late 1970s but it was soon stolen from the garage, reports Xinhua news agency.

Amid the growing debate over whether electronic voting machines (EVMs) are hackable or not, elections officials in the US are worried over the increasing "information warfare" as mid-term polls loom.