A Malaysian high court has sentenced five men, including three Mexican brothers, to death for drug trafficking.

Police arrested the men in a drug-making facility in 2008. They claimed that they were cleaners and not making drugs.

A court in India has granted bail to former Telecoms Minister Andimuthu Raja after 15 months in jail.

Mr Raja is accused of mis-selling telecoms licences, which auditors say cost the country about $40bn (£24.5bn). Prosecutors say he changed licences' eligibility criteria to favour certain firms in exchange for bribes in 2008. Mr Raja has denied all the charges.

Bangladeshi police have arrested a teacher from a religious school who allegedly placed a burning hot iron rod on the legs of her pupils for failing to pray regularly.

The teacher, Jesmin Akther, has made no comment. Police said she went into hiding after parents complained. Officials say 14 girls, aged between eight and 12, received burn injuries.

Bangladesh banned corporal punishment in educational institutions, including religious schools (madrassas), in 2010.

Dozens of people are still missing in Nepal after a mountain river burst its banks near Mount Annapurna, in the west of the country, causing flash flooding, police say.

A police official told AFP that a search operation for the 43 missing people was under way, but he saw little chance of finding any of them alive.

Malaysian riot police have fired tear gas and used water cannon on a crowd of protesters who had converged on the centre of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Thousands of protesters marched on a central square in the city calling for changes to the electoral system.

Air crash investigators are combing the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed near the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing all 127 on board.

Rescue teams working through the night recovered many bodies as well as the jet's flight recorder, officials said.