Asia Times Online (abbreviated as ATol) is a Hong Kong/Thailand-based bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective". Asia Times Online was created in 1999 and sees itself as the successor to Sondhi Limthongkul's Asia Times that closed in 1997.

Asia Times Online was created early in 1999 as a successor in "publication policy and editorial outlook" to the Hong Kong/Bangkok-based daily printed newspaper Asia Times, owned by Thai media mogul and leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy Sondhi Limthongkul, that closed in mid 1997, a week before the devaluation of Thailand's baht kicked off the Asian financial crisis.^{[citation needed]} Asia Times Online is incorporated and registered in Hong Kong and is owned by Sondhi Limthongkul. Its revenues come from advertisements, an advertisement-free subscription service, and from selling content.

Asia Times Online averages 90,000 unique readers every day and is one of Asia's most popular news sites. The New York Times described Asia Times Online as "one of the most prominent of the [English-language] regional publications" covering Asia.

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register (it became The Times on 1 January 1788). The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group headed by Rupert Murdoch. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967.

The Times is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, including The Times of India (1838), The Straits Times (1845), The New York Times (1851), The Irish Times (1859), the Los Angeles Times (1881), The Seattle Times (1891), The Daily Times (Malawi) (1900), The Canberra Times (1926), and The Times (Malta) (1935). For distinguishing purposes it is therefore sometimes referred to, particularly in North America, as the "London Times" or "The Times of London".

Qari Ziaur Rahman is a citizen of Afghanistan who is reported to be a leader of the Taliban's leadership. He was believed to have been killed in March 2010 during an attack on militants by the Pakistani military., however Qari later phoned media reporters to confirm that he survived the airstrike.

Qari's father, Ahengar Dilbar, was a blacksmith. Unlike some members of the Taliban's leadership, he can read and write. Qari Ziaur Rahman reports being from Konar Province. He reports that he memorized the entire Koran while a youth.

According to a profile in the Asia Times he grew up surrounded by Arab foreign fighters during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. According to the Asia Times he is in his thirties.

Asia Times reports that Qari Ziaur Rahman leads the Taliban's efforts in Konar, and that the United States has offered $350,000 bounty for information leading to his death or capture. It reports that he rose to a leadership position on merit, not nepotism, while fighting against US forces.

Ziaur Rahman, Bir Uttam, Hilal-e-Jurat (Bengali: জিয়াউর রহমান Ji-yaur Rôhman) (19 January 1936 – 30 May 1981) was a Bangladeshi politician and an army officer, who announced the Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh twice, the first being on 26 March 1971 at Kalurghat, Chittagong. The following day Zia repeated an edited version of the declaration on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He later became the seventh President of Bangladesh from 1977 until 1981. A highly decorated and accomplished military officer, he retired from the Bangladesh Army as a Lieutenant General. He was commander of sector 1, transferred to Teldhala from Sabroom in May 1971. He organised and created Sector 11 and remained its commander until October. During August 1971, He was appointed Brigade Commander of the Bangladesh Forces during the Bangladesh war of independence with Pakistan. During his administration, he first founded JAGODAL but he himself did not become a member of it. Then he founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the two largest political parties in the country. He is popularly known as Shaheed President Zia, meaning "martyred Zia", in reference to his 1981 assassination.

Pepe Escobar (born 1954) is a journalist based in São Paulo, Brazil. He writes a column entitled The Roving Eye for Asia Times Online and is analyst and correspondent for The Real News Network. His article, 'Get Osama! Now! Or else...', was published by Asia Times Online two weeks before the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001; in it, he claimed that Al Qaeda was in tatters.