Asia News

NORTH Korea has launched three short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, apparently as part of a military drill, South Korea's defence ministry said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Religious lawmakers in Afghanistan blocked legislation on Saturday aimed at strengthening provisions for women's freedoms, arguing that parts of it violate Islamic principles and encourage disobedience.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen assassinated a police chief in front of his house after he led an anti-Taliban campaign in western Afghanistan, an official said Saturday.

A Chinese aviation industry news website says a man has been arrested for allegedly making fake bomb threats against several domestic flights bound for Shanghai.

Australia's elite special forces have ranged far and wide across southern Afghanistan, often carrying out what are called ''kill-capture'' missions against Taliban targets.

Khaled Hosseini at his home in San Jose, Calif., Oct. 18, 2005. His latest book on his homeland is "A Thousand Splendid Suns." Khaled Hosseini at his home in San Jose, Calif., Oct.

Two bombs hidden in a motorcycle and a car exploded inside an elite gated community linked to the family of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday evening, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 70 near the southern city of Kandahar, an official said.

An adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ended a visit to North Korea on Friday but would not give details of his talks with leaders in Pyongyang.

Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, commander, U.S. European Command and NATO supreme allied commander, speaks during the launch of the book "Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization" at National Defense University's Lincoln Hall on Fort McNair May 15.

More than 2,000 people in southern China unfurled banners and shouted "Protest! Protest!" on Thursday to oppose plans for a petroleum refinery, in a large environmental rally that local authorities allowed to go forward in order to let the public vent frustration.

A suicide car bombing targeting a coalition convoy in the heart of Afghanistan's capital on Thursday killed at least 12 people, six Americans and six Afghans, authorities said.

Sitting on a dirty straw mat on the parched ground of southern Afghanistan, Masooma sank deeper inside a giant black shawl.

Bangladesh is evacuating one million people with Cyclone Mahasen expected to hit its low-lying delta coast on Thursday evening, said the United Nations, which estimated 4.1 million people were at risk due to gale-force winds, heavy rain and flooding.

A plane crashed while trying to land at a mountain airstrip in northern Nepal early Thursday, and all 21 people on board, including eight Japanese tourists, survived with injuries, police said.

A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing at least six people in the explosion and wounding more than 30, police and hospital officials said.

Officials say at least six people were killed when a spring tornado outbreak devastated parts of North Texas, destroying or damaging dozens of homes and injuring dozens of people.

A Chinese woman who posted a complaint about a petrochemical plant near her hometown in China to the White House's online petition page says she got an unexpected order from police: Take it down.

Chinese police are investigating telephone threats that led to the grounding of five flights around the country on Wednesday, though officials said no planes were in actual danger.

A South Korean presidential spokesman who was fired after inappropriately touching a woman during a U.S. trip blames a "cultural difference" with America.

Two bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside a provincial governor's compound in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one police officer, an official said.