Asia News Archives

The couple who crashed the Obama administration's first state dinner communicated with a senior Pentagon official about going to the event, but the official denies that she helped the couple get in.

Two Tunisians who had been detained at Guantanamo arrived in Italy late Monday and will be tried on international terrorism charges for having allegedly recruited fighters for Afghanistan, officials said.

The United Nations asked Monday for $7.1 billion to pay for its humanitarian work around the world next year, with Sudan and its troubled Darfur region most in need and Afghanistan rising to second.

A state news agency says 10 people were killed when a bus plunged off a steep slope into a valley in China's southern Guangdong province.

Hazra Bi wishes she could forget. But her damaged family is a living reminder of that December night 25 years ago when lethal gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, in the worst industrial disaster the world has ever seen.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper assured Canada's military Sunday that he and most Canadians stand behind them, even if his political opposition does not.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is urging China and other countries to make more ambitious commitments on curbing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.

The leading Senate Democrat on military matters says President Barack Obama's anticipated plan for significantly expanding U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan must show how these reinforcements will help increase the size of the Afghan security forces.

Gordon Brown has sent a tough challenge to Pakistan to step up action against the al Qaida terror network and "take out" its leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri.

Veterans of Iraq recall rolling to war along asphalt highways, sweltering in flat scrublands, and chatting with city-wise university graduates connected to the wider world.

Pakistan's president relinquished command of its nuclear arsenal to the prime minister, a political ally, and signaled he was ready to shed more power as he faces growing pressure to resign.

Canada and India have announced a major nuclear trade deal. Officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office say the agreement will allow Canadian firms to export and import "controlled" nuclear materials, equipment and technology to and from India.

The head of Russia's Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, said experts found pieces of an explosive device that detonated around 9:30 Friday night as the train raced over it, gouging a five-foot crater and strewing smoking wreckage over a rural stretch of track.

Britain is to host a conference at which Afghan President Hamid Karzai will be asked to commit himself to boosting his country's army and police so UK troops can come home, Gordon Brown announced.

The triple-deck ferry, M.V. Coco, floats after it tipped and its rear portion sank in the Tetulia River late Friday near the coastal town of Bhola, 64 miles south of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Nov.

A Zimbabwe cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off Saturday from Shanghai's main international airport, killing three crew members, a government official said.

An express train carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to St. Petersburg derailed late Friday, killing at least 22 people and injuring dozens of others, emergency officials said.

Sri Lankan elections officials said Friday that the nation would hold early presidential elections on Jan.

A key anti-Taliban tribal leader was assassinated Friday in a roadside bombing, the latest in a series of attacks against pro-government militias in the Afghan border area of northwestern Pakistan.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban and other extremist groups Friday to lay down their weapons and participate in rebuilding the battered country, as part of reconciliation efforts he has said will be his main objective during his second term.

"WASHINGTON a ' The United States is scrambling to coax NATO allies to send 10,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of President Obama a TMs strategy for the region.

As daylight faded and the winter cold set in, soldiers huddled inside a crude wooden hut to tuck into Thanksgiving turkeys the unit itself had fattened and to give thanks for having survived a year of combat in Afghanistan.

"They just went to a party. They didn't do anything wrong," Paul Morrison, a Virginia attorney who has represented Michaele and Tareq Salahi in the past, told The Associated Press .

South Korean soldiers and police executed nearly 5,000 citizens during the early months of the 1950-53 Korean War, fearing they could collaborate with invading North Korean troops, a government commission said Thursday.

Wolfgang Schneiderhan quits as defence ministry accused of withholding information about civilian casualties in Nato bombing Inspector General Wolfgang Schneiderhan in Kunduz, Afghanistan, earlier this month.

A former head of MI6 has launched an attack on the Government for its financing and handling of the military campaign in Afghanistan.

Putting his prestige on the line, President Barack Obama will personally commit the U.S. to a goal of substantially cutting greenhouse gases at next month's Copenhagen climate summit, insisting America is ready to tackle global warming despite intense disagreement in Congress.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il says ties with China are "unbreakable" and has called for increased co-operation between the communist nations amid international pressure on Pyongyang to return to nuclear disarmament talks.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved Tuesday to calm the political storm surrounding the handover of Afghan prisoners, vowing to release all "legally available" documents related to the matter.

Pakistani troops killed 18 militants in a fresh offensive Tuesday against insurgents blamed for a wave of recent bombings in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

Attorney general's office says special court being set up to hear cases against three current and 12 former ministers Associated Press in Kabul guardian.co.uk , Tuesday 24 November 2009 16.15 GMT Hamid Karzai pledged a crackdown on corrupton with government during his inaugural speech for a second term as president.

President Barack Obama showered praise on India and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an elaborate welcoming ceremony Tuesday, declaring it was only fitting the Indian leader should be the first state visitor of his administration.

Above, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao speaks during a supermarket milk inspection in 2008.

Recently separated conjoined Bangladeshi twins left intensive care on Monday and were adjusting well after their marathon operation, hospital officials said.

In this April 5, 2000 file photo, Chinese computer engineer Huang Qi poses for photo in his office in Chengdu, in China 's Sichuan province.

Bombings and shootings killed 12 people across Afghanistan, including four American troops and three children, as President Barack Obama convened his war council again Monday to fine-tune a strategy to respond to the intransigent violence.

CHINESE and North Korean defence chiefs have pledged to strengthen their military alliance - dating back to the Korean War - during talks in Pyongyang, state media said on Monday.

An Afghan agency, at one time entrusted to monitor Canadian-captured insurgents in Kandahar, says it has documented nearly 400 cases of torture across the war-ravaged country.

Thirty-seven asylum seekers have been injured in a mass brawl at the Christmas Island detention centre after 150 Afghani and Sri Lankan detainees attacked each other with broom handles, pool cues and tree branches.

KHAR, Pakistan a " Pakistani troops killed nearly 40 suspected militants Sunday in a series of operations in northwestern tribal areas near the Afghan border, officials said.The army launched an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October, but many militants fled north to escape the fighting.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian, are meeting today in the German city of Munich to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

ACHIN, Afghanistan a ' American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives at the Geneva International airport on Saturday en route to the United States.

A town centre came to a standstill as thousands of people lined the streets to pay their respects to two soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

The heavily guarded Serena regularly houses visiting diplomats, officials and international workers.

Some 300,000 war refugees were forced into the camps after fleeing the final months of the government's decades-long war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, relatives of coal miners come to the accident site to wait for further information in the Xinxing Coal Mine in Hegang City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Saturday, Nov.

Lavlee Mollik tells Bangladesh newspaper that she wants her daughters to live and be educated in Australia Associated Press in Melbourne guardian.co.uk , Saturday 21 November 2009 01.24 GMT Trishna, left, and Krishna with their legal guardian Moira Kelly.

A prominent mainland Chinese director banned by Beijing from making movies brought his new gay romance film to Hong Kong on Friday for what is likely the last of a handful of screenings on his home soil.

Tajikistan News.Net Friday 20th November, 2009 Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar has shifted his base from Quetta to Karachi with the help of Pakistana s Inter Services Intelligence, the Washington Times reports.

A top South Korean model who was a fixture at fashion week in Paris and London was found dead at her apartment in Paris, an official said on Friday.

Dhaka, Nov. 19: Bangladesh's Supreme Court today upheld the death sentences on five former army officers convicted of assassinating Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a 1975 coup, taking the penultimate step in a 34-year-old saga that has bitterly divided the country.

Faced with an escalating insurgency, Pakistan increasingly views U.S. efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as critical to its own security - but is worried enough about the chances of American failure that it continues to hedge its bets.

November 19, 2009 Visionmp.com news service Foreign Minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi attended a luncheon hosted by Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta in Kabul on Thursday.

Obama's warning came after Iran rejected a compromise proposal to ship its low-enriched uranium abroad so that it could not be further enriched to make weapons.

A federal official has dropped a political bombshell on Parliament, alleging suspects handed over by Canada to Afghan authorities were tortured - and that the government was at best indifferent and at worst tried to cover it up.

Missiles fired from a suspected U.S. drone killed three militants Thursday in Pakistan's lawless tribal area along the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.

A British soldier was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Nov 18 - Over a thousand women from the Jamaat-e-Islami party march through the streets of Islamabad to condemn American policies in Pakistan.

Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday his upcoming strategy in Afghanistan will "put us on a path towards ending the war" and that his goal is not to pass the conflict on to the next president.

President Barack Obama says the U.S. relationship with China is deepening beyond trade and economics to cover climate, security and other matters of international concern.

Pollution typically declines during a recession. Not this time. Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon dioxide pollution jumped 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study published online Tuesday.

Afghanistan has slipped three places to become the world's second most-corrupt country despite billions in aid meant to bolster the government against a rising insurgency, according to an annual survey of perceived levels of corruption.

Allied troops must stay in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban filling any "vacuum", the Foreign Secretary has said.

A team of Australian doctors began marathon surgery on November 16, 2009 to separate Trishna and Krishna , Bangladeshi twins joined at the head, giving them only a one in four chance of both ... Australian doctors successfully separated Bangladeshi twins who were joined at the head after more than 24 hours of surgery, describing the moment as ...

News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan's emperor have incensed critics, who said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas.

A pickup truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four people in an area that has become the focal point for militant retaliation against an army offensive along the nearby Afghan border.

Insurgents fired two rockets Monday into a crowded market northeast of Kabul where the head of French forces in Afghanistan held a meeting with tribal elders.

Gordon Brown is expected to issue a vigorous defence of Britain's military mission in Afghanistan, as he repeats warnings that the al Qaida terror network poses the biggest source of threat to UK national security.

In this May 1, 2008, file photo, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler is pictured before the start of a ceremony at the federal courthouse in Washington.

President Barack Obama walks down the stairs from Air Force One during his arrival at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Nov.

The more President Barack Obama examines our options in Afghanistan, the less he likes the choices he sees.

As soon as the French Foreign Legion moved in this summer, some of the men climbed on the roof of the base headquarters and painted the force's Latin motto in big white letters.

PARIS a ' France and Brazil adopted a common policy Saturday ahead of key UN global warming talks and vowed to launch a worldwide push to convince other powers to back their "climate bible". A joint text was unveiled after talks between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which gave an outline ...

DHAKA: South Asia is set for greater connectivity with India on Saturday agreeing to allow Bangladesh rail transit to landlocked Nepal.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: India on Saturday dismissed former Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka's claim that its troops were put on alert at the instance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa following fears of a coup.

A fire tore though an indoor shooting range in southern South Korea on Saturday, killing 10 people, including at least two Japanese, and injuring six others, police said.

A North Korean cargo ship entered South Korean waters Saturday - a sign that trade has been unaffected by a recent deadly naval clash off their western coasts, an official said.

Since then, three more officers have come forward with their own YouTube videos making similar accusations a ' and others are lining up to do the same.

The Chinese have learned English from his speeches and celebrated the way he rolls up his sleeves.

Explosions are rocking an ammunition depot in Russia, and a news agency quotes a regional governor as saying 35 people are missing.

Workers clean trucks' windshields after heavy snow in Taiyuan, in north China 's Shanxi province, Thursday, Nov.

A cameraman photographs a bullet hole on the windshield of an Iranian consulate employee's vehicle in Peshawar, Pakistan on Thursday, Nov.

Report: No reform will cost Americans Nov. 12: Without health care reform, costs will go up 166 percent in the next 10 years, a new study finds.

A bomb-sniffing dog that disappeared during a fierce battle in Afghanistan between Australian troops and militant fighters has been found and returned to its unit after more than a year.

Nov 12 - Emperor Akihito, celebrating 20 years on the throne, says his biggest worry is that future generations in Japan may forget the past.

BAKU, Azerbaijan a " A court in Azerbaijan sentenced two bloggers to prison Wednesday for a fight in a restaurant, but the defendants say the charges were a pretext to punish them for political dissent.The U.S. swiftly condemned the court decision, calling it 'a step backwards for Azerbaijan's progress towards democratic reform.'Emin Abdullayev and ...

American troops in Afghanistan have been commemorating Veterans Day with ceremonies for those killed in conflict.

A roadside bomb killed nine Pakistani security officers close to the Afghan border Wednesday, while two other soldiers died in a separate militant assault on a security post in the same area, officials said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak met on Wednesday to discuss further development of strategic and cooperative ties between the two countries.

Canadian soldiers will be offering the H1N1 vaccine to Afghan detainees in their custody.

Television footage broadcast Tuesday showed insurgents handling what appears to be U.S. ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan that American forces left last month following a deadly firefight that killed eight troops.

A suspected car bomb exploded outside a crowded market in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 20 people in the latest attack by suspected militants apparently aimed at avenging an army offensive along the Afghan border.

Gordon Brown is braced for more pressure over the bloody conflict in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan, though not quite the 40,000 sought by his top general there, as Pentagon planners work to make room for the influx.

NATO says Afghan and foreign troops have killed more than 130 insurgents, including eight Taliban commanders, in six days of fierce fighting during a major offensive in northern Afghanistan.

Nine men have been executed for taking part in ethnic rioting that left nearly 200 people dead in July, the first suspects put to death in the unrest, Chinese state media reported Monday.

As Pakistan's army plows ahead with its offensive in South Waziristan, its success is at risk because the government has yet to come up with a plan to run and rebuild the lawless territory so that the Taliban and al-Qaida don't re-emerge. The Pakistani army launched a ground offensive in the Afghan border region in mid-October, pitting some 30,000 ...

A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday in market in Pakistan's northwest crowded with shoppers ahead of a Muslim holiday, killing 12 people, including a mayor who once supported but had turned against the Taliban, officials said.

Afghan president pledged Sunday that there would be no place for corrupt officials in his new administration a ' a demand made by Washington and its international partners as they ponder sending more troops to confront the Taliban and shore up his government.

General George Casey, Army chief of staff, on Sunday became the latest U.S. military official to advocate sending more troops to Afghanistan as President Barack Obama nears a decision on a new strategy.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who as finance minister in the 90s initiated liberalisation, today said his government would steadily pursue reforms to feed economic growth, while withdrawing the fiscal stimulus by next year.

Maintaining public support is "crucially important" to the success of the international military mission in Afghanistan, the senior British commander in the country has warned.

Nuclear impasses with Iran and North Korea are the dominant issues for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her trip to Europe and Asia, which begins with a stopover in Germany to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall.

Pakistani soldiers killed 12 militants in gunbattles over the past day, officials said Saturday, as government forces pressed on with their offensive in the mountainous Taliban sanctuary of South Waziristan.

China is offering to abolish import duties on some commodities from Africa and make sure Chinese exports to the continent are safe as part of a package to boost already thriving economic ties, China's commerce minister said in an article published Saturday.

US President Barack Obama has delayed his visit to Japan next week by one day, a Japanese foreign ministry official said Saturday, following a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas.

Investigators are searching for the motive behind a mass shooting at a sprawling US army base in Texas, in which an army psychiatrist trained to treat war wounded is suspected of killing 13 people.

India has provoked China's fury by allowing the Dalai Lama to visit a remote town near the disputed Tibetan border.

Germany's defense minister said Friday he believes civilians were killed in an airstrike in Afghanistan, but insisted that the German-requested attack was necessary from a military standpoint.

November 6, 2009 Visionmp.com news service The Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has said that there is no input from Pakistan on David Coleman Headley, who was arrested in Chicago by the FBI for plotting a major terror strike in India at the best of LeT.

A Democratic senator on Thursday called on the Obama administration to reject an expected request for federal economic stimulus money as part of a $1.5 billion West Texas wind energy project, saying it will generate Chinese, not American, jobs - a claim strongly disputed by the project's developer.

Editor's note: Reuters journalist Deborah Gembara was embedded with the 1-501rst Infantry Battallion in Kushamond, Afghanistan.

A front-line advocate of treating Internet addiction Thursday appealed that net addicts must be taken into qualified health institutions rather than rehab camps, as China's Ministry of Health was soliciting public opinions on a draft guidance to juveniles on Internet use.

Home >> Politics >> At least 4 killed as US drone fired two missiles in North Waziristan At least 4 killed as US drone fired two missiles in North Waziristan Submitted 35 mins ago At least four militants were killed in a US drone missile strike in a Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said on Thursday.

Pakistani soldiers battled Taliban fighters Wednesday in the streets of a key militant stronghold, officials said, as government forces pressed ahead with their offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

Afghan opium production is on the rise, helping to fund the Taliban and other terror groups and having a devastating impact across the world, experts say.

Above a screen grab of a video shows a casualty loaded into an ambulance before being taken to a base hospital.

President Barack Obama's half brother has broken his media silence to discuss his new novel - the semi-autobiographical story of an abusive parent patterned on their late father, the mostly absent figure Obama wrote about in his own memoir.

Newly released White House tapes from the Vietnam War era portray President John F. Kennedy wrestling over the fate of South Vietnam's strongman in a situation that appears to mirror President Barack Obama's quandary today in dealing with Afghanistan's shaky government.Obama is beset by questions about President Hamid Karzai's popularity, honesty ...

Former President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the Japan Series between the Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters.

China said it expressed grave concern to India about a visit by the Dalai Lama to a state in the country's northeast at the heart of a long-running border dispute, saying it showed an anti-China bias.

"Our brave mujahedeen were able to disrupt the entire process," the Taliban said in a statement.

China and New Zealand signed a labor market agreement on Monday, under which the New Zealand government would ease restrictions on Chinese workers seeking temporary jobs in the island nation.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka demanded Monday that U.S. officials cease efforts to question the country's top general on alleged human rights abuses committed by the government during the final months of the civil war here.

China will announce further measures to promote substantial cooperation with Africa at the upcoming meeting between China and African nations, Vice Minister of Commerce Chen Jian said on Monday.

A senior British explosives expert has been killed while trying to defuse a bomb on the last day of his tour in Afghanistan.

A victim is removed from the scene of Monday's suicide bombing outside a bank in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Applicants wait in line to register an application for the national military recruitment in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui province on Sunday.

Seen from a tiny village on a recent moonless night, the sprawling U.S. base three miles to the north looks more like a medium-size city than a military facility in a war zone.

China will set the future direction of its burgeoning ties with Africa at a multinational forum in Egypt this month, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Nov. 1 - More than 50 people have been arrested in the Russian capital during an unauthorised protest.

This undated file photo collected from a Russian online newspaper. AFP, Moscow A Russian interior ministry transport plane crashed Sunday in the far-eastern Yakutia region, killing all 11 people on board, Ria-Novosti said.