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U.S. troops are assisting Pakistani forces in tracking down suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters inside Pakistan, the Pentagon has confirmed.

The U.S. special envoy on Korean affairs has arrived in Seoul to lay the groundwork for a visit to communist North Korea he says he hopes will take place soon.

The U.S. military has opened an investigation into last week's friendly fire incident in Afghanistan that killed four Canadian soldiers and injured eight others.

U.S. Pacific Command chief Admiral Dennis Blair has arrived in southern Zamboanga City to assess the progress of war games between U.S. and Philippine troops and discuss a possible extension of U.S. military presence in the country.

Workers have recovered the bodies of five crewmen who were among 10 killed in February when a U.S. Army MH-47 crashed off the Philippine coast, the U.S. Navy announced Monday.

The United States softened its approach to get Indonesia to do more to crackdown on militant Muslim groups accused of having links with al Qaeda during high-level security talks.

A U.S. Special Forces soldier was wounded Wednesday in what some military sources described as a hit-and-run attack in downtown Kandahar, Afghanistan.

India's government has survived a censure vote in parliament over its failure to stop the worst violence to hit the country in a decade in the western state of Gujarat.

The communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat -- which is still continuing sporadically nearly eight weeks after it first broke out -- has cast doubts on the future of secularism in India.

A few days before his departure for Southeast Asia, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Gujarat, more than one month after riots broke out there.

Forces loyal to a former governor in eastern Afghanistan have been blamed for series of rocket attacks that left 50 people dead and destroyed hundreds of houses and shops over the weekend.

An official report by Taiwan investigators has blamed pilot error and bad weather as the chief probable cause for the October 2000 crash of a Singapore Airlines 747 at Taipei airport.

Concern is mounting at the threat commercial fishing poses to the world's rarest and smallest marine dolphin.

Xanana Gusmao has always insisted he doesn't want the job as East Timor's first president.

Four African men conned an American tourist in Bangkok into buying wads of black paper, claiming they could be turned into currency notes worth $900,000, Thai police say.

The former king of Afghanistan has returned to his home country and a red carpet welcome after 29 years in exile.

At least 50 people were killed and 200 injured Friday when an earthquake shook northern Afghanistan, according to the Afghan Defense Ministry. Three villages in the district of Nahrin were destroyed by the quake.

The Arab-language television aired a previously unseen videotape showing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Al Qaeda and Taliban supporters were circulating leaflets in eastern Afghanistan provinces offering huge rewards for capturing or killing Western soldiers, U.S. military officials said Friday.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has recommended maintaining an international peacekeeping force in East Timor for at least another two years to ensure the new nation's stability and security.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has admitted passing off a painting given to a charity auction as her own work, even though it was painted by another woman, a report said Sunday.

Two North Koreans who entered a U.S. embassy compound in the Chinese capital have reportedly arrived in Seoul, South Korea.

At least one rocket was fired on international security forces early Sunday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to a spokesman for the peacekeeping force.

Thousands of Australians are registering to donate their brains to research, as the first donor program for healthy brains in the world was launched in Sydney.

The Australian detention facility for illegal immigrants at Woomera is to be scaled down, and another center closed, as part of the government's long-term plans for Australia's immigration facilities.

The remains of six babies have been found in a closet by cleaners working in a rental apartment near Tokyo.

A British woman found dead in a hotel in the Thai capital of Bangkok died of heart failure after taking a cocktail of alcohol and morphine, police have said.

Despite curfews and security forces, two more people have been killed and 30 injured as Hindu and Muslim mobs clashed in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Four al Qaeda fighters were killed in two separate skirmishes since Monday in Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials. CNN's Bill Delaney gave CNN anchor Bill Hemmer an update on the flare-up in fighting in Kabul Tuesday.

British commandos are taking the lead in a new military operation launched Tuesday. It aims to flush out Taliban and Al Qaeda troops in unspecified areas of eastern Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden praises the economic fallout suffered in the United States after the September 11 attacks in part of an undated videotape aired Wednesday by the Middle East Broadcasting Center.

Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao, the man tipped to become the next leader of the world's most populous nation, has wrapped up a busy day in New York ahead of his state visit to Washington this week.

China has responded to the latest war shrine visit by Japan's leader by postponing a visit from Japan's defense minister.

China has stepped up its fight against sandstorms by investing 60 billion yuan ($7.22 billion) in sandstorm prevention, the Xinhua news agency reported.

China's so-called Strike Hard campaign against crime has contributed to a dramatic increase in worldwide executions, with the figure for 2001 more than twice that of the previous year, human rights group Amnesty International says.

The following is a chronology of major Asian airline crashes since January 1996:

COMPANY: Headquartered in Beijing and set up in July 1 1988, Air China is the country's only national flag carrier and claims to have the largest cargo capacity in the world. It is China's largest air carrier, both in terms of traffic volume and company assets.

Hearings have begun in Pakistan's Supreme Court over the legality of a planned referendum to extend President Pervez Musharraf's term as leader.

The pilot of the Air China plane that crashed in South Korea says he did not notice anything unusual about the aircraft before the accident.

A South Korean special envoy has arrived in North Korea charged with a mission to try and kick-start stalled bilateral relations and to convince the communist nation to enter into talks with the United States.

South Korea sends a special envoy to North Korea on Wednesday in a bid to restart stalled bilateral relations and reconciliation efforts.

Film makers from China and Malaysia plan to make a movie in Malaysia on the life of Sun Yat-sen, father of China's 1911 revolution which overthrew its last imperial dynasty, local officials said.

U.S. Special Forces and Afghan allies were fired upon Saturday night in an undisclosed location of Afghanistan in the first firefight involving U.S. troops in Afghanistan since March 19, a U.S. military spokesman said Sunday.

At least four al Qaeda fighters have been killed this week by coalition Special Forces near the eastern Afghan city of Khowst, according to the U.S. military.

Four U.S. servicemen were killed Monday near Kandahar, Afghanistan, when captured enemy rockets they were trying to destroy accidentally detonated, the Pentagon said. Other servicemen were injured, and a few were missing.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed and one was wounded Monday near Kandahar, Afghanistan, when a cache of enemy rockets they were trying to destroy accidentally detonated, the Pentagon said.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed and one was wounded Monday near Kandahar, Afghanistan, when a cache of enemy rockets they were trying to destroy accidentally detonated, the Pentagon said.

A joint U.S.-Canadian investigation of Thursday's friendly fire accident in Afghanistan is focusing on why two U.S. pilots appeared to be unaware that a Canadian training exercise was being conducted in a restricted area south of Kandahar, Pentagon officials said Friday.

The families of four Muslim schoolgirls suspended for wearing headscarves to class plan to take the Singapore government to court in a fight over constitutional rights, their lawyer has said.

The U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong says that the local government's decision to turn away a Chinese-American dissident could hurt its image as an international city.