Asiapcf [5]

A 24-hour siege around a mosque in a southern Kashmir village ended Tuesday evening when the lone militant holed up inside surrendered to Anantnag district authorities.

Suspected Islamic militants opened fire indiscriminately inside a home in the village of Pamrote overnight, killing three children and wounding two adults, state police said Sunday.

A former Khmer Rouge commander has been sentenced to life in prison by a Cambodian court for his role in the 1994 kidnapping and murder of three Western tourists.

Malaysia says any first strike by Australia against terrorists on its soil would be regarded as an act of war.

Fears of more violence during elections for the riot-torn Indian state of Gujarat's legislature didn't deter millions of voters from coming out to vote in crucial elections.

North Korea says it will not cave in to United States pressure to back down over plans to activate nuclear reactors it says are needed to generate electricity.

When North Korea admitted in October it has an active nuclear weapons program, Chinese officials were caught off-guard.

The United States is threatening North Korea with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, North Korea's ambassador to Russia said Tuesday, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

North Korea is being urged not to restart a nuclear power plant suspected of being used to develop atomic arms before it was mothballed eight years ago.

Even with Iraq on the front burner, dealing with North Korea's increasingly hostile stance has become one of the Bush administration's biggest foreign policy headaches.

Police, backed by U.N. peacekeepers, are patrolling the East Timorese capital Dili after a violent outbreak of rioting by students in the newly-independent nation.

Russian President Vladmir Putin is expected to cement his country's partnership with China during meetings with President Jiang Zemin and other top cadres in Beijing on Monday.

Leaders of China and Russia have expressed confidence their strategic, cooperative partnership will be further strengthened by the younger generation of leaders.

Heavy rain marked the start of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, the annual bluewater classic that draws some of the world's finest racing yachts to the southern hemisphere.

Dousing rains have taken the sting out of Sydney's week-long bushfire crisis, but a row over whether enough was done to prevent the fires spreading is starting to heat up.

On Sunday India's right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide victory in the election to the Assembly of the western state of Gujarat.

Voting has closed in South Korea's tightly fought presidential contest with exit polls giving liberal pro-government candidate Roh Moo-hyun a slight lead over opposition candidate Lee Hoi-chang.

Authorities in Bangladesh have rounded up several opposition leaders after a string of bombs tore through movie theaters packed with Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.

A massive explosion has shaken the heart of Srinagar, leaving three Indian soldiers wounded.

Pakistani police have detained at least six people, including a radical Muslim cleric, in connection with a Christmas Day attack on a church that killed three girls and wounded 14 others.

U.S. President George W. Bush and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung agreed Friday that North Korea's decision to restart nuclear facilities was regrettable and unacceptable, and they agreed to work together and in consultation with Japan and others to resolve the situation peacefully, a U.S. official told CNN.

South Korea's new president Roh Moo-hyun has called for changes in Seoul's 50-year-old alliance with the United States but has vowed to work with Washington to curb North Korea's nuclear program.

South Korea's new president-elect Roh Moo-hyun is calling for change in the relationship between Seoul and Washington.

Newly elected South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will visit the United States early next year to discuss souring relations between the two countries.

South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun is not known for his first hand knowledge of global affairs.

The discovery of Scud missiles on a ship from North Korea apparently bound for the Middle East Yemen could not have come at a worse time for Pyongyang and has left analysts scratching their heads at the communist nation's behavior.

War-torn Sri Lanka came yet another step closer to peace on Thursday when the government and the Tamil guerrillas, known as Tamil Tigers, agreed on a federal model as a way of ending their 20-year-old civil war.

Surprising developments in the mayoral race in the southern Taiwan metropolis of Kaohsiung could hurt the chances of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hanging on to power beyond 2004.

Hundreds of firefighters are struggling to control 60 fires that have erupted around Sydney, threatening hundreds of homes and closing roads and railway lines.

Newly re-elected Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou has emerged as the best -- if not only -- candidate that opposition parties in Taiwan can muster for defeating President Chen Shui-bian next year.

The shadow of Bali hangs over New Year's Eve celebrations in Australia this year as unprecedented security dampens the nation's usually indomitable party spirit.

Normally a time of joyous celebration, New Year's Eve festivities ushering in 2003 are being tempered by a sense of unease and increased vigilance throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Thailand may be committing the same mistake as Indonesia which long denied the presence of a terror network within its borders, an ongoing CNN investigation has found.

International surveys regularly rank Sydney among the most liveable cities in the world.

From the threat of nuclear war to landmark elections, it's been a tumultuous year for South Asia. The feud between South Asian rivals India and Pakistan has hogged the headlines throughout the year, and has influenced other events in the neighborhood.

An international thinktank has warned that outlawed Islamic militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has become divided, with Malaysian elements pressing for a more radical approach to Jihad, or Holy War.

Sydney is facing its worst wildfire threat in 30 years as strong, variable winds whip up dozens of blazes in and around Australia's largest city.

For someone who has just dashed up a mountain slope more than 300 meters high with 35 kilos of rocks strapped to his back, Bishnu Gurung looks an awfully happy man.

The badly decomposed body of a former state minister kidnapped several months ago by India's most-wanted bandit has been found in southern India.

A senior Bush administration official told CNN Saturday that the White House has a new policy to deal with the increasingly defiant North Korea.

A U.S. soldier was killed early Saturday in a firefight involving al Qaeda and Taliban forces in eastern Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have described as worrisome a large shipment from China to North Korea of chemicals that could be used to make nuclear weapons fuel.

Consumers aren't spending like they used to. Stock markets are weak. The U.S. and Britain are edging closer to war in Iraq.

Australian firefighters have told Sydneysiders to expect severe fire weather in the next days, as more than 4,500 firefighters battle blazes that have been described as the worst in 30 years.

Suspected militants entered a home in a Kashmiri village and brutally killed three young women, just days after posters ordered females to wear a veil.

An Australian voluntary euthanasia campaigner has launched a suicide machine that allows people to take their own lives by breathing pure carbon monoxide.

'Honor killings' have risen in Pakistan, with 461 women murdered by family members in 2002 for immoral behavior ranging from adultery, being raped or even cooking poorly, the country's main human rights body says.

An Afghan man has been killed and three people including two French aid workers wounded in an explosion that military police said was an attack on international troops.

Indonesian police say they have arrested a key member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an al Qaeda-linked militant Islamic group blamed for several terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia, including October's Bali nightclub bombings.

The United States and its allies in Asia are discussing a response to North Korea's decision to reactivate a nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.