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Hostile sentiments toward Japan are expected to flare up in China with renewed efforts to seek reparations for World War II-related atrocities.

The ground literally shakes when Elvis the water-bombing helicopter passes overhead.

Gunfire has been heard inside a Kandahar hospital, as U.S. Special Forces supported an Afghan forces assault on a hospital where heavily armed members of al Qaeda have been holed up for six weeks,

Tamil Tiger rebels have extended a unilateral cease-fire for another month, furthering hopes for the success of peace talks with the country's government.

A moderate shook the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Tuesday, hitting an estimated 6.0 in magnitude, according to the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics office.

With dangerous blazes now confined to the coastal region about 200 kilometers (120 miles) to the south of Sydney, the arduous task of mopping up after the 16-day bush fire crisis has begun.

Australia's fire fighters finally appear to be gaining the upper hand in the 15-day battle with the infernos that have raged across the state of New South Wales.

The whereabouts of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar remain a mystery, a high-ranking intelligence official in Kabul said Saturday.

Tamil Tiger rebels have proposed opening a major highway that links Sri Lanka to the Jaffna peninsula as their political leader called on the Sri Lankan government to end its ban of the group.

After last month's attack on the Indian Parliament the government declared a war on terrorism and demanded that Pakistan end all support for Kashmiri separatists operating from any territory it controls.

Amid security scares and heated controversy over his playing fee, world number 1 golfer Tiger Woods has teed off in the New Zealand Open at the Paraparaumu course just north of the capital Wellington.

Some insiders label it the Canada analogy -- and it says much about the new and relatively moderate phase of China's Taiwan policy.

It's increasingly common in China to see churches packed with devout followers who publicly express their faith with the blessing of the Chinese government.

MANILA, Philippines (CNN) - Joint military operations between Philippine and American troops due to begin this week have been postponed as the Philippine government scrambles to finalize guidelines for the exercises.

They can't pitch tents fast enough.

A firefight between al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and U.S., coalition and friendly Afghan troops in a mountainous region in southern Afghanistan left one U.S. Special Forces soldier wounded and 15 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters dead.

The Philippines is preparing for the arrival next week of some 660 U.S. forces for a 'shoulder-to-shoulder' exercise it is hoped will neutralize the Abu Sayyaf group and free two American hostages.

The United States will not become a mediator between India and Pakistan but it will press both countries to resume a direct dialogue over Kashmir, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

Indonesian police have questioned former President Abdurrahman Wahid in relation to a fraud case filed by the son of ex-President Suharto.

The two-week hunger strike crisis at the remote Australian detention center of Woomera has ended thanks to efforts by an independent negotiating team.

The two-week hunger strike crisis at the remote Australian detention center of Woomera has ended thanks to efforts by an independent negotiating team.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard will address the World Economic Forum in New York this week justifiably proud of the nation's commendable financial performance in a difficult global climate.

A former New York shopkeeper wanted by the FBI for allegedly smuggling Chinese immigrants to the United States is set to be extradited from Hong Kong to the U.S.

The U.S. military Tuesday was investigating the hard landing of a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter -- extensively damaged a day earlier in eastern Afghanistan -- to see if it can be salvaged.

The former British colony began 2002 blanketed in thick smog as air pollution soared to its highest level in almost two years.

An advance team of 25 U.S. Special Forces troops has arrived in the southern Philippines, the first element of a joint U.S.-Philippine effort to rout out the extremist Muslim guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf, according to U.S. military sources.

Military officials detained five Afghans suspected of trying to cross a U.S. Army base perimeter Saturday, but four were released when officials determined they were children collecting firewood, authorities said.

The remains of five of the seven U.S. Marines killed in an air crash last week in Pakistan were en route Sunday to the United States.

The governor of Indonesia's troubled Aceh province says the region has implemented Islamic Sharia law as of the beginning of the new year.

The military commander of the separatist Free Aceh Movement has been shot dead during a raid on his jungle base, Indonesian officials say.

Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines has made its first scheduled international flight in almost two and a half years, the latest stage of efforts to get the battered national carrier back in the skies.

Until 2000, Afghanistan was the world's main producer of opium poppies -- not any more, after its interim leader issued a decree banning its production.

The leader of Afghanistan's interim administration is likely to attend a conference in Tokyo aimed at helping the impoverished country recover from decades of war.

Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai has arrived in Beijing for meetings with China's top leaders, where he is likely to seek more aid for his war-ravaged country.

Among the urgent projects Kabul's new leaders are presenting to donor countries in Tokyo this week is a dream more than a century old to build a railway across mountainous Afghanistan.

Six heavily armed al Qaeda fighters, holed up for six weeks in a Kandahar hospital ward, were killed Monday after U.S. Special Forces and Afghan soldiers launched an assault on the facility, authorities said.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul to meet with officials of the interim government and leaders of the peacekeeping force.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on a visit to Islamabad has called for a twin-track approach to defusing the current crisis between India and Pakistan.

Wildfires which continue to burn out of control and wreak havoc across Australia's most populous state are expected to rage on until next week due to erratic and hot winds.

A hunter's arrow has been removed from a kangaroo spotted almost two weeks ago with the 80 cm (32-inch) object protruding from its neck.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has won the support of the country's highest security body amid growing public opposition over the participation of U.S. troops in efforts to crush a Muslim militant group in the south of the country.

Asian nations ushered in 2002 amid the dawn of a new era in Afghanistan and a glimmer of hope for a break in the stand off between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Faced with increasingly desperate protests, Australia's government has said it would resume processing the asylum applications of Afghan refugees at a remote detention center.

Thousands of rare Australian animals, such as endangered numbats and long-nosed potoroos, face a precarious future as a company set up to ensure their survival faces extinction itself.

Australian environmental groups are calling for the closure of the Beverley uranium plant in South Australia after a 60,000-liter (13,300-gallon) radioactive fluid spill.

The United States stepped up efforts to snuff out any remaining al Qaeda terrorists on Friday. A U.S. B-52 dropped a second set of bombs on a suspected al Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan, following up on a raid a day earlier.

U.S. intelligence officials are hoping a man who turned himself in Tuesday at the airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan, will provide a break on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Immediate funds and a robust, multinational military force top the list of Afghanistan's needs for a stable government to survive, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman said Saturday while visiting Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees being held by the U.S. military at Bagram air base north of Kabul, Afghanistan, are providing valuable information to investigators, sources said Sunday.