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A Bhutanese girl at a United Nations children's summit has called on the world body to speed up the repatriation of thousands of refugees living in Nepalese camps.

Australia will substantially boost its defense spending in Tuesday night's annual Budget in the wake of the new global security environment following September 11.

When President elect Xanana Gusmao hears people call him Timor's hero he often deflects the praise to Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

Taiwan search teams have located the two black box recorders of a China Airlines Boeing 747-200 plane that crashed into the sea off the island's coast over the weekend and killed 225 people.

Japanese divers have found several bodies lashed to a sunken suspected North Korean spy ship, raising suspicion they attached themselves to the vessel to make recovery difficult, according to a newspaper report.

A blast ripped through the capital of Kashmir as India's parliament debated how to respond to a deadly attack in the disputed region earlier this week.

Police are probing a spate of bomb blasts that have rocked Pakistan's southern city of Karachi this week, including one that killed a boy.

An ambush by security forces recently took place in Russia not far from the Chinese border, with agents firing at suspected smugglers as they tried to cross the porous frontier.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin has consolidated his grip on power with the likely re-election of crony Jia Qinglin as party secretary of Beijing.

From state television to the National People's Congress, China flaunts its ethnic diversity like an Impressionist's palette.

Quit or face the consequences; that is the message the Chinese police are putting out to drug pushers and users.

China's two powerhouses, Shanghai and Guangdong, have picked their leaders -- but neither is expected to remain in their offices for long.

The chairman and seven board members of the agency that controls Taiwan's China Airlines have offered to resign following last week's crash of a Boeing 747-200 which killed all 225 passengers and crew.

The cause of the China Airlines' tragedy on May 25 is not yet known, but the company's fifth fatal crash in eleven years has put its safety record back in the spotlight.

Canada's consulate has become the latest to unwittingly host North Koreans seeking asylum by breaking into foreign missions in China.

China and Australia have agreed to revive an annual defense talks which fell into disuse two years ago.

Authorities say there's virtually no hope of finding survivors after a Chinese airliner plunged into the sea near the northeastern city of Dalian, with 112 people on board.

Beijing is seeking reassurance from visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov about the state of bilateral military ties after Moscow's perceived tilt toward NATO.

Asia is battling a booming synthetic tide of amphetamine-type drugs like ice and ecstasy, with China coming under the spotlight for its place in making them.

China has used its vote and its weight in the international community to deny Taiwan its bid for observer status in the World Health Organization.

Rescue workers early Wednesday were recovering bodies from a China Northern Airlines plane that crashed into the sea Tuesday off the Chinese city of Dalian in Liaoning Province.

It may have decided against allowing mainland abode-seekers to stay, but Hong Kong is happy to receive a multitude of tourists from China to spend the week-long holiday in the territory.

Indian and Pakistani forces are reported to have exchanged heavy fire overnight Sunday and early Monday along the Line of Control dividing the disputed region of Kashmir.

Conjuring images of Jurassic Park, Australian scientists say they are on the way to reviving a previously extinct species -- the Tasmanian Tiger -- using cloning technology.

The cause of the Chinese airliner crash that killed 112 people remained unknown Thursday, as divers searched frigid, debris-strewn waters for potentially informative flight recorders.

By introducing audiences to plays, movies and sitcoms dashed with wit and humor, the Yings have been helping the Chinese laugh away their misadventures and misfortunes.

Unprecedented cooperation between mainland China and Taiwan in rescue and recovery efforts in the Taiwan Strait may speed up the pace of cross-Straits talks.

Suspected Islamic militants opened fire on an army camp in Indian Kashmir, killing at least 30 people and wounding 40, marring a new effort to ease the tension between nuclear foes India and Pakistan.

More than 300 people are reported to have been killed in western Nepal as Maoist rebels and government forces battle for control of a guerilla stronghold.

a pale yellow salwar chemeez -- to her name after fleeing a rampaging mob.

When the New South Wales government widened police powers to search people for drugs using sniffer dogs, civil rights groups were outraged.

The U.N. representative who headed the transition of East Timor to independent nationhood has symbolically handed the keys of his office to the new country's president-elect.

The Democratic Republic of East Timor became the world's newest nation Sunday, in a ceremony in capital of Dili.

East Timor may be the world's newest nation, but it is also one of the world's poorest.

Blaming reckless remarks by a South Korean official, North Korea said it was calling off a round of economic talks with Seoul set to begin this week.

Strong, shifting currents have frustrated efforts to find the black boxes from a China Airlines jet that broke up high over the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 people on board.

The effectiveness of personal shark-repellant devices is being questioned after the fatal attack by a white pointer shark on a diver on Tuesday.

There are fears of more violence in western India after an opposition motion to censure the government for its handling of religious violence in Gujarat failed to win enough support.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has left central Yangon for the first time since her release from house arrest.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's landslide victory in a referendum that will extend his rule for five years is being marred by allegations of widespread fraud.

The United States is sending another senior official to India and Pakistan in a fresh bid to defuse the growing tensions between the nuclear rivals.

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is trying to come to terms with some of the bloodiest fighting it has seen since Maoist guerrillas began their campaign to topple the constitutional monarchy six years ago.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's troubled government has done an about-face, joining the opposition in condemning recent religious violence during a debate over a censure motion in parliament's upper house.

Bangladesh navy frogmen joined the grim search for bodies at first light after a ferry sank in a storm with scores of people on board.

Driving through the Muslim-dominated old sections of Gujarat's former capital is an eerie experience.

The discovery of weapons stockpiles in India's Gujarat state is raising concerns that sectarian violence there could be heading into an even more lethal phase.

The president of newly independent East Timor is expected to make his first state visit to Indonesia next week, government officials have told CNN.

Maoist rebels have overrun a Nepal army and police base after military helicopters launched a massive attack on a suspected guerrilla training camp in the west of the country.

Three Catholic priests in Hong Kong were found guilty in internal Church hearings of sexually abusing children in their care, but none of the cases was handed to the police, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.