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A top London hotel is not an obvious place to find a tailor that will make business suits or other formal attire.

The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, is talking up trade ties with China during his third visit to the republic as leader.

Perched precariously on top of a rickety truck with all their worldly belongings, Abdul Rafiq and 23 members of his family are finally going home.

The search is on for survivors after a ferry carrying hundreds of passengers sank in southeastern Bangladesh in high winds and strong currents.

Some 40 percent of Afghanistan's population is facing famine, according to the United Nations.

Two key associates of Chinese President Jiang Zemin are scheduled to split the portfolios of foreign and Taiwan affairs after the forthcoming retirement of the 75-year-old leader.

The death toll from southeastern India's searing heat wave has risen to 175 over the past week, as the temperature moves toward record highs, a state relief official said Tuesday.

India's parliament convenes Friday to discuss the country's response to a deadly rebel attack in Kashmir.

New reports from remote areas in India indicate that more than 1,000 people died during a fierce heat wave that gripped the nation earlier this month.

Top Indian ministers met military chiefs to talk about how to respond to a deadly raid in Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Rescue operations are continuing in northwestern India where an air force fighter jet crashed into an office building, killing at least five and injuring 17 others.

India says it will hold its first joint army war games with the United States, in the latest sign the sometimes-frosty relations between the two are warming.

India has said it will retaliate if Pakistani troops attack its frontier positions as the neighbors traded heavy fire for a third straight day.

Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz has visited the detained commander of a militant Muslim group, arrested for inciting violence in the riot-torn Maluku islands.

The deployment in and around East Timor of a heavy Indonesian security presence to guard Sunday's visit by President Megawati Sukarnoputri is casting a shadow over the territory's independence celebrations.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's visit on Sunday to former territory, East Timor, will be secured by six warships and 2,000 military personnel.

The spotlight and the glory will go to the players of this year's high-profile sporting event that is the World Cup.

Japan is planning to send a high ranking politician to Beijing on Monday to negotiate directly for the handover of five North Korean asylum seekers seized from Japan's consulate in Shenyang, according to media reports in Japan.

Japan and Australia have vowed to work more closely together on bolstering security and defense in the Asia and Pacific region, particularly in concert with the United States.

A diplomatic row over the controversial arrest of five North Korean asylum seekers has deepened in Beijing, after Tokyo contradicted China's version of events.

Japan appears to be struggling with another outbreak of mad cow disease after officials confirmed a fourth case of the brain-wasting disease on a farm in northern Japan.

Japan has angrily denied China's claims that its diplomats allowed Chinese police to forcibly evict five North Korean asylum seekers from the Japanese consulate in Shenyang.

Japan has summoned China's ambassador to formally protest at police entering their consulate in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, taking away two people thought to be North Korean asylum seekers.

A furious Iceland stormed out of the annual world whaling summit while fellow pro-whaler Japan suffered a blow when the commission voted against its bid to boost its catch.

Look! There's an enemy soldier behind every tree and every stalk of grass!

President Jiang Zemin is spearheading an attempt at a new thought liberation movement he hopes will help re-invent China -- and consolidate his legacy as a reformer.

Perhaps more than any other, Jose Ramos-Horta is the man who has fought the longest and hardest for East Timor's right to self-rule.

Britain's foreign minister has warned that mounting tension between India and Pakistan is a crisis the world cannot ignore, as India's prime minister visited the frontline after five straight days of border fighting.

A moderate Kashmiri separatist leader has been shot dead in Indian Kashmir, dealing a fresh blow to efforts to bring peace to the troubled Himalayan region.

An Indonesian court has jailed for life two men convicted of killing the judge who presided in the trial of former Tommy Suharto, the former President's son.

Controversial former Australian politician Pauline Hanson must face trial on three charges of electoral fraud, a magistrate has decided.

Australians have long prided themselves on having a fairly relaxed and pragmatic attitude to life.

Two mainland Chinese rescue vessels are helping to recover bodies and debris from the China Airlines jet that plunged into the water off the Taiwan island of Penghu last Saturday.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and U.S. President George W. Bush have put aside differences on human rights issues to reaffirm their commitment to fighting terrorism.

Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz has explicitly expressed his support for a militant Muslim group blamed for fueling sectarian violence in the Maluku islands and accused of having links with al Qaeda.

It is one of the darkest times for labor in years in much of Asia, with high levels of unemployment, little job security and stricken national economies.

Restive workers across the region have hit the streets for traditional May Day rallies, causing chaos and unrest in some areas.

Ailing media and gaming baron Kerry Packer remains Australia's richest man, but the competition is closing in on him, according to Business Review Weekly magazine.

A man dressed as a Buddhist monk and wielding an AK-47 assault rifle was arrested after he took 30 hostages at a security checkpoint on the grounds of Thailand's parliament building in Bangkok.

A man dressed as a Buddhist monk and wielding an AK-47 assault rifle was arrested after he took 30 hostages at a security checkpoint on the grounds of Thailand's parliament building in Bangkok.

President Pervez Musharraf has promised a new crackdown on terrorism and called for an end to national divisions.

The military government of Myanmar is remaining tight-lipped over the possible release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, despite mounting speculation that she could soon be freed.

A new flag is flying over East Timor as the people of the world's newest nation celebrate their independence.

The king of Nepal has dissolved parliament leaving Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to rule by decree until new elections are held in November.

The Royal Nepalese Army is withdrawing from two of its five positions in the western Maoist rebel stronghold and reinforcing its largest garrison for an expected attack, an army spokesman said.

More than 100 Maoist rebels died in overnight fighting with Nepalese security forces in southwestern Nepal, army and police sources said Tuesday.

Nepal's prime minister has rejected a one-month ceasefire declaration by leaders of the country's Maoist guerillas saying the rebel group cannot be trusted.

China and Japan have denied reports of a breakthrough in negotiations on the fate of five defectors from North Korea, in a diplomatic spat that has been simmering for a week.

A North Korean couple who took refuge in the Canadian embassy in Beijing have arrived in South Korea, bringing to an end their six-day journey of defection.

NTT DoCoMo's i-mode has been a huge hit in Japan enabling users to receive information and send emails on their mobile phones.