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Gunmen opened fire inside a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan on Saturday, killing nine people and wounding at least seven, police and hospital officials said.

North Korea tested a rocket booster for its Taepo Dong ballistic missile at a launch site on the country's east coast in January, a Japanese newspaper reported Friday, quoting Japanese and U.S. government sources.

Pyongyang has ratcheted up tensions on the Korean peninsula another notch with threats to quit the armistice which ended the Korean War.

South Korea is describing its northern neighbor as 'provocative' after a North Korean fighter jet apparently crossed into its air space.

Forget nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction.

North Korea has accused the United States of flying a spy plane into its airspace in preparation for a preemptive attack.

North Korea has fired a missile into the Sea of Japan, escalating a tense standoff on the peninsula as world leaders gathered in Seoul for the inauguration of South Korea's new president.

A day after threatening to quit the 1953 armistice, Pyongyang has slammed Washington's rejection of face-to-face talks as illogical and aimed at hamstringing North Korea's economic and political development.

A day after threatening to quit the 1953 armistice, Pyongyang has slammed Washington's rejection of face-to-face talks as illogical and aimed at hamstringing North Korea's economic and political development.

North Korea has repeated warnings to its citizens and military that it believes the United States is preparing to launch a large-scale attack on it, including a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

The United States will donate 40,000 tonnes of agricultural commodities to North Korea, and is prepared to give as much as 60,000 tonnes more, the U.S. State Department says.

New Zealand is on a high security alert after a group calling itself September 11 claimed it has a stockpile of 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cyanide which it will use if there is a war in Iraq.

New Zealand is facing its worst drought conditions in five years due to an El Nino weather pattern, according to long-term weather forecasts.

Rugby, the America's Cup and sheep. Three icons that arguably form New Zealand's international signature.

Islamic states are debating whether to use oil as a bargaining chip to avoid war in Iraq, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad says.

The Philippine army says Islamic militants using mortars have blown up a power pylon, cutting power to almost all of the country's main southern island of Mindanao.

A Pakistani air force plane carrying 17 people, including the air force chief, has crashed in a remote region of northwestern Pakistan, according to a senior military official.

A plane has crashed into a mountainside in a remote region west of Islamabad, killing Pakistan's air force chief and all 16 others on board.

India successfully test-fired a supersonic cruise missile Wednesday, prompting strong condemnation from Pakistan as tensions between the two nations continue to escalate.

At least 18 people, including two children, have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of explosions at a Pakistani industrial area, according to police.

Pakistan's resurgent Islamic hard-liners are promising to fill the streets with over 1 million demonstrators to show their fury and anger at a possible American attack on Iraq -- and to warn the government not to support such a war.

Pakistan has ordered five Indian diplomats to leave the country hours after New Delhi said it was going to expel five Pakistani diplomats.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs has admitted its embassy in Cambodia made a mistake granting a replacement passport to an accused child rapist allowing him to leave the country days ahead of his trial.

Roman Polanski has emerged as the surprise front-runner for Oscar glory, scooping up awards for best picture and best director at Britain's BAFTAs, seen as a preview for next month's Academy Awards.

Thousands of saffron-clad Hindu monks demanding the right to build a temple on the site of a razed mosque have been blocked from marching on India's parliament.

New Zealand police are investigating a terror threat to the America's Cup sailing competition, one day after it sparked a national security alert.

South Korean police are investigating whether human error may have doubled the death toll in Tuesday's fire at a subway station in Daegu, and if an attempt was made to cover it up.

China's stance on the key issues of disarming Iraq and North Korea will be the focus of talks between United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Norway and Iceland have lashed out at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its continued ban on hunting.

North Korea launched a missile that crashed into the sea between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Monday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.

The rage of mourners over the deaths of nine people killed in an attack on a Shiite Muslim mosque has boiled to the surface.

North Korea is a danger to the world, not just Northeast Asia, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says.

A day after a North Korean MiG fighter sparked a battle alert among South Korean forces, the U.N. Command on the peninsula is investigating a possible second armistice violation by a North Korean soldier.

A shark attacked and killed an 84-year-old man who was swimming in a lake near Australia's east coast on Saturday, police said.

Six people were killed and four others wounded when a group of election workers and their security escorts were ambushed after polls closed in a state election in India on Wednesday.

Outgoing South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has made a national apology for a scandal surrounding the payment of money to North Korea ahead of an historic summit between the two nations.

Former human rights lawyer Roh Moo-hyun has become South Korea's ninth president amid a deepening crisis over North Korea's suspected nuclear ambitions and just hours after Pyongyang fired a missile out to sea.

New President Roh Moo-hyun's first Cabinet has retained the chief North Korea policymaker and appointed South Korea's first female justice minister.

Three Tamil Tiger rebels killed themselves Friday when they blew up their boat after they were found trying to smuggle an anti-aircraft gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition into Sri Lanka, defense officials said.

Tensions have mounted on the Korean Peninsula since October when the United States said North Korea admitted to secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 deal.

South Korea's new president got an early boost at a time of tension over North Korea's suspected nuclear ambitions when the opposition-dominated parliament approved his candidate for prime minister on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels say they will no longer recruit child soldiers.

The death toll from last week's subway fire rose to 189 on Wednesday after forensic experts found 56 more sets of remains in the debris of the two scorched trains, officials said.

The man accused of lighting the fire that triggered the South Korean subway disaster has reportedly told police the attack was an attempt to commit suicide.

Survivors from the South Korean subway inferno have been recalling horrific scenes of carnage underground as they struggled to escape from fierce flames, choking smoke and toxic fumes.

North Korea has an untested ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States, top U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen wants to compensate Thailand swiftly for the destruction last month of Bangkok's embassy in Phnom Penh, in a bid to speed normalisation of ties, Thai officials said on Monday.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has given a cautious welcome to Cambodian efforts at patching up ties following last week's anti-Thai riots in Phnom Penh.

A group of Tibetans rioted in China's northwestern province of Qinghai this month after one of them was stabbed to death in a clash with members of the Muslim Hui ethnic minority.

The following is a timeline of some of the worst accidents and fatalities to occur on the world's subway networks: