BANGKOK: Two decades after the Myanmar opposition`s stolen poll victory, the junta is again gearing up for elections, but experts say years of planning mean the cards this time are stacked in its favour.The vote is widely seen as a way for the military to put a civilian face on its

SEOUL: South Korea urged the North Sunday to end its military provocations but Pyongyang threatened Seoul with the "severest punishment" over massive joint war games planned with the United States.The rivals exchanged tit-for-tat warnings as the South unveiled a roadmap for the

BEIJING:  Flags were flying at half mast and public entertainment cancelled Sunday as China marked a national day of mourning for the more than 1,200 people killed by massive mudslides in the northwest. Thousands of residents and rescuers in Zhouqu, the remote mountain region in Gansu

QUETTA: Gunmen shot dead 16 people in two separate incidents in insurgency-hit southwest Pakistan, officials said on Saturday. The first incident took place in Aab-e-Gum area, 75 kilometres (47 miles) southeast of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province, on Friday

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai pledged to continue efforts to "keep the pressure on the Taliban" during a video conference Friday, the White House said.During an hour-long conversation, the two leaders "agreed that the United States and

TEHRAN: Kurdish rebels have killed a commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards and two Islamist militiamen in clashes near a northwestern city, a newspaper reported Saturday.The clashes took place near the city of Orumieh in West Azarbaijan province on Friday between members of the

YALA: Suspected Islamic insurgents have shot and killed three people including a Muslim policeman in southern Thailand Saturday in the first fatal attacks since the start of Ramadan, police said.The police officer was the victim of an early morning drive-by shooting as he rode his

SRINAGAR: Security forces imposed a strict curfew in Indian Kashmir on Saturday where anti-India protests have claimed 55 lives in two months as the region geared up for a major national holiday.Authorities stepped up the curfew in the main city Srinagar after four people were killed

BEIJING: China on Saturday announced a national day of mourning as millions in the country`s west struggled with more rain and the aftermath of mudslides that have killed more than 1,150 people.Authorities warned torrential rains would continue into Sunday and said further flash floods,

Pakistan: Pakistan`s president has directed that there should be no official celebrations of Independence Day on Saturday as the country tries to cope with devastating floods.Asif Ali Zardari will instead spend the day touring affected regions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces.He

The United States is sending firefighting equipment to Russia to help deal with 500 wildfires burning across the country, one of which threatens a nuclear base, reports mail online.The blazes have been sparked by the hottest summer ever recorded in Russia, which has seen the death rate in

President Barack Obama on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York -- a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers."As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have

SUKKUR Pakistan : Disease outbreaks pose grave risks to victims of Pakistan`s worst floods in decades, aid agencies said on Friday, causing fresh concern about already complicated relief efforts.The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours, have engulfed Pakistan`s Indus river

BEIJING : Heavy rain across western China has caused more mudslides and flooding, killing at least 29 people and trapping more than 10,500 in the latest natural disasters to hit the country, state media said on Friday.In Longnan, in poor and remote Gansu province, 20 died and more than

WASHINGTON : Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren discussed the new U.S. consumer agency at the White House but no announcement is imminent about who will lead the agency, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.Gibbs said Warren was at the White House on Thursday. She spoke with

UNITED NATIONS : The U.N. humanitarian chief on Friday urged Sudanese authorities to allow humanitarian aid workers into a Darfur refugee camp that they have been prevented from entering for nearly two weeks.Aid agencies have been barred from the Kalma Camp for internally displace persons

MUMBAI: Indian doctors warned earlier this year about the threat from a new multi-drug resistant "superbug" -- months before a British study that New Delhi has condemned for scaremongering.A team of researchers from a leading private hospital in Mumbai came to similar conclusions as the

TEHRAN: Iran is to launch its first nuclear power reactor next week, the Islamic republic and Russia which helped build the plant said on Friday after years of delays to the highly sensitive project."We are preparing to transfer the fuel inside the plant next week ... Then we will need

PARIS: Giant iceberg that snapped away from Greenland last week is a signal that global warming is causing the island`s continent-sized ice cap to melt faster than expected, scientists say.The 250-square-kilometre (100-square-mile) chunk, four times the size of Manhattan, broke away from

COLOMBO: A court martial convicted Sri Lanka`s former army chief Sarath Fonseka on Friday of meddling in politics while on active service and stripped him of his rank and medals."The guilty verdict was read out to General Fonseka at the court martial a short while ago," a senior military