TAIPEI - Taiwan`s President Ma Ying-jeou Sunday sent a message to China`s President Hu Jintao, calling for closer ties following the historic trade pact signed by the two sides last month.The appeal, condensed into 16 Chinese characters, will be given to Hu this week by Wu Poh-hsiung,

JERUSALEM: A Gaza aid ship left for Egypt Saturday under Israeli pressure, officials in Greece said, but Libyan organisers declared it intended to defy the Jewish state`s blockade of the Palestinian enclave.The ship`s agent and the Greek foreign ministry said the vessel chartered to a

HAVANA: Cuba`s former president Fidel Castro was seen this week at a scientific facility in his first known public appearance since December, according to images posted Saturday on a pro-government blog.Castro, 83, and still the head of the Cuban Communist Party, appears in the images,

SREBRENICA: Tens of thousands on Sunday mark 15 years since the Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslims by Bosnian Serbs, the darkest episode of the violent break-up of Yugoslavia.A special ceremony at the Potocari cemetery near Srebrenica, attended notably by Serbian President Boris

TOKYO:  Japan`s centre-left coalition government on Sunday lost its majority in the parliamentary upper house, spelling the threat of policy gridlock, according to several media exit polls. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which holds 62 uncontested seats, was likely to win only

NEW ORLEANS: BP engineers using underwater robots on Saturday removed a loosely fitting cap over a gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing thousands more barrels of crude to sully the gulf.The move was the first step in an operation to place a tighter containment cap over the

MOSCOW: The 14 spies swapped by Moscow and Washington were Saturday starting new lives in Russia and the West, but mystery shrouded their precise whereabouts after the biggest spy exchange since the Cold War.Ten Kremlin agents expelled by Washington in Friday`s handover at Vienna Airport

MONTREAL: The decision of a Canadian detainee at Guantanamo Bay to fire his US lawyers has cast doubt on whether his high-profile war crimes trial can proceed as scheduled next month.Omar Khadr was to begin five days of pre-trial hearings on Monday, with lawyers preparing to argue over

BEIRUT: Four years after a devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah, the UN forces keeping them apart in southern Lebanon are under mounting strain amid fears of a fresh conflict and hostility from villagers.The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, is in a delicate

KABUL: Five US soldiers were killed Saturday in separate incidents while battling the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, as NATO said its troops had accidentally killed six Afghan civilians.Three of the soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan and two were killed in the south, NATO`s

  DHARAMSHALA:  India`s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in this northern Indian hill station for talks on Saturday, officials said.   Rao "called on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the two discussed issues of common interest,"

KABUL: Five US soldiers were killed Saturday in separate incidents while battling the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, NATO said.   Three of the soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan and two were killed in the south, NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.  

WASHINGTON: A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake shook the Pacific near the US territory of Guam Saturday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.   The quake hit around 9:43 pm in Guam (1143 GMT) some 296 kilometers (184

NEW ORLEANS:  Energy giant BP was expected Saturday to try and place a better cap over its gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico to stop the devastating oil flow. Admiral Thad Allen, who oversees the government`s spill response, said late Friday he had approved the plan to simultaneously

KABUL:  International troops fighting the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan killed six civilians, NATO said Saturday, a day after conceding that six Afghan soldiers had died in a "friendly fire" incident. Civilian casualties are an incendiary topic with Afghans, who increasingly regard

MANILA:  A reporter who worked for a politician in the Philippine elections has been shot, police said Saturday, the latest attack on a journalist in a country regarded as one of the most dangerous for the media. Police were guarding the hospital room of broadcaster Miguel Belen after

SULAIMANIYAH: Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq overnight wounding one person in the raid, an Iraqi regional government official told AFP on Saturday. "The bombing started at 3:00 am (midnight GMT) and lasted for one hour in the area of Sidakan," near the Iranian

PESHAWAR:  Three Pakistani soldiers were killed as Taliban attacked security forces in a northwestern tribal area, sparking clashes in which 25 militants were killed, officials said Saturday. "Militants attacked an army patrol in Makeen district of South Waziristan area late Friday in

YAKAGHUND: A suicide attacker and a suspected car bomb unleashed carnage in a busy Pakistani market on Friday, killing 102 people including woman and children and burying victims under pulverised shops.   The attacks devastated Yakaghund town in the district of Mohmand, one of seven

AL-QAEDA: Surrounded by mountains and weighed down by poverty, a Yemeni town bears the dubious honour of carrying the same name as Al-Qaeda.The residents of Al-Qaeda, 220 kilometres (135 miles) northwest of the capital Sanaa, say the name has brought shame on the town.Al-Qaeda (Arabic for