BALANCING ACT: While the US government is wary of getting dragged into a conflict between Taiwan and China, the bid has received wide coverage and support
A US-based human-rights group criticized the US government on Monday for pressuring Taiwan to abandon plans for a public referendum on whether it should petition for entry to the UN.

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Heavy-hitting US Democratic senators and Iraq war critics girded yesterday for a counter-attack against US General David Petraeus after he insisted on Monday that the current troop surge strategy was working.

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In one of the deadliest suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, at least one suicide bomber killed at least 26 Afghans, half of them civilians, in a crowded market in southern Afghanistan on Monday night, Afghan officials said.

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Han Dingxiang (韓鼎祥), a Catholic bishop repeatedly detained in China over his loyalty to the Vatican, has died at the age of 71 while in police custody, a monitoring group said yesterday.

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Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged sympathizers to join the "caravan" of martyrs as he praised one of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers in a new video that emerged yesterday to mark the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

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FALLOUT: The two-time former prime minister's party filed a new petition yesterday asking that the government allow him to make an immediate return
After the deportation of former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf faced a new standoff with the nation's Supreme Court yesterday after the opposition launched a legal challenge.

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A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip exploded in an Israeli army base early yesterday, wounding 50 soldiers and drawing Israeli calls for a major military operation against rocket squads in the Gaza Strip.

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