KAREN REBELLION: The Myanmar army is using sexual assault as a weapon of war even while the government is negotiating a ceasefire
Myanmar soldiers have raped more than 100 ethnic Karen women, using sexual assault as a weapon of war, even as the country's military government negotiates a cease-fire with Karen guerrillas, according to a new report.

[ FULL STORY ]

COMPLAINTS: The Chinese government has issued new regulations to deter people from going to the capital to petition the government about injustices
Beijing has issued a new regulation threatening to punish the large numbers of people flocking to the city to petition the government over social injustices, state media reported yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

A Pakistan army helicopter dropped leaflets in a remote tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, urging tribesmen to help flush out suspected al-Qaeda fugitives, residents and officials said Saturday.

[ FULL STORY ]

ANGER: Government officials were annoyed with Washington statements that said the US `strongly supports' the people's desire for democracy and electoral reform
Hong Kong accused the US yesterday of interfering in China's internal affairs by voicing support for electoral reform in the southern city as Beijing began reviewing Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

[ FULL STORY ]

AFP, SEOUL

[ FULL STORY ]

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's political alliance held a strong lead yesterday in early counting of parliamentary elections fought over how to negotiate a lasting peace with Tamil rebels, despite predictions of a hung parliament with no single party expected to win a majority.

[ FULL STORY ]

Stand aside, Smirnoff. Keep on walking, Johnnie. Erguotou, China's fiery national spirit, is on its way to America.

[ FULL STORY ]

POLL: Observers have called them the most complex elections ever to take place, and with voters spanning three times zones it will take days for the results to come in
The justice minister has threatened to arrest election officials, thousands of polling stations are without ballots and parts of war-torn Aceh are too dangerous to hold elections.

[ FULL STORY ]

`SCORCHED-EARTH TACTICS': The head of the UN's emergency relief efforts briefed the Security Council on an Arab campaign to destroy blacks' schools, wells and food
Arab militias are conducting an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing to drive out black Africans from Sudan's Darfur region and the government is doing little to stop it, the UN emergency relief coordinator said on Friday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Despite repeated assurances by US President George W. Bush, the Russians remain needlessly worried about the expansion of NATO closer to their border, US Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

[ FULL STORY ]

After harsh criticism from civil rights and free-speech advocates, Russia's Parliament agreed Friday to amend a proposed law that would have banned people from demonstrating in the majority of public places.

[ FULL STORY ]

`IN THE GRASS': The African nation has found that its formal courts cannot respond to the vast workload of providing justice after genocide
It was one of the worst slaughters of the century -- matched by Hitler's attempt to exterminate the Jews and Pol Pot's killing of his own people in Cambodia. Nearly 1 million people were killed in Rwanda within a period of 100 days in the spring of 1994.

[ FULL STORY ]

French police have arrested two senior figures of the armed Basque separatist group ETA, including the group's military commander who escaped French custody in 2000, officials and media said on Friday.

[ FULL STORY ]

HOWDY, PARDNER: Their nations manned the coalition responsible for the invasion of Iraq, but no matter
Thousands of visitors from 27 US allies, including Britain, Japan and Australia, will be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival in the US to tighten border security, US officials said on Friday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Bombs hidden in luggage could be used in a plot to attack buses and railways in major US cities this summer, security authorities said on Friday.

[ FULL STORY ]

A Palestinian gunman infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank under cover of darkness yesterday, killing a settler and wounding his daughter before soldiers shot him dead, an army spokesman said.

[ FULL STORY ]

The federal panel reviewing the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, will determine early next week whether thousands of classified counterterrorism documents from former US president Bill Clinton's administration were unduly held back by President George W. Bush's aides.

[ FULL STORY ]

As American political scandals go, it may not rank on a par with Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ Hong Kong
Popstar refused appeal bid
[ FULL STORY ]