FIGHT TO THE END: The Australian prime minister conceded that polls suggested his party would be `annihilated' in elections, a statement analysts said was strategic
Australian Prime Minister John Howard vowed yesterday to lead his conservative government to elections this year against a surging opposition, while admitting opinion polls suggest his government will be "annihilated."

[ FULL STORY ]

Two ordinary bank workers have committed one of the most bizarre bank heists in recent Chinese history, spending most of the 51 million yuan (US$6.6 million) in stolen funds on lottery tickets.

[ FULL STORY ]

Vietnam confirmed its first human bird flu case in a year and a half yesterday as the virus continues to spread through the country's poultry stocks.

[ FULL STORY ]

DECISION PENDING: On Wednesday Thailand's Constitutional Court will deliver a verdict that could mean disbanding two political parties
Authorities are preparing to prevent 99 elephants and thousands of villagers from entering Thailand's capital to protest the possible dissolution of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's political party, the military said yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

The Maldivian government called yesterday for international help for people displaced in the worst flooding in the Maldives since the deadly 2004 tsunami.

[ FULL STORY ]

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he was reluctant to accede to growing demands to give up his army post as he seeks a new term as head of state, describing his uniform as "part of my skin."

[ FULL STORY ]

TENSIONS HIGH: The rockets kept falling in southern Israel yesterday, a day after the Jewish nation's defense minister said that no one was immune from retaliatory strikes
Hamas militants defied Israeli airstrikes and threats to kill their top leaders, firing more rockets into Israel, as the Palestinian president arrived in Gaza in an effort to defuse the escalating conflict.

[ FULL STORY ]

HEALTH THREAT: Attorneys for Mikhail Trepashkin say Moscow is trying to cover up its involvement by hiding him away in the Urals and refusing to treat his asthma
As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying of radioactive polonium in a London hospital, a fellow former KGB agent wrote angry letters from a Ural Mountain prison colony saying he had warned that a government hit squad was hunting Litvinenko.

[ FULL STORY ]

If you could meet one person in history: a painter, a physicist, a playwright, a politician and listen to them talk at length about their life's work, who would it be? It's a spin on a familiar dinner-party teaser and the answers tend to lie well outside the realms of possibility, usually because of the one-way traffic system of time.

[ FULL STORY ]

The visiting Chinese envoy for peace in Sudan warned on Tuesday against threatening Khartoum with sanctions over the Darfur crisis and said confrontation would only prolong the suffering of Darfurians, according to the official Sudanese news agency.

[ FULL STORY ]

Stasi scent-tracking methods are being used to keep a check on selected protesters planning to demonstrate at next month's G8 summit.

[ FULL STORY ]

The opposition filed a suit on Tuesday seeking a court annulment of Nigeria's presidential elections it says were flawed and demanded another poll.

[ FULL STORY ]

SPIN: Nancy Pelosi argued that some progress had been made in forcing the eventual withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, but the US president got the funding he requested
US Democrats on Tuesday shelved their crusade to condition Iraq war funding on troop withdrawals, but denied handing US President George W. Bush a multibillion dollar victory.

[ FULL STORY ]

BATTLEFIELD EARTH: The rights group focused on the US but also criticized Russia's treatment of journalists and China's attempts to shield Sudan from UN attention
The US is treating the globe as one giant battlefield for its war on terror, eroding rights worldwide, a leading human rights group said yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Drums roll, the music swells, and the camera zooms in on a man seated behind a desk. His face is sombre for there are grim tidings to report.

[ FULL STORY ]

A hammerhead shark that gave birth in a Nebraska aquarium reproduced without mating, a genetic analysis shows.

[ FULL STORY ]

A Liberty University student was arrested after telling a family member he had made bombs and planned to attend the funeral of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, authorities said.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ AFGHANISTAN
[ FULL STORY ]