MIXED SIGNALS: While demonstrators blamed the US for the predicament of South Korean workers in Afghanistan, Seoul sought the intervention of its ally
South Korean political leaders will visit the US this week to plead for its help in freeing 21 South Korean hostages threatened with death by Afghanistan's Taliban, officials said yesterday.

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China has so far failed to live up to its pledge to ensure full media freedom ahead of the Beijing Olympics, with harassment of foreign reporters still common, a survey showed.

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Japan's scandal-embroiled agriculture minister stepped down yesterday to take responsibility for a shattering election defeat for the ruling party -- the fourth minister to leave an increasingly unpopular Cabinet.

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'GREATER ACTION': A scientific report showing the effects of particulate pollution on the great glaciers prompted UNEP to issue a call for action on climate change
The haze of pollution that blankets southern Asia is accelerating the loss of Himalayan glaciers, bequeathing an incalculable bill to China, India and other countries whose rivers flow from this source, scientists warned yesterday.

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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he sought "harmonious ties" with the recently reinstated chief justice he tried to fire four months ago in a move that ultimately weakened him politically.

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PEACEKEEPING FORCES: Ban Ki-moon immediately hailed the move as `historic and unprecedented,' while the US ambassador threatened Khartoum with sanctions
The UN Security Council approved a joint African Union (AU)-UN peacekeeping force for Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region in an unprecedented bid to end four years of bloodshed in the area.

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COLD SHOWERS: For three weeks every summer, neighborhoods have their hot water sequentially shut off, a side effect of centralized water heating systems
In a Moscow where the gap between rich and poor grows more visible every day, there is one feature of life here that brings city dwellers of all incomes together: ice-cold summer showers.

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After months of growing tension with the Jordanian government, the opposition Islamic Action Front abruptly withdrew from nationwide municipal council elections on Tuesday. The group cited voting irregularities in the elections, which were seen as a test for the more politically sensitive parliamentary elections this fall.

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The most senior anti-terrorist officer in the UK will be heavily criticized in an official report published today into the events surrounding the killing of an innocent Brazilian man in south London.

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Most Syrians favor working with the US to seek an end to the Iraq war, yet also support financing Iraqi insurgents and other Middle East groups the US considers terrorists, according to a rare poll of Syrians released yesterday.

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SHAKY REGIME: Violence is mounting at a time when the government is paralyzed by political infighting, with the main Sunni Arab political bloc withdrawing its support
The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the nation's brutal civil conflict rose by more than a third last month despite a five-month-old surge in US troop levels, government figures showed yesterday.

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DRUG TIPS: The recorded talks showed that several officers in Tijuana had regularly informed a drug gang about federal raids and surveillance choppers
Just days before a critical governor's election in Baja California, federal authorities have released tapes to a newspaper suggesting that many members of the Tijuana police force have worked for drug traffickers and helped in the killing of a federal agent, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.

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Ailing Cuban president Fidel Castro said yesterday he was still consulted on "every important" government move but did not reveal when he might return to the helm a year after handing over to his brother.

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Saudi Arabia pledged yesterday to explore opening diplomatic relations with the Shiite-led government in Iraq, an endorsement long sought by Iraq's US backers.

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Madeline Byrne was making a quick trip to the grocery store to buy some cheese when a sheriff approached her car in the parking lot and slipped something through her open window.

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An opposition-aligned television channel yesterday faced a deadline to agree to carry speeches by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or be yanked from the cable lineup.

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