ANGER AT HOME: Some South Koreans have fiercely criticized the group of Christian missionaries taken hostage for forcing Seoul to negotiate with terrorists for their release
South Korea paid Afghanistan's Taliban more than US$20 million to release 19 missionaries they were holding hostage, a senior insurgent leader said yesterday, vowing to use the funds to buy arms and mount suicide attacks.

[ FULL STORY ]

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her top party leaders were deciding in talks yesterday whether to accept a power-sharing agreement with President General Pervez Musharraf.

[ FULL STORY ]

BLOCKED AGAIN: Last week Yuan Weijing was prevented from flying to the Philippines to accept a human rights award on behalf of her husband
The wife of an imprisoned Chinese activist said yesterday she was dragged off a bus to stop her from traveling to Beijing to speak out on his behalf.

[ FULL STORY ]

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in disaster drills across Japan yesterday, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declaring a mock emergency and firefighters practicing rescue skills.

[ FULL STORY ]

For some people, a poisonous snake hissing in their courtyard is the stuff of nightmares. But in this sleepy village in eastern India, the reptiles are welcome and abundant.

[ FULL STORY ]

AFTERMATH: Sir Mike Jackson said the US approach to combating global terrorism was `inadequate' and too focused on military strength rather than diplomacy
The head of the British Army during the invasion of Iraq has blasted the US for its handling of the aftermath, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

[ FULL STORY ]

A protest by Fatah supporters against Hamas rule turned violent on Friday when Hamas men began forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating demonstrators.

[ FULL STORY ]

SPECIAL CEREMONY: Built in 1904, the neo-Classical structure was closed for more than three years for the US$6 million refit, paid for by the city and with lottery proceeds
Germany's biggest synagogue reopened on Friday after a major restoration, in a defiant symbol of the rebirth of Jewish life in the city where the Nazis planned the Holocaust.

[ FULL STORY ]

RUINS: Portraits of victims lined the scarred walls of the gymnasium, as did angry signs showing the turmoil the incident's aftermath still provokes
Tears fell and angry questions rang out on Saturday as Russia marked the third anniversary of the Beslan school hostage crisis that left 332 people dead, more than half of them children.

[ FULL STORY ]

Britain reflected on Saturday on the memorial service marking 10 years since the death of Diana, princess of Wales, and its calls for her to be allowed to rest in peace at last.

[ FULL STORY ]

HADITHA SLAYINGS: A Marine testified that he saw Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich shoot five Iraqis, who were `just standing around' and not fleeing as Wuterich claimed
The leader of a squad of Marines that killed 24 Iraqis in Haditha told two of his men one week before the assault that if they ever were hit by a roadside bomb, they should kill everyone in the area, a former squad member testified.

[ FULL STORY ]

Jamaicans are gearing up to vote tomorrow in what is expected to be one of the closest general elections on the Caribbean state since independence in 1962.

[ FULL STORY ]

Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She has been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it.

[ FULL STORY ]

US President George W. Bush announced on Friday the departure of his main spokesman, Tony Snow, and named assistant Dana Perino to the job.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ AUSTRALIA
[ FULL STORY ]