COMMIT TO PEACE: Foreign ministers met on the sidelines at the UN and issued a `tough declaration' against the violence calling on leaders to 'exercise utmost restraint'
Southeast Asian nations expressed "revulsion" to Myanmar's foreign minister at the violent repression of demonstrations and strongly urged the military government "to exercise utmost restraint and seek a political solution."

[ FULL STORY ]

The Bush administration imposed economic sanctions against more than a dozen senior officials of Myanmar, condemning the military-run government's crackdown on protesters. President George W. Bush also urged China to use its influence in the region to find a peaceful end to the standoff.

[ FULL STORY ]

INCREASED EFFORTS: A Chinese missile destroyer and supply ship are in Sydney for a five-day visit and joint military exercises with Australia and New Zealand forces
Two Chinese warships arrived in Sydney yesterday ahead of the first joint military exercises between Australia and the Asian nation, with officials saying more operations were planned.

[ FULL STORY ]

A foreign woman seeking medical help in Japan after giving birth at home was rejected by five hospitals where officials said her Japanese wasn't good enough and they didn't have proper facilities, authorities said on Thursday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Negotiators were in touch yesterday with the captors of four Red Cross workers, two of them foreigners, who were held in Afghanistan during a mission to free a German kidnapped by the Taliban.

[ FULL STORY ]

'SHAMEFUL': The three former officers whom prosecutors wanted to see locked up for life for their actions during the war said they were merely following orders
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader rushed to Vukovar on Thursday to appease a crowd angered by unexpectedly light sentences given to former Yugoslav army officers charged with war crimes committed there in 1991.

[ FULL STORY ]

Hundreds of gunmen from the shadowy Army of Islam marched in a funeral for five Gaza militants on Thursday, firing in the air in their first ever public appearance in such large numbers.

[ FULL STORY ]

CHARGES UNCLEAR: News reports allege that Jackie Selebi has ties to organized crime figures and was a friend of a drug kingpin charged for a 2005 murder
South African prosecutors secured an arrest warrant for Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner and president of Interpol, news reports said late on Thursday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Speculation mounted yesterday as to whether British Prime Minister Gordon Brown would call a snap general election after his governing Labour Party wound up an upbeat annual conference.

[ FULL STORY ]

Plans to hire staff from China to teach Mandarin in English schools could be scuppered because of their difficulty in coping with unruly pupils, a report for the government said on Thursday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Gunmen killed one foreign oil worker and kidnapped two in an attack on Thursday on a compound belonging to Italian oil company Saipem in southern Nigeria, a company source said.

[ FULL STORY ]

SEEKING SHELTER: Around 100,000 people were to spend the night on camp beds in schools and public halls as Mexican authorities evacuated at least 30 communities
Hurricane Lorenzo weakened into a tropical storm early yesterday after crashing into Mexico's Gulf Coast, its strong wind and heavy rain forcing low-lying coastal communities to evacuate.

[ FULL STORY ]

TRIANGLE OF DEATH: A superior told Seargeant Even Vela to shoot an unarmed man and then put a rifle next to the body to make it look as though he was armed, Vela said
A military panel yesterday acquitted US Army Specialist Jorge Sandoval of charges he killed two unarmed Iraqis, but it convicted him of planting evidence on one of the men in attempt to cover up the shooting.

[ FULL STORY ]

Scientists have sequenced the DNA in the hair of woolly mammoths dating back 50,000 years, paving the way to further research on many extinct species, a study published on Thursday said.

[ FULL STORY ]

In an age of al-Qaeda, sleeper cells and the threat of nuclear terrorism, Huntsville is dusting off its Cold War manual to create the US' most ambitious fallout-shelter plan, featuring an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 people to take cover underground.

[ FULL STORY ]

The US Navy is to spend US$600,000 remodeling a set of barracks in Southern California that resemble a swastika when viewed from above, officials said on Thursday.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ CHINA
[ FULL STORY ]