EMOTIONAL APPROACH: Despite opposition from officials and the public, the South Korean president intends to watch a festival that glorifies Kim Jong-il and his father
The main opposition party warned South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday against striking any summit deals with North Korea that would burden the next government.

[ FULL STORY ]

FALLOUT: The interior secretary denies Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos served as a 'sacrificial lamb' to help save the Arroyo administration from further headaches
A Philippine public official at the center of a major bribe scandal involving a state-owned Chinese company resigned yesterday amid growing controversy over a US$330 million Internet broadband deal.

[ FULL STORY ]

China has formally arrested writer and cyber-dissident Lu Gengsong (呂耿松), a former lecturer turned activist, on suspicion of subverting state power, his wife said yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

At least two homes were razed and firefighters backed by water-dumping helicopters battled to save scores of others from blazes yesterday near Australia's largest city.

[ FULL STORY ]

Australian Prime Minister John Howard's government slipped further in an opinion poll released yesterday, fueling speculation he may put off an election until the middle of next month.

[ FULL STORY ]

FINAL GAME: Milan Jelic, a former soccer player, died while attending a match in his hometown. The Constitution does not provide a clearly stated chain of succession
Bosnian Serb President Milan Jelic has died of a heart attack at age 51.

[ FULL STORY ]

Ukraine's Orange Revolution allies made a strong combined showing in parliamentary elections and looked poised to win a majority that could unseat the prime minister and steer the country more firmly onto a pro-Western course, partial results showed yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

Desperate Ukrainians went to surreal extremes on Sunday in apparent attempts to influence a fiercely contested parliamentary election that has split the country.

[ FULL STORY ]

GREEN MACHINES: The world's first wavefarm -- a series of red train-sized tubes tied together -- awaits launch day
Portuguese surfers keeping an eye on the weather will be joined this month by engineers and businessmen, but they will be hoping for very different reports. The men and women behind the latest renewable energy project will be looking for a flat, calm sea.

[ FULL STORY ]

At least eight Yemeni soldiers were killed in a volcanic eruption on an island off the country's Red Sea Coast, the government said yesterday.

[ FULL STORY ]

London's police force went on trial yesterday, accused of violating health and safety laws during an anti-terrorist operation that ended in the fatal shooting of a Brazilian electrician mistaken for a suicide bomber.

[ FULL STORY ]

THREE STATES: The US embassy and Iraqi politicians slammed a US Senate resolution calling for the nation's partition into regions controlled by Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites
The US embassy on Sunday reiterated its support for a united Iraq as six political parties together voiced their objection to a US Senate resolution that endorsed partitioning the country into three states.

[ FULL STORY ]

NO CONCESSION: While the Ecuadorian president was confident of garnering 80 seats in the future Constituent Assembly, the opposition leader refused to accept defeat
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa celebrated victory yesterday after claiming that his ruling coalition had won a solid majority in a newly elected assembly that will rewrite the nation's Constitution.

[ FULL STORY ]

A year ago, this sleepy farm community was barely a blip on the map. But all that changed on Oct. 2 last year, when a gunman entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse and killed five girls and wounded five others.

[ FULL STORY ]

With racy subplots, the case against Darren Mack has all the elements of a late-night adult TV drama: A wealthy, attractive couple. A swinger lifestyle. Well-heeled connections among the city's movers-and-shakers.

[ FULL STORY ]

The US was to announce yesterday that it had taken apart three times as many unneeded nuclear warheads in the just-completed budget year than it had projected and expected the rapid pace of dismantlement to continue.

[ FULL STORY ]

Jury selection was to begin yesterday in the trial of a woman accused of killing a pregnant woman and cutting the baby from the victim's womb to take home as her own child.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ CHINA
[ FULL STORY ]