DISCONTENT: Senior military officials say that underpaid, battle-weary troops are increasingly angry over disappearing state funds and bribes
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, battling claims that lawmakers were given cash to block an impeachment bid against her, risks a mutiny by soldiers angry about corruption, military sources said yesterday.

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In an Internet exchange intercepted by Cambodian police, two teachers -- apparently foreigners -- discuss how easy it is to pick up mostly homeless boys between 10 and 14 years old and bring them to their apartments for sex.

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SHORTAGE CRISIS: The country needs at least 5.3 million tonnes of food to feed its population, but its own food production is expected to come to only 3.9 million tonnes
North Korea could face a new famine next year as floods and bad weather aggravate its already chronic food shortages, a specialist warned yesterday.

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Chinese Communist Party delegates reviewed candidates for top posts yesterday as the party and state media maintained a steely silence on proceedings.

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Myanmar freed two celebrity activists who were detained for supporting Buddhist monks leading mass protests, a colleague said yesterday, as Washington moved to tighten sanctions against the regime.

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STANDSTILL: Paris commuters made arrangements to take the day off or work from home, leaving the Gare du Nord, the largest train station in Europe, largely deserted
French commuters struggled to work yesterday as public transport workers put President Nicolas Sarkozy's reform plans to the test with a 24 hour strike in defense of historic pensions privileges.

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INNOCENT: A scientist called for pardoning a doctor hanged in 1910, as tests recently showed that a body found in a coal cellar was not his wife, whom he allegedly killed
It is one of the most notorious cases in British legal history, the story of an apparently mild-mannered doctor who poisoned and dismembered his showgirl wife, then fled across the Atlantic with his young lover -- only to be caught after a sharp-eyed captain recognized him from the newspapers.

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GOVERNMENT FORCES: The incident followed some of the worst fighting in the capital in weeks, forcing humanitarian groups to flee the country
UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday strongly condemned the storming by Somali government forces of a UN compound in Mogadishu and their detention of a representative of the World Food Program (WFP).

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It has been a while since one could say the sun never set on the British empire, but the island nation is again trying to extend its reach. This time the prize could be large sea beds in the Antarctic and the Atlantic Ocean.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday transferred a militia chief to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague to face war crimes charges, including sexual enslavement and using child soldiers.

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CONCERNS: Hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with his Iranian counterpart, the US president was rattling the rhetorical saber over nuclear weapons
US President George W. Bush warned Iran on Wednesday that it must be barred from nuclear weapons to avoid the prospect of "World War III" and dismissed suggestions of a US-Russia rift on the crisis.

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TODAY'S WORLD: Dependent on Turkey's support in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US is growingly hesitant to pass a bill that could affect the relationship
US congressional support flagged on Wednesday for a resolution calling the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks "genocide" amid concern over Turkey's threat to cut off support for the Iraq War.

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The UN blamed an interpreter's error for an erroneous report that Syria had claimed an Israeli airstrike hit a Syrian nuclear facility, a mistake that made headlines in the Middle East and heightened concerns over Damascus' nuclear ambitions.

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In one of the earliest hints of "modern" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archeological finds show.

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The Canadian opposition Liberal leader has said his party would not force early parliamentary elections by voting against the minority Conservative government's legislative agenda.

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