Environmental groups are piling the pressure on Asian nations to do more to fight global warming ahead of a key climate conference next month, calling their pledges so far nothing but empty promises.

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KANDAHAR PROVINCE: NATO and Afghan troops have killed scores of insurgents in two days of fighting. Two Canadians and their interpreter were also killed
Combined Afghan, Canadian and other troops backed by gunship helicopters killed or wounded about 100 Taliban in raids on a stronghold in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday

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A Malaysian state sultan has urged people to shun opposition-led street demonstrations calling for electoral reforms, saying the country's royalty still firmly supports the government, according to news reports yesterday.

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ASSISTANCE: The US, which is deploying two vessels to the area, says it will provide 35 tonnes of non-food items, while Germany and the EU said it would send relief aid
Rescuers fought their way through blocked roads as tens of thousands of cyclone survivors awaited relief aid yesterday amid their wrecked homes and flooded fields, while the storm's death toll neared 1,800.

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PILGRIMAGE: During his stay, the spiritual leader will address public forums and schools, but has not scheduled any meetings with government officials
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama paid a visit to Japan's holiest Shinto shrine of Ise, western Japan, yesterday as part of his effort to harmonize the world's religions.

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Prosecutors yesterday awaited a court-approved arrest warrant for a former business partner of South Korea's leading presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak over alleged major fraud, officials said.

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Pro-Beijing political parties were expected to do well in Hong Kong's district councilor elections yesterday, with the democracy issue getting a low profile as the economy thrives.

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MISSING: In a country where 123 journalists have been reported dead since the war began, a satellite television station said one of its reporters disappeared on Friday
Remains of possibly dozens of people believed to have been slain in sectarian violence were unearthed from a mass grave in a former al-Qaeda stronghold in southern Baghdad -- the third such find in Iraq this month.

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The Dutch Justice Ministry said it would temporarily block its 30,000 employees from using Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, after a magazine reported that more than 800 entries had been edited from ministry computers.

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Nervous Iraqi Kurds in the village of Khizava, along the border with Turkey, are awaiting a Turkish attack on Kurdish rebels, although many believe the guerrillas will prove elusive.

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PEACE TALKS: US officials were in contact with both the Israeli and Palestinian sides ahead of a planned peace conference to be held later in the month
The US does not accept Israel's position that it can continue some construction in West Bank settlements, and wants Israel to release more Palestinian prisoners than it plans to free before a high-stakes peace conference later this month, Israeli government officials say.

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The local court that first took on a tangled child abduction scandal involving a French charity is a bare-bones affair: one prosecutor, no computers, no clerk -- and no defense lawyers.

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ELECTION BATTLE: Signs of success in Iraq makes the Republican candidates' positions less precarious, allowing them to lash the Democrats for being weak on national security
Hints of US military progress in Iraq are shifting the political ground under Democratic White House candidates and boosting the spirits of Republicans who have taken a beating over the unpopular war.

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A Democratic senator accused US President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans of hindering his party's attempts to chart a new course in Iraq even though US troops are fighting violence "they cannot possibly resolve."

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Closing arguments in the trial of a farmer accused of being Canada's worst serial killer begin today.

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On a day when a UN panel warned of growing peril from climate change, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards accused the oil and gas industry of deploying hundreds of lobbyists to Washington to resist efforts to free the nation from its dependence on fossil fuels.

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The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth took the first steps on Saturday to withdraw from the US Episcopal Church as part of a growing rift over scriptural interpretation and homosexuality, giving preliminary approval to constitutional amendments.

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TASER FUROR: Robert Dziekanski's death at the hands of the police has shocked the nation and prompted Poland to ask Ottawa for an explanation
Some 650 people attended the funeral on Saturday of a Polish emigre who died at Vancouver airport after police stunned him with a Taser, a disturbing incident that was videotaped by a bystander and shown around the world.

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■ MALAYSIA

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