'LUDICROUS': The opposition panned election officials after authorities said there was a plot to mark unsuspecting voters with ink and disqualify them from casting ballots
Malaysia's election chief, who has been surrounded by controversy in the run-up to weekend polls, said yesterday that his home had been vandalized in a politically motivated attack.

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China said yesterday foreigners would be safe during the Beijing Olympics in August, after a Chinese man armed with explosives boarded a tourist bus in Xi'an and took 10 Australian travel agents hostage before being shot dead by police.

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Japan's opposition is quietly stepping back from calls on the defense chief to step down over a naval accident that killed two fishermen, whose colleagues yesterday lent support to the minister.

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The Thai government must stop sending ethnic Hmong people seeking refuge in Thailand back to Laos without first assessing whether they face abuse and persecution back home, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

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South Korea's new conservative government is already making good on its promise to take a tougher line on North Korea by calling on Pyongyang to improve its widely criticized human rights policies.

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RESURGENCE: Analysts expect religious conservatives to use the vote to sideline some of the veterans who helped found the Islamic Republic almost 30 years ago
Iranian political factions yesterday started campaigning for next week's legislative election, which is expected to see conservatives cement their grip on parliament.

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GOING EAST: Macedonia yesterday challenged objections from Greece, saying it should not have to change its name in order to enter the alliance
NATO was to discuss the accession hopes of five would-be members yesterday as the alliance considers a new expansion east aimed at nurturing Balkan stability, but which could increase tensions with Russia.

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Russia will furnish sorely needed helicopters to the EU's mission in Chad as well as to joint forces of the African Union and UN in Darfur, Russia's UN envoy said on Wednesday.

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Kenya's parliament was set to convene yesterday to start discussions aimed at enacting into law a landmark power-sharing deal designed to end a deadly post-election crisis.

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PROBE: In Washington, a top US diplomat said experts would soon examine a laptop that Colombia said carried evidence connecting Venezuela's president to FARC rebels
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on Wednesday urged the international community to issue a "clear condemnation" of Colombia for its cross-border military incursion into Ecuadoran territory.

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NOT TALKING: Reporters know why five suspects in a suspected al-Qaeda-inspired plot are free on bail, but are not allowed to report it to the public
Several media organizations, including The Associated Press, are asking an appeals court to lift a news blackout on a terrorism case that one lawyer says includes charges of a plot to storm Canada's parliament.

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Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama blamed fierce attacks by rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for his defeats in big primaries and quickly made good on a promise to sharpen his criticism of her in what promised to be a drawn-out brawl.

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US immigration officials have learned humanitarian lessons from a factory raid a year ago that was criticized for separating families and leaving children without proper care, the agency's director said.

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SKEPTICAL: Christian groups said they did not expect significant changes in Cuba's restrictions on religion, in spite of assurances Havana made to the Vatican official
In his first week as Cuban president, Raul Castro met the Vatican's No. 2 official, who said Havana assured him it would allow some Roman Catholic broadcasts on state-controlled media.

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