A militant conservation group involved in a series of high-seas clashes with Japanese whalers said yesterday that its ship was heading home after a successful harassment campaign that saved 500 whales.

[ FULL STORY ]

CHALLENGE: Explosions at the Federal Investigation Agency and an advertising firm showed the incoming government that there was a lot of work ahead
Two suicide car bombings killed at least 25 people in the Pakistani city of Lahore yesterday, posing a fresh challenge to the US-allied country's incoming civilian government.

[ FULL STORY ]

Japan is to bow to international pressure and ban the possession of child pornography, although the new law is expected to anger child welfare groups by exempting manga comics and animated films.

[ FULL STORY ]

POUNDING AWAY: A cross-party parliamentary report said that the cost of the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan almost doubled to ?3 billion last year
The combined cost of British military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past 12 months has almost doubled to more than ?3 billion (US$6 billion), a cross-party group of parliamentarians revealed on Monday.

[ FULL STORY ]

KREMLIN CRITIC: Putin found contemporary relevance when the hero criticized fellow Russians for bending over backward to adopt Western ways
Outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a hint of how he may continue to direct the show in Russia during a surprise visit to the theater.

[ FULL STORY ]

A Seventh Day Adventist who persuaded churchgoers in London to invest millions of pounds in a financial scam that funded his extravagant lifestyle has been jailed for seven years.

[ FULL STORY ]

Israel and Hamas held their fire around the Gaza Strip on Monday as Egypt worked to broker a comprehensive deal to end violence and lift the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.

[ FULL STORY ]

FOOD SHORTAGES: The president said the government had ordered 530,000 tonnes of maize but only 5 percent had been delivered so far because of 'logistical problems'
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has, for the first time, admitted that Zimbabwe faces a grave food crisis amid the collapse of the country's agriculture. But he blamed it on "racist" Britain trying to oust him at this month's presidential election.

[ FULL STORY ]

PRESSURE TO RESIGN: The New York governor, who was a crusader against corruption as the state's attorney general, is one of the presidential hopeful's key superdelegates
US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions on Monday about the sex scandal engulfing Eliot Spitzer, her home state governor and political ally.

[ FULL STORY ]

Harlem's largest and most famous thoroughfare, 125th Street, has become the latest battleground between city planners and businesses who want to see it developed and local people who fear they will be forced out in the march of gentrification.

[ FULL STORY ]

OUT AND ABOUT: Last year, Manuel Uribe left his house for the first time in five years, with six people pushing his iron bed on wheels out to the street
When Manuel Uribe went out on a date, he made all the necessary arrangements: a forklift to carry him out of the house and a flatbed tow truck big enough to haul the formerly half-tonne man and his bed to a party.

[ FULL STORY ]

The US government agency responsible for including the polar bear on its list of endangered species faced a new legal challenge on Monday over its failure to protect the Arctic animal.

[ FULL STORY ]

A White House visit by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk seemed to ease tension with the US stemming from Poland's demand for military aid in exchange for allowing US missile defense interceptors on its soil.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ THAILAND

[ FULL STORY ]