DANGER: Troops and engineers arrived at Sichuan Province's Tangjiashan area to drain a lake that threatened to burst through a dam and cause massive flooding
China evacuated tens of thousands of people in quake-hit Sichuan Province yesterday, as troops battled to dig through a natural dam that threatened to burst and flood the area.

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Nepal's three main political parties yesterday agreed on the system of government paving the way for the Maoists to head the new government.

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Japanese youngsters are getting so addicted to Internet-linked cellphones that the government is starting a program warning parents and schools to limit their use.

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Sri Lanka's president vowed yesterday to crush Tamil Tiger rebels after a rush-hour train bombing blamed on the insurgents killed eight passengers and wounded 70 others.

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DESPERATION: Officials handed out leaflets instructing people not to give to victims of the cyclone lining the streets, to preserve 'the dignity of the Myanmar people'
Myanmar police are trying to clear the roads of thousands of cyclone survivors whose desperation has reduced them to begging for food from passing cars.

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Malaysia will ban gasoline stations on its borders with Thailand and Singapore from selling fuel to foreigners, in an attempt to contain the spiraling cost of subsidies, reports said yesterday.

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DISARMAMENT: Clashes erupted moments after Hassan Nasrallah told the new Lebanese president the state's weapons should not be used to settle political accounts
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned Lebanon's government on Monday not to use military force against the Shiite Muslim militant group in a stern warning against any attempt by the country's new president to disarm the militia.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars lander spent its first full day in the Martian arctic plains checking its instruments in preparation for an ambitious digging mission to study whether the site could have once been habitable.

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'DESPICABLE': British charity Save the Children said that children were being traded for food, money, soap and mobile phones in war zones and disaster areas
An international watchdog should be set up to urgently investigate child sex abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers, the British charity Save the Children said yesterday.

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Tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow increased on Monday after a UN report concluded that the Russian air force had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy drone over the breakaway region of Abkhazia.

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The UN atomic watchdog has expressed serious concern that Iran is still hiding information about alleged studies into making nuclear warheads and defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.

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ERROR: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Maxime Bernier's controversial relationship with a woman with ties to bikers played no role in the decision
Canada's embattled foreign minister resigned after leaving classified documents at the home of a former girlfriend who had ties to members of a motorcycle gang.

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'A CLASS ACT': During his career in the movie business, Pollack worked with the who's who in the industry, including Robert Redford, George Clooney and Sally Field
Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay who achieved commercial success and critical acclaim with the gender-bending comedy Tootsie and the period drama Out of Africa while often dabbling as a TV and movie actor, has died. He was 73.

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One of Argentina's most feared former military leaders went on trial yesterday on charges of kidnapping, torturing and killing left-wing militants during the 1976-to-1983 dictatorship.

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A Swedish-born tycoon who acts as a deforestation adviser to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has stirred up controversy in Brazil for reportedly claiming all the Amazon could be bought for US$50 billion.

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Republican US presidential candidate John McCain sought on Monday to distance himself from US President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war, telling veterans on Memorial Day he was "sick at heart" at mistakes made in the conflict now in its sixth year.

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■ AUSTRALIA