The Afghan government and its allies in the region have begun approaching the Taliban and other insurgent groups to test the possibilities for eventual peace talks.
Experts sought to make clear to advisers from the presidential campaigns that the next president needed to have a plan for Afghanistan before he took office on Jan. 20.
Critics say Lee Myung-bak and his cabinet responded slowly to the financial crisis, which has struck hard at South Korea and other emerging market nations.
The package is intended to help households and businesses and is the boldest of several measures that officials took to try to stanch the fallout from the global credit crisis.
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom promised to ensure a smooth transition after he was defeated by a bitter political rival in the Maldives’ first democratic election.
Food inspectors have found eggs imported from northeast China to be contaminated with high levels of melamine, the chemical at the heart of an adulteration scandal involving Chinese milk products.
Two foreign men working for an international courier service were shot dead in central Kabul just outside their office, apparently by one of their security guards, police said.
For South Koreans, boxing is mainly a sport of the past. Now, a girl whose family fled North Korea is breathing new life into the sport by winning a world championship at age 17.
Two foreign men working for an international courier service were shot dead in central Kabul just outside their office, apparently by one of their security guards, police said.
The government said that it would execute three men convicted of the terrorist bombing attacks in Bali nightclubs six years ago that killed 202 people.
China has strongly condemned the decision by the European Parliament to select a jailed Chinese dissident, Hu Jia, for a prestigious human rights award.
The country had little exposure to subprime lending or to Western financial institutions, but the government is pulling out all its tools to combat the global financial turmoil.
In a rebuke of China’s Communist Party, the European Parliament gave a prestigious human rights prize to Hu Jia, an imprisoned advocate for democracy in China.
China’s legislature began reviewing a draft law that would strictly limit food additives, after more than 50,000 infants were sickened by tainted milk formula.
The missiles fired by remotely piloted American aircraft into a Pakistani village near the Afghan border were apparently aimed at a prominent Taliban commander.
In a rebuke of China’s Communist Party, the European Parliament gave a prestigious human rights prize to Hu Jia, an imprisoned advocate for democracy in China.
Somchai Wongsawat was confronted by protesters who reportedly threw shoes and plastic bottles at him during a visit to a government telecommunications office.
Pakistan seeks to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars in loans and to skirt a financial crisis brought on by high fuel prices, dwindling foreign investment and soaring militant violence.
A remotely piloted United States aircraft was suspected of firing a missile into a Pakistani village in North Waziristan tribal region early on Thursday.
An overnight airstrike by coalition forces that Afghan authorities said killed nine Afghan Army soldiers may have been a case of mutually mistaken identity.
The defendant, 23-year-old Sayed Parwiz Kambakhsh, was instead sentenced to 20 years in jail, but the ruling raised concerns about judicial propriety in the case.
A robust influx of foreign money has showered aid on a small part of Myanmar’s population but has left other, equally desperate parts of the country to fend for themselves.
Talks in Parliament initiated by President Asif Ali Zardari showed that the political elites had little stomach for battling the militants in the country.
A belief that the Soviet past may hold lessons for the American future has many Western diplomats talking to Zamir N. Kabulov, Russia’s ambassador to Kabul.
A former official who oversaw citywide construction projects for this year’s Olympic Games has been given a suspended death sentence in a case that involved bribery and lavish living.
The government announced a rural reform policy that for the first time would allow farmers to lease or transfer land-use rights, a step that advocates say would boost lagging incomes.
A neighborhood that embodied foreign glamour has become known as a quintessentially old-fashioned Japanese neighborhood and as a slice of the authentic Osaka.
A coded French diplomatic cable quotes the British ambassador in Afghanistan as saying that the NATO-led military campaign against the Taliban will fail.
Two missiles believed to have been fired from remotely piloted aircraft hit villages close to the Afghan border, killing mostly militants, Pakistani officials said.
The Wuhan Zoo in central China has begun to feed its two pandas home-cooked chicken soup occasionally to reduce stress and give them a nutritional boost.
The Sri Lankan military appeared close to making its final push on rebel territory as its air force’s jets pounded the headquarters of the guerrilla group.
Authorities linked Choi Jin-sil’s death to malicious online rumors, a growing problem in South Korea, which has one of the world’s most active online communities.
Recent arrests made by the police have uncovered a deep well of anger among India’s Muslims, who complain of being wrongfully singled out every time bombs go off.
Congress gave final approval to a breakthrough agreement permitting civilian nuclear trade between India and the U.S. for the first time in three decades.
In a recent interview, President Asif Ali Zardari seems to believe a hoax alleging that Oliver L. North warned of the dangers posed by Osama bin Laden 20 years ago.
Christopher R. Hill extended his trip to Pyongyang in order to salvage a nuclear disarmament deal that the White House had hoped would be a major achievement.
By drawing a link between the drug trade and its role in the insurgency, Gen. David D. McKiernan outlined what could be a new, expanding role for U.S. and NATO troops.
A Canadian human rights group has uncovered a system that tracks politically charged text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture of which eBay’s Skype is a partner.
Gen. David H. Petraeus said in an interview that he expected the fight against the insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan to get worse before it got better.
Christopher Hill’s trip to North Korea is widely seen as a last-ditch effort by the Bush administration to salvage an agreement on nuclear disarmament.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said that he had sought the intervention of the Saudi royal family to bring the resurgent Taliban to peace negotiations.