SEOUL: South Korea Wednesday sent North Korea a message urging it to free the seven crewmen on a South Korean fishing boat seized last weekend, Seoul`s unification ministry said. The South, in a faxed message through a military hotline, called on the North to release the boat and its

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Tuesday demanded Cambodian citizens leave a disputed border area that has been the focus of deadly clashes in recent years. The two countries have stepped up a war of words over the spat, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warning it

TOKYO: A 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan Tuesday, but there was no tsunami warning and no immediate reports of damage, US and Japanese seismologists said.The underwater quake occurred at 2:50 pm (0550 GMT) off Iwate prefecture in the Pacific, 515 kilometres (320 miles) north

KANDAHAR: Six police officers were killed in two insurgent attacks in volatile southern Afghanistan, police said Tuesday.In one attack, five policemen were killed when a bomb tore through their vehicle in Helmand province`s Khanishin district late Monday, deputy provincial police chief

SYDNEY:  A major 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, shaking buildings and generating a small tsunami, but there no immediate reports of injury or damage.The undersea earthquake struck at a depth of 60 kilometres (37 miles) roughly 40 kilometres

WASHINGTON: A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer was found guilty Monday of selling sensitive military technology to China, the United States Justice Department said in a statement.Noshir Gowadia, 66, was convicted of five offenses following trial in a federal court in Hawaii. Gowadia had

COVENTRY: "Follow the Prophet Mohammed, don`t follow bin Laden!" That was the message from an anti-terrorism summer camp led by a top scholar which attracted hundreds of young British Muslims this week.Al-Hidayah (The Guidance) was led by Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, who earlier this year

MEXICO CITY: Conservative Mexican ex-president Vicente Fox has spoken out in favor of legalizing the production, sale and distribution of illegal drugs, as his country sinks ever deeper into bloody drug wars."What has to be made legal are the production, sale and distribution" of illegal

NEW DELHI: A moderate 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck the Andaman Islands on Tuesday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and a tsunami warning was not issued.The quake hit 208 kilometres (130 miles) north of Port Blair, the capital of the islands, at 3:51 am

RIO DE JANEIRO: Colombia will shortly reestablish ties with Venezuela amid a long row over alleged harboring of rebels that sparked concerns of a wider conflict, a Brazilian presidential spokesman said Monday.Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told his Brazilian counterpart by phone

RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Monday he is ready to resume direct talks with Israel but only based on a freeze of Jewish settlement activity as called for by the Middle East peace Quartet."We are ready to begin direct negotiations with Israel if the Quartet asks for

ZHOUQU: The death toll from devastating mudslides in northwest China more than doubled to 702, officials said Tuesday, as hopes faded that rescuers would find many of the 1,000 people still missing. At least three villages were levelled by an avalanche of mud and rocks triggered by heavy

SEOUL: Army officers from North Korea and the US-led United Nations Command held talks Tuesday, amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula following the South`s war games and the North`s artillery fire.The North fired some 130 shells into waters near the disputed inter-Korean sea border

SEOUL - North Korea fired artillery shells Monday into waters near the disputed border in the Yellow Sea amid high tensions with South Korea, Seoul`s defence ministry said."A North Korean battery opened fire today in waters off the west coast," a spokesman told AFP, declining to give

KABUL - Insurgents attacked three NATO combat posts in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking clashes on Monday, NATO`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.The troops came under attack in the rural province of Paktika, which shares a long, porous border with Pakistani areas

SRINAGAR: Police and paramilitary forces on Monday reimposed a curfew in Srinagar, the main town in the disputed region of Indian Kashmir, after the overnight death of a protester.Shops and businesses had opened on Sunday for the first time in two weeks after the Muslim-majority Kashmir

SEOUL: Seoul`s government urged North Korea Monday to free a South Korean fishing boat and its crew as soon as possible, after the seizure heightened months of tensions between the two sides.The South accuses the North of sinking one of its warships earlier this year and is staging a

KUPANG: At least 11 people were killed and more than 30 are missing after a passenger boat went down in waters off eastern Indonesia on Monday, the country`s search and rescue agency said."We have found 11 dead bodies and still look for about 32 people that went missing," National Search

KIGALI - Rwandans began voting Monday in a presidential election which incumbent Paul Kagame is expected to win by a landslide.Polling stations in the capital Kigali opened at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) sharp, an AFP correspondent reported.Kagame, 52, has ruled the small central African country

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appear before an Israeli commission of inquiry on Monday to explain a commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla which killed nine Turkish activists.He will be the first of three top officials to give sworn testimony about the May 31