• West Asia

    Afghan Taliban militants lay down arms to join peace process

    Taliban fighters attend a surrender ceremony in Kunar Province in eastern Afghanistan on April 15, 2013. A total of eight armed Taliban militants laid down their arms and joined the government-backed peace process in Kunar province on Monday. <Xinhua/Amran>

    Read More »
  • South Asia

    Hindu devotees throw vermilion powder to celebrate Nepali New Year

    Nepalese devotees throw vermilion powder on each other during the Sindur Jatra festival in Thimi, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, April 15, 2013. Sindur Jatra, or Vermilion Powder Festival, was held in Thimi, rural area of capital Kathmandu to celebrate the Nepali New Year on Monday. Nepalese devotees carry…

    Read More »
  • South East Asia

    Activists dressed as injured orangutans demand action to save animals

    Activists dressed as injured orangutans take part in a protest demanding that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take immediate action to save the animal outside the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, April 15, 2013. Orangutan populations in Indonesia’s Borneo and Sumatera island are facing severe threats from habitat…

    Read More »
  • East Asia

    Pyongyang residents celebrate birthday of late Kim Il Sung

    A man, center, supervises a dancing group during a mass folk dance in front of the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, April 15, 2013. Oblivious to international tensions over a possible North Korean missile launch, Pyongyang residents spilled into the streets Monday to celebrate a major national…

    Read More »
  • East Asia

    Japanese PM Abe shakes hands with NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen

    NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, left, shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after they exchanged documents of joint political declaration between Japan and the NATO during a signing ceremony at Abe’s official residence in Tokyo Monday, April 15, 2013. <AP Photo/Toru Hanai, Pool>

    Read More »
  • East Asia

    N. Korea’s bluffing works again

    MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING North Korea has scored another brilliant diplomatic success. It has scared the world and created a sense of acute international crisis out of nothing. In the last two weeks, Seoul has been flooded with international journalists most of whom have come to report on the “growing…

    Read More »
  • East Asia

    Bird flu spreads to central China

    The total number of cases of humans infected with bird flu in China has reached 60 and it is spreading to the central region. Eleven new cases of H7N9 bird flu infection were confirmed, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 60, while Shanghai reported two…

    Read More »

  • Taiwan sets to manage Korean risks

    To cushion the blow of possible Korean Peninsula fallout on its economy and trade, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has readied a package of countermeasures, according to an MOEA report to be delivered at the Legislative Yuan on Apr 15. The Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committees of the…

    Read More »
  • East Asia

    Suu Kyi visits Japan for the first time in 27 years

    Nobel laureate and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was greeted by dozens of flag-waving well-wishers, including people from her home country, as she arrived in Japan on Saturday for a weeklong visit. She later met with other people from Myanmar, packing a Tokyo hall, and answered their questions…

    Read More »
  • West Asia

    Lebanese pro-Syrian fighters patrol at Lebanon-Syria border

    In this Friday, April 12, 2013 photo, members of the Lebanese pro-Syrian Popular Committees pose for a photograph at the Lebanon-Syria border, near the northeastern Lebanese town of al-Qasr, Lebanon. Masked men in camouflage toting Kalashnikov rifles fan out through a dusty olive orchard, part of a group of Hezbollah-backed…

    Read More »