asia

Afghan President Hamid Karzai heard a litany of complaints Sunday from residents of Marjah, the southern town that thousands of U.S., NATO and Afghan troops just seized from the Taliban.

US singer Stevie Wonder performs on stage during the 25th Victoires de la Musique yearly French music awards ceremony at Zenith de Paris on March 6, 2010 in Paris, France.

More than 160,000 tourists from home and overseas visited florid red lantern-decorated temple fairs held in public parks in Beijing in the first two days of China’s lunar New Year, starting Sunday.

Three more Afghan civilians have been killed in the assault on a southern Taliban stronghold, NATO forces said Tuesday, highlighting the toll on the population from an offensive aimed at making them safer.

Indonesians pray in a temple in Jakarta, Indonesia on the 2010 Chinese New Year’s Day.

Haiti’s creaky, quake-damaged electrical system apparently delayed on Monday a judge’s decision on whether to release 10 Americans charged with child kidnapping.

Most Afghans now seem optimistic about the future of their country, according to a new poll.

BANGALORE: The High Court has decided to await the Supreme Court verdict for the hearing of a petition challenging the renovation work of the cave at Bababudanagiri in Chikmagalur.

Bertha Taber, 93, died Saturday, January 9, 2010, at Tobey Hospital in Wareham. She was the widow of the late Henry C. Govoni and the late George F. Taber.

Germany’s foreign minister has gone to Yemen to secure the release of a family of five who were taken hostage last year.

A British bomb disposal expert killed on the deadliest day for Nato forces in more than two months is due to be named.

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board along with the Chennai Corporation, the Directorate of Environment and the police and fire rescue departments, on Monday launched a massive awareness drive against burning of tyres and plastic during Bhogi festival.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is the first civilian leader in Nigeria to have taken over from another after winning controversial polls in 2007.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward and the Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin are due to meet as the British and Irish governments prepare to step up the pressure to end the political crisis in Belfast in the aftermath of the Iris Robinson scandal.

Pakistan is planning to deport five Americans held on terror links to the United States after they were grilled by a special FBI team in the capital Islamabad, local media reported Saturday.

Senator John F. Kerry, a key ally for President Obama on his Afghanistan plan, offered guarded praise for the president’s speech as he opened a hearing this morning on the troop surge plan.

Of course, the fact that she’s compiling a new list is no surprise. Airing Dec. 9 at 10 p.m. EST on ABC, “Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009″ is her 17th edition.

Despite misgivings, members of Congress seem poised to back President Barack Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan after getting assurances the commitment isn’t open-ended. The surge-and-exit strategy that Obama announced Tuesday night marks the largest expansion of the war since it began eight years ago.

The U.S.-led United Nations Command has repatriated a North Korean soldier rescued at sea by South Korea’s navy.

COUNCIL tax-payers in three Suffolk districts will have to pay massive legal bills after hopes of an east/west split were blown away by the Court of Appeal in London in London.

The top U.N. rights official saidA yesterday Switzerlanda s ban on building minarets was deeplyA divisive and at odds with its international legal obligations.

Last week’s presidential debate was supposed to cover foreign policy issues, but the ongoing market meltdown was too big to ignore.

Russia will join any consensus on more sanctions against Iran, a senior Russian diplomatic source said yesterday after Tehran declared it would expand nuclear activity in defiance of a U.N. rebuke.

Until yesterday your choices for depositing safe money around the globe were basically Ireland, Germany or the Mafia.

DENBIGH’S unique 1950s museum has suffered extensive damage after a fire broke out on Tuesday night in a suspected arson attack that has devastated the collection of 50s vehicles.

Johan Franzen doesn’t shy away from anything on the ice, but off it can be a very different story.

President Barack ObamaA said last night he is sending 30,000 more U.S. troops toA Afghanistan by next summer to speed the battle against theA Taliban and plans to start bringing some home in 18 months.

Battle-weary troops and their families braced for a wrenching round of new deployments to Afghanistan, but many said they support the surge announced Tuesday as long as it helps to end the 8-year-old conflict.

A clutch of major emerging economies including China and India have forged a united front to put pressure on developed countries at next month’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen.

… order to make them last longer, That’s going to keep them from staying as healthy as they should be, and lead to more health problems down the road,” said state Rep. Thomas Golden, D-Lowell. Gov. Deval Patrick in October was forced to trim hundreds …

… PEPFAR is reconsidering this approach, according to Steve Mills, who directs the Vietnam operations of Family Health International. The North Carolina-based nonprofit organization runs the Tinh Bien clinic and other programs in Vietnam and Cambodia, …

Cathy passed away Sun., Nov. 22, 2009 at Ozark Health Nursing Center, Clinton AR.

… authors, Dr. Alexis Elbaz, director of research at the Paris-based medical research institute Inserm, told Reuters Health by email. He said the study, which appeared in the journal BMJ, also suggests that a test of walking speed might be used to …

Hundreds of French and Afghan troops pushed into a volatile valley east of the Afghan capital Sunday in an attempt to gain control of an area that has long been a haven for militants who launch quick attacks and then fade back into hillside villages.

The United States has no long-term stake in Afghanistan and its primary aim is to defeat al Qa’eda there, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton ,said on Sunday.

A Jordanian citizen died after being beaten by police, the second time this week, a police spokesman said Sunday, casting a rare spotlight on the nation’s U.S.-trained security forces, that may also have worked as proxy jailers for the CIA.

Oct. 6 1950 b/w file photo of 10 year old twins Brian Thomas Sullivan and Kevin James Sullivan from Islington, London, who carry their luggage to the boat train “Rangitoto” as they leave Liverpool Street station in London bound for Auckland, New Zealand.

Pakistani soldiers closed in on two major Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan on Saturday, officials said, as government jets pounded insurgent hide-outs and the prime minister said the country had no choice but to defeat the militants.

Eight U.S. troops are killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said, in one of the deadliest weeks for U.S. troops ahead of a presidential run-off. Several troops were also wounded in “multiple complex attacks, just a day after 11 U.S. troops died in separate helicopter crashes.

President Barack Obama said an overhaul of the U.S. health care system is closer than ever, but he warned of tough battles ahead as major industries such as insurance companies fight hard to preserve their profits.

Share + Oct 19, 2009 5:00 am US/Eastern DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan 1 of 1 Pakistani soldiers search internally displaced civilians, fleeing from military operations against Taliban militants in South Waziristan, as they arrive at a registration office in Dera Ismail Khan on Oct.

The backers of a $5 million prize celebrating good governance in Africa said Monday they cannot find anyone to award this year.

In a brazen attack on Iran’s military elite yesterday, a suicide bomber killed six Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders and at least 36 others at a gathering of tribal leaders in a southeastern province near the Pakistan border.

A swimming pool in a Warwickshire town is to close for two months for maintenance work.

Rio de Janeiro’s mayor says the city has a tough battle ahead combatting security problems before the 2016 Olympics .

Gunshots have been from inside Pakistan’s army headquarters, where Islamist militants are holding up to 15 soldiers hostage.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan Heavily armed militants were holding up to 15 soldiers hostage inside Pakistan’s army headquarters early Sunday more than 12 hours after they stormed the complex in an audacious assault on the heart of the most powerful institution in the nuclear-armed country.

Mauro Camoranesi put World Cup holders Italy back on track for automatic qualification after the Republic of Ireland had threatened to dent their hopes.

Zac Robinson threw two touchdown passes and No. 15 Oklahoma State overcame the absence of their top two playmakers to beat Texas A&M 36-31 on Saturday.

Jarrett Brown threw for 244 yards and one touchdown as the West Virginia Mountaineers defeated the Syracuse Orange, 34-13, in Big East action at the Carrier Dome.