KUALA LUMPUR (Channel News Asia) - The growing number of forest fires in Indonesia's Sumatra island has triggered warning bells that hazy skies could return to neighbouring Malaysia, environmental officials said on Sunday.
Forest fires from Indonesia caused by traditional farming methods have been blamed for the choking haze, which shrouds the region annually.
COLOMBO (Channel News Asia): South Asian leaders on Saturday demanded strong action to stop terrorism spreading like "wildfire" as a regional summit opened here dominated by heightened tensions between India and Pakistan.
HANOI : Laos has halted plans for new hotels in the town centre of the ancient royal capital Luang Prabang after receiving a warning from UNESCO about its World Heritage status, media reported Tuesday.
BEIJING (Channel News Asia) Basketball icon Yao Ming and more than 200 other Chinese Olympic hopefuls and officials checked into the Athletes Village on Sunday as it opened amid tight security and a shroud of smog.
NEW DELHI (Channel News Asia) India's parliament on Monday opened a special session to debate a coalition government confidence motion triggered by a pull-out of left-wing parties opposed to a nuclear deal with Washington.
JAKARTA (Channel News Asia): Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened an Asia-Africa conference on "capacity building for Palestine" alongside Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Jakarta on Monday.
BEIJING (Channel News Asia): Police have arrested 18 people suspected of kidnapping children and women in southwest China and trafficking them across the country, state press reported Monday.
BEIJING (Channel News Asia) China vowed Sunday to step up security for the Beijing Olympics, warning of an unprecedented threat to the Games amid reports that two "terrorists" were executed in the mainly-Muslim far northwest.
DHAKA (Channel News Asia) A mystery illness health experts are describing as a type of "mass hysteria" has struck students at four schools in Bangladesh in the past week, forcing them to close temporarily.
ULAN BATOR (Channel Asia News) Thousands of people staged a violent protest in Mongolia's capital on Tuesday as they voiced outrage over what they claimed were rigged elections, forcing police to fire gunshots, witnesses said.
NEW DELHI (Channel News Asia) Envoys of the Dalai Lama were expected to arrive in Beijing later Monday for new talks with Chinese officials, the Tibetan government-in-exile said.
ZHONGSHAN, China - Tropical storm Fengshen struck China's southeastern coast Wednesday, bringing new torrential downpours to a region still reeling from heavy rains and deadly flooding since early June.
JAKARTA - Indonesian police fired water cannons to break up a demonstration on Tuesday by about 1,000 stone-throwing protesters here who were demanding the president resign over a recent fuel price hike.
MANILA: Some 598 people are dead or missing after Typhoon Fengshen roared through the Philippines, the Red Cross and civil defence said Monday, dramatically raising the number unaccounted for.
KUALA LUMPUR (Channel News Asia) - Malaysia announced plans on Sunday to set up separate pumps at its border petrol stations to sell fuel to foreigners at market rates so that only locals can benefit from subsidised petrol.
BEIJING (Channel News Asia) - Infectious diseases are emerging as a major threat in China's quake zone, with injured and traumatised victims most at risk, the health minister was quoted as saying Wednesday.
BEIJING : A strong aftershock rattled the area near the dangerously swollen "quake lake" in southwest China on Sunday, triggering landslides on nearby mountains, state media reported.
DHAKA : Bangladesh's army-backed emergency government is preparing to free the country's top two political party leaders -- former premiers who are being held on corruption charges, reports said Sunday.
YANGON : Five UN-chartered helicopters arrived on Saturday in Myanmar's former capital Yangon, to boost efforts to deliver aid to victims of the cyclone that tore through the country five weeks ago, a spokesman said.
TOKYO: Japan on Friday for the first time recognised the Ainu as an indigenous people, pledging to support the traditionally nature-worshipping community that has endured centuries of discrimination.
QINGLIAN, China : Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Thursday that efforts to drain a dangerously swollen "quake lake" were at a critical juncture, with one million people warned to prepare for the worst.
BANGKOK: Cyclone Nargis has prevented many farmers in Myanmar's rice-growing region from planting their new crop, raising fears of food shortages this year, UN agriculture officials said on Wednesday.
HONG KONG: Thousands gathered in Hong Kong on Wednesday for the city's annual candlelight vigil to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the only such commemoration on Chinese soil.
JAKARTA - A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks rocked the Indonesian island of Flores early Wednesday, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
BEIJING - The situation at a massive lake created by last month's southwest China earthquake is "extremely dangerous," state media said Wednesday, quoting a ranking official.
HANOI: Lawmakers in Vietnam on Tuesday approved the use of atomic energy for civilian purposes, paving the way for the construction of its first nuclear power plant to feed the booming economy.
TAIPEI: Taiwan's new foreign minister said on Monday the island would work to strengthen ties with its allies rather than try to lure countries away from China, signalling a major shift in diplomatic strategy.
SEOUL : North Korea is almost ready to deliver a full accounting of its nuclear activities under a major disarmament deal but wants to link the timing to US concessions, Seoul's top negotiator said Sunday.
MANILA - A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the northern Philippines and southern Taiwan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said.
MIANYANG: China on Saturday made final preparations to drain a dangerous "quake lake" in an audacious attempt to avert a disaster that could flood the homes of over a million people.
GENEVA : The International Labour Organisation expressed its concern on Saturday that the Myanmar ruling military junta will use forced labour to rebuild areas of the country devastated by Cyclone Nargis.
GENEVA - The Red Cross called Friday for more aid for Chinese earthquake victims, saying it needed 59.5 million euros (92.7 million dollars) to help half-a-million people over the next three years.
YANGON - Myanmar's new constitution has been "confirmed and enacted" following a referendum this month, state television said Thursday, reading a statement by military leader Than Shwe.
YOKOHAMA, Japan: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda pledged assistance Wednesday to help Africa double rice production over the next 10 years to ease the burden of soaring food prices.
CHENGDU, China : More foreign help arrived in China on Sunday as forecasts of heavy rain threatened to pour more misery on survivors of the devastating earthquake that killed at least 60,000 people.
BEIJING : Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, winding up his first foreign trip, said Saturday the world could not ignore the joint voice of his country and China, and rejected criticism of the alliance.
JODHPUR, India : The death toll in two days' of clashes between police and an ethnic group demanding special government aid in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan has gone up to 31, a minister said Saturday.
SRINAGAR, India : Islamic separatists staged a general strike in Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Saturday to protest a visit by India's president to the revolt-hit region.
TAIPEI : Taiwan's new President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) party Saturday renewed his call on Beijing to set aside sovereignty disputes and reopen negotiations with the island.
KOBE, Japan : Environment ministers from the world's richest nations and a clutch of fast-growing economies meet Saturday to try to inject fresh momentum into efforts to tackle climate change.
BANGKOK - International aid groups reacted cautiously Friday to the announcement that Myanmar would allow all foreign relief workers into the country, stressing that details on the ground were still unclear.
YANGON - UN chief Ban Ki-moon met Thursday with Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, in a high-profile diplomatic push to press the military government to accept a full-scale relief operation for cyclone survivors.
WASHINGTON - China received rare praise Friday for allowing both local and foreign media to cover the effects of the deadly earthquake in the country's southwest region.
BANGKOK - More than 100 doctors from neighbouring countries will go into cyclone-hit Myanmar on Saturday, the EU's humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel told AFP after a two-day visit to the country.
YINGXIU: China said on Thursday that over 50,000 people had likely died in the devastating earthquake that hit its southwest as time runs out to save survivors buried in the rubble of broken communities.
FRANKFURT: The Dalai Lama lashed out on Thursday at the recent "suppression" of anti-Chinese unrest in Tibet, as he arrived in Germany at the start of a tour of Western powers in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
SEOUL : South Korea said Thursday it wants direct talks with North Korea to discuss how to provide badly needed food aid, apparently softening its position that the communist state must first ask for help.
WASHINGTON: The United States has poured nearly 40 billion US dollars in aid to South Asia since the September 11 attacks but the terror threat from the region remains a top problem, a congressional hearing was told Wednesday.
BANGKOK: Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Wednesday after a visit to Myanmar that the junta leaders would not allow foreign experts into the country to guide the cyclone relief effort.
JUYUAN, China : As more children were pulled on Wednesday from the rubble of their schools, questions emerged over whether corruption and shoddy construction were to blame for taking such a heavy toll of young lives.
