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

TOKYO - The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Monday commemorated the 65th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with representatives from Britain and France attending for the first time.Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno three days after Hiroshima, twin nuclear attacks

JERUSALEM - An Israeli man held in Libya since March on suspicion of spying has been released and has arrived in Vienna, Israeli media reported early on Monday.The website of the daily Haaretz said Rafael Hadad, who holds Israeli and Tunisian nationality, had been taking photographs of

MEDGYESEGYHAZA: A father and son were crowned kings of the watermelon at a festival dedicated to the fruit in a small Hungarian town Sunday.Tens of thousands of people descended on the town of Medgyesegyhaza near the Romanian border for a three-day watermelon festival featuring concerts,

LONDON: A couple from Birmingham in central England have been murdered in Pakistan, police said, after getting caught up in what was thought to be a row over a wedding.The Foreign Office confirmed that a British man had been killed in Pakistan and they were in contact with his family.The

LONDON: Authorities in Bangladesh have arrested a British man sought in connection with the shooting deaths of two people in London seven years ago, British police said Sunday.Ayub Khan, 27, who had been on the most wanted listed of London`s Metropolitan Police, was detained in Dhaka on

KABUL: Three NATO troops were killed in attacks Afghanistan on Sunday, the alliance force said, taking to eight the number of international troops to die in the insurgency-hit country over the weekend.The latest deaths were in two separate bomb attacks in the south of the country, NATO`s

YANGON: Sai Aik Paung is perhaps one of only a very few independent political figures in Myanmar who is confident of success in the country`s rare and controversial elections expected later this year.As a prominent ethnic Shan leader, the 65-year-old believes his party can count on the

BAGHDAD: Weekend violence across Iraq killed 60 people, officials said on Sunday, just days ahead of the start of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan when insurgents typically step up their attacks.The unrest has fuelled concerns about security here -- more than 100 people have died

BEIJING: At least 127 people were killed and nearly 1,300 missing Sunday after mudslides swept away homes and destroyed roads in northwestern China as the nation battled its worst flooding in a decade.At least one village was buried entirely and deep rivers of sludge and rocks were

BOGOTA: The presidents of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, will meet Tuesday in Bogota on their countries` diplomatic rift, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said Sunday.Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia on July 22, one week after

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States remains "open to engagement" with Iran amid tensions over its nuclear aims, according to an interview transcript released Sunday."We remain open to engagement. But they do know what they have to do. They have to

SEOUL: North Korea has detained a South Korean fishing boat in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the South`s coastguard said Sunday, in an incident which could further inflame high cross-border tensions.The boat with four South Korean and three Chinese crewmen was seized while apparently

AKARTA - Indonesian police have arrested two Islamist militants suspected of planning to attack President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a visit to West Java, the president`s spokesman said on Sunday.The two were arrested at a house near Bandung on Saturday, said presidential spokesman

BEIJING - More than 80 people were killed and 2,000 missing Sunday after mudslides swept away homes and destroyed roads in northwestern China as the nation battles the worst flooding in a decade.Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is travelling to the devastated region in Gansu province where more

SEOUL - South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak Sunday named a former provincial governor as new prime minister, and replaced seven other ministers in the biggest cabinet reshuffle since he took power in early 2008.But Lee kept his current foreign, defence and unification ministers in place

HAVANA : Former President Fidel Castro addressed Cuba`s parliament in his first public government act in four years Saturday, and appealed to world leaders, including President Barack Obama, to avoid a nuclear war.The return of the veteran 83-year-old Cuban revolutionary to the National