MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino is set to outline a broad blueprint for solving his nation`s economic and graft problems on Monday when he delivers his first State of the Nation address. Aquino, who took over from the highly unpopular Gloria Arroyo last month, was also

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia`s UN-backed war crimes court on Monday gives its verdict on the Khmer Rouge prison chief, in a step towards justice for the "Killing Fields" atrocities more than three decades ago. Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, used his trial to apologise for his role in the

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it supports a Colombian military attack on Venezuela and warned Washington to stay out of the crisis. Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Bogota on Thursday in response

WELLINGTON: A New Zealand teenager has survived a 16-storey fall from his family`s Auckland apartment and is expected to make a full recovery, the New Zealand Herald reported Monday. The 15-year-old was in a stable condition in hospital with a broken wrist, broken rib, gouged leg and

DUISBURG: Angry survivors demanded answers on Sunday and prosecutors launched an inquiry after a panicked stampede at a techno music festival in Germany killed 19 people and left hundreds hurt. The German-born Pope Benedict XVI and Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed their horror over

SEOUL: South Korea and the United States plan to stage anti-submarine drills Monday on the second day of a major naval exercise aimed at deterring North Korea, an official said. About 20 ships including a US aircraft carrier, 200 aircraft and 8,000 military personnel launched the

PESHAWAR: Two separate US drone attacks on Sunday killed at least eight militants in Pakistan`s lawless tribal belt known as a headquarters of Al-Qaeda, officials said. The first attack hit a compound in Shaktoi area in South Waziristan, followed hours later by another in neighbouring

PARIS: Increasing numbers of southeast Asian men, particularly in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are marrying foreigners because fewer women in their homelands are willing to wed, a new study said Monday. The phenomenon, which dates back more than a decade, has even created a detectable

WASHINGTON: The White House denounced a massive leak of secret military files Sunday that allegedly describe how Pakistan`s spy service aids the Afghan insurgency, but said the information was no surprise. In all, some 92,000 documents were released by the web whistleblower Wikileaks,

KABUL - The Taliban said on Sunday they were holding prisoner one of two U.S. soldiers who strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents, and that the other had been killed.The Taliban leadership would decide later on the fate of the captive, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid

BANGKOK - A suspected bomb blast ripped through a bus stop in central Bangkok Sunday, leaving at least nine people injured and reigniting tensions two months after the end of deadly opposition protests.The explosion came hours after polls closed in a closely watched by-election in the

JERUSALEM - Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes in Jerusalem on Sunday as a massive blaze tore through a forest near a hospital on the outskirts of the Holy City, police said.Scores of fire engines rushed to the scene of the blaze which broke out in woodlands near the

SYDNEY: Australia`s opposition leader Tony Abbott Sunday vowed to slash the nation`s migrant intake if elected prime minister, but said he wanted citizens to have more babies to boost the birth rate.Abbott, who is standing against the country`s first woman leader, Labor Prime Minister

JERUSALEM: Gaza-based militants fired four rockets into southern Israel over the weekend, a military spokesman said on Sunday.None of them caused any casualties or damage, the spokesman said, adding that since the start of the year around 90 rockets or mortar rounds had been fired into

BAGHDAD:  Authorities have arrested three suspected senior leaders of Al-Qaeda`s front group in Iraq, including its self-styled minister of defence, a spokesman said on Sunday.Also among the group detained were two brothers suspected of masterminding major attacks in the central Iraqi

MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin revealed he met and even sang patriotic Soviet songs with the group of Russian spies deported from the United States in the biggest espionage swap since the Cold War.Putin, who himself served as a KGB agent in the ex-East Germany in the dying years

PESHAWAR: Suspected Taliban in northwest Pakistan on Saturday shot dead the only son of a provincial minister well known for speaking out against the militants, police said.Mian Rashid Hussain, 28, was on his way home with a friend in Nowshera district, 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of

BRUSSELS: The European Union will hit Iran with tough sanctions against its vital oil and gas industry on Monday in a bid to lure Tehran back to the negotiating table over its disputed nuclear programme.EU foreign ministers will formally approve the sanctions following Iran`s repeated

WASHINGTON: With concern mounting about the direction of Afghanistan, the United States and its allies are stepping up efforts to lay the political groundwork to begin pulling out troops next year.In the past week, a major conference in Kabul endorsed a 2014 target for Afghans to take

SEOUL: The US and South Korea on Sunday began a major naval exercise in the Sea of Japan, a report said, a move which has sparked warnings of nuclear retaliation from North Korea.The drill is the first in a series intended "to send a clear message to North Korea that its aggressive