Teachers in Japan fight being forced to sing national anthem

Japanese public high school teacher Sawa Kawamura used to smile on her way to work. But in recent years, this quiet woman has come to...

Pakistan to trim large Cabinet

Pakistan's ruling party Friday authorized a sweeping overhaul of the country's Cabinet that probably will mean a marked reduction in the...

Rites for Gen. Vang Pao a crossroads of Hmong tradition and modern U.S.

They promised a funeral fit for a king.

Nepal chooses a new prime minister

After 17 attempts, steadily diminishing expectations and paralysis in local government as budgets and appointments were delayed, Nepal...

South Korea anxiously hopes for heroic captain to recover

The ship's captain lies sedated in a hospital bed here, breathing tubes thrust down his throat, fragments from six bullets fired by...

Cyclone pummels Australia's Queensland state

A powerful cyclone roared across the coastline of northeastern Australia late Wednesday and early Thursday, damaging homes, cutting off...

Invested in 'soft power,' India awaits Karzai visit

Indian leaders hope visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai this week will emphasize the safeguarding of mutual interests between the two...

Pakistan court bars release of U.S. official accused of double murder

A Pakistani judge Tuesday barred authorities from releasing an American Consulate official accused of double murder despite the U.S....

S. Korean livestock culling takes emotional toll on farmers

In this farming town an hour outside Seoul, the stalls sit eerily empty of animals, helter-skelter hoof marks in the mud the only reminder...

5 alleged Somali pirates arrive in South Korea to face trial

Five alleged Somali pirates arrived in South Korea on Sunday to face trial in the recent foiled hijacking of a cargo ship, charges that...

Afghan musician returns to keep a tradition alive

The master sits in a newly painted house on Kharabat Street, in the oldest quarter of this ancient city in the mountains.

Suicide bomber kills a top official in key Afghan province

A suicide bomber killed the deputy governor of strategic Kandahar province Saturday, raising fears that insurgents were reigniting an...

U.S. Embassy demands release of diplomat held by Pakistan in shooting deaths

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on Saturday demanded that Pakistani authorities release an American diplomat who faces murder charges in the...

U.S. Consulate staffer faces murder charges in Pakistan

Pakistani authorities in Lahore have arrested a U.S. Consulate employee who shot and killed two men he said he thought were going to rob...

Suicide bombing at Afghan supermarket kills 8

In a grim demonstration of insurgents' ability to strike even in tightly guarded districts, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a...

Obama overrated India's progress, analysts say

During his State of the Union address this week, President Obama urged Americans to reboot the country's struggling economy through...

U.S. consulate employee shoots dead 2 armed men in Pakistan, police say

An employee of the U.S. consulate in Lahore shot and killed two armed Pakistani men on a motorcycle Thursday in what the employee told...

South Korea may have overplayed hand against pirates, critics say

The South Korean government's pledge to get tougher on piracy and its self-congratulatory remarks after a military raid last week that freed...

Afghan parliament sworn in despite Karzai's opposition

President Hamid Karzai, acting under heavy Western pressure, inaugurated Afghanistan's new parliament Wednesday but made plain his pique...

India's Jaipur Literature Festival is one for the books

It's been called the greatest literary show on Earth, a thinking person's carnival. The Jaipur Literature Festival, which wrapped up...

Chinese pianist denies White House tune was politically motivated

If the significance of the tune that pianist Lang Lang played at last week's state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao escaped the...

Ex-Pakistani spy Colonel Imam dies in captivity

A retired Pakistani intelligence agent regarded as an architect behind the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan died after being held...

In Beijing, car ownership rules drive auto sales

Nothing like being told you can't to make you want.

Illegal religious structures spread through India

They struck shortly after dawn on a weekday morning this month, taking bulldozers, backhoes and sledgehammers to the Noor Masjid...

Marines pay a price trying to secure an Afghan hot spot

Marines tell of snipers who fire from "murder holes" cut into mud-walled compounds. Fighters who lie in wait in trenches dug around rough...