Asia News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama has huddled with his war cabinet for what officials said could be the final time before he decides whether to dispatch tens of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan.

KATMANDU, Nepal - Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.

BEIJING (AFP) - Two men were executed in China on Tuesday for their roles in a contaminated milk powder scandal that led to the deaths of at least six infants and sickened up to 300,000, state media said.

AMPATUAN, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines placed two southern provinces and a city under emergency rule on Tuesday after gunmen killed 46 people in a brutal election-related massacre that has shocked the country.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani ground troops and attack helicopters launched a new operation against militants in its lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border on Tuesday, saying they killed at least 18 rebels.

BANGKOK - Samak Sundaravej, a firebrand right-wing politician and TV cooking show host who briefly served as Thailand's prime minister and considered himself a proxy of ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, died of cancer Tuesday. He was 74.

KABUL - A remote-controlled bomb hidden in a water truck exploded in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing three people including two children, the Interior Ministry said.

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Prosecutors called on Tuesday for the former Khmer Rouge prison chief to receive a long jail term for his role in the "Killing Fields" atrocities as they delivered final arguments in his trial.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - The Indian government on Tuesday presented to parliament the findings of a long-delayed inquiry into the 1992 demolition of a mosque which triggered religious riots that left thousands dead.

BEIJING - Renowned Chinese literature translator Yang Xianyi has died, China's official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. He was 94.

BEIJING - China executed two people Tuesday for their roles in a tainted milk powder scandal in which at least six children died and more than 300,000 became sick.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani troops killed 18 militants in a fresh offensive Tuesday against insurgents blamed for a wave of recent bombings in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Prosecutors in the genocide trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief demanded a lengthy jail term Tuesday, calling him the personification of ruthless efficiency in the killing of thousands of Cambodian prisoners.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's government took a key step toward passing legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions by negotiating a compromise deal with the opposition Liberal Party, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged lawmakers Tuesday to support the bill.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that groups of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday.

BEIJING - China will send two giant pandas to an Australian zoo this Friday as part of a joint research program.

BEIJING - A veteran dissident was sentenced to three years in prison after casting a spotlight on poorly built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children during China's massive earthquake last year — an apparent government attempt to squelch such information.

MELBOURNE, Australia - A kangaroo startled by a man walking his dog attacked the pair, pinning the pet underwater and slashing the owner in the abdomen with its hind legs. The Australian, Chris Rickard, was in stable condition Monday after the attack, which ended when the 49-year-old elbowed the kangaroo in the throat.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Rescuers plucked a woman from choppy waters Monday, some 25 hours after she jumped from a crowded ferry that sank in a storm off Indonesia's Sumatra island. At least 29 people drowned, and 20 others were missing.

SYDNEY - Conjoined Bangladeshi twins who were separated in a marathon surgery last week left intensive care on Monday and were adjusting well, hospital officials said.

HEGANG, China - The coal mine that exploded in northern China, killing 104, had too many workers underground in an effort to increase output, a government official said Monday, exposing the risks often taken to meet the country's insatiable energy demands.

GUANGZHOU, China - Hundreds of residents worried about property values and health risks protested Monday against the planned construction of a trash incinerator in the southern boomtown of Guangzhou.

KABUL - The U.S. on Monday agreed to hand out millions of dollars in development aid to provinces in Afghanistan that have eliminated or reduced the production of opium poppies, the raw ingredient in making heroin.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Gunfire hit the home of two American lecturers in Indonesia's western province of Aceh on Monday, but no one was injured.

CANBERRA, Australia - A man who blames the Church of Scientology for his brother's suicide added his voice Monday to calls for an Australia Senate inquiry into the religion.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's president signed a decree Monday calling for early elections, hoping to take advantage of his popularity after ending the country's 25-year civil war to win a new six-year term.

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine police searched for an American who escaped after allegedly killing a government official's son in a road-rage shooting — the second homicide case against him, officials said Monday.

BEIJING - Beijing on Monday criticized a U.S. government report that said Chinese spies are aggressively stealing American secrets, saying the report was "full of prejudice" and warning that it could damage US-China relations.

SYDNEY - A U.S. Navy serviceman was found not guilty Monday of sexually assaulting a prostitute at a brothel while on shore leave in Australia's biggest city.