Asia News Headlines

BANGKOK (AP) — The price of oil was knocked lower Friday by a combination of ample supplies and lukewarm demand.

BEIJING (AP) — China told a top North Korean envoy Friday it wants a peaceful, denuclearized Korean Peninsula, and said the emissary warned there is "no guarantee of peace" but that his country was willing to hold talks with all sides.

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares traded erratically Friday but European markets found their footing, a day after global stocks were routed by unexpectedly weak Chinese manufacturing and fears the Federal Reserve will start withdrawing its monetary stimulus.

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The 25,000 people at the soccer stadium and the millions more watching at home waited 90 minutes before the Australian evangelical preacher got to the message he had come to Communist-ruled Vietnam to deliver.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — President Barack Obama's speech on the use of drones to kill Islamic militants was well-received in two countries most affected by the strikes — Pakistan and Yemen — but criticism of the U.S. policy remains strong.

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stocks continued to retreat Friday after being routed the day before by unexpectedly weak Chinese manufacturing and fears the Federal Reserve will start withdrawing its monetary stimulus.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean police say a suicidal man jumping to his death killed a 5-year-old girl by falling on her as she walked with her parents outside the apartment building.

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Nepalese official says five climbers are missing and feared dead on the world's third highest mountain.

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Nepalese official says five climbers are missing and feared dead on the world's third highest mountain.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — An American citizen killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2011 was arrested by Pakistani authorities three years earlier but escaped after being released on bail, officials said Thursday.

BEIJING (AP) — A North Korean envoy, on the second day of his fence-mending visit to ally China, heeded Beijing's wishes by offering to renew nuclear disarmament talks, Chinese state media said.

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets staged a mild recovery Friday, a day after being routed by unexpectedly weak Chinese manufacturing and fears the Federal Reserve will start withdrawing its monetary stimulus.

TOKYO (AP) — Keeping the meltdown-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in northeastern Japan in stable condition requires a cast of thousands. Increasingly the plant's operator is struggling to find enough workers, a trend that many expect to worsen and hamper progress in the decades-long effort to safely decommission it.

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An 80-year-old Japanese man who began the year with his fourth heart operation became the oldest conqueror of Mount Everest on Thursday, a feat he called "the world's best feeling" even with an 81-year-old Nepalese climber not far behind him.

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) — American Samoa plans to take away frequent flier miles from government workers who travel on behalf of the U.S. territory and use the loyalty points to help medical patients and students travel off the islands when necessary.

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer on Thursday became the oldest person to reach the top of Mount Everest — although his record may last only a few days. An 81-year-old Nepalese man, who held the previous record, plans his own ascent next week.

LONDON (AP) — Financial markets around the world were roiled Thursday after Japanese stocks suffered their biggest slide since the country was hit by a devastating tsunami more than two years ago.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A large bomb hidden by the Taliban in a rickshaw exploded as a police vehicle passed in southwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing 11 policemen and two civilians, police said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian authorities detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers Thursday, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A Taliban car bomb targeting a police vehicle killed 11 policemen and one civilian Thursday in an area of southwest Pakistan wracked by Islamic militancy and a violent separatist insurgency, police said.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's financial markets gyrated wildly Thursday, underscoring the vulnerability of its economy to a loss of investor confidence as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attempts shock monetary easing to end two decades of stagnation.

SINGAPORE (AP) — The parents of an American software engineer found dead in his Singapore apartment last year have left the city-state before the end of a coroner's inquest. They say they have lost faith in the process and their lawyer says they will push for a U.S. congressional investigation.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Gunmen kidnapped the father of Afghanistan's national cricket team captain near his home in an eastern city, officials said Thursday.