Asia News - AP

BEIJING - An American pastor checked into upscale hotels in the Olympics host city this week, filmed himself painting two of his rooms with slogans like "Beijing 2008 Our world Our nightmare" and then disappeared. Without paying.

BEIJING - A Chinese Islamic faction that has threatened to attack the Olympics released a new video warning Muslims to stay away from the Beijing games and avoid buses, trains, planes and buildings used by Chinese, a U.S. group that monitors militant organizations said Thursday.

TOKYO - An American nuclear-powered submarine leaked radiation for more than two years, releasing the bulk of the material in its home port of Guam and at Pearl Harbor, Japanese and U.S. officials said Thursday.

YANGON, Myanmar - A rare bird's-eye look at Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta shows the devastation still left from Cyclone Nargis — broken levies, flooded farm roads, the shattered remains of bamboo huts and trees strewn like matchsticks along the coast.

BEIJING - President Bush's Olympic odyssey started with a game of political one-upmanship Thursday, as his blunt critique of the host country prompted China to warn the U.S. president to stop meddling in its business.

Key dates from Pervez Musharraf's tenure as army chief and Pakistani president.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Hundreds of French troops have deployed to train and mentor Afghan security forces in a key southern province wracked by the Taliban-led insurgency, NATO said Thursday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's ruling coalition said Thursday it would seek the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf, alleging the U.S.-backed former general had "eroded the trust of the nation" and increasing pressure on him to resign.

KATMANDU, Nepal - Thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated in Nepal and India on Thursday, a day before the Olympics open in Beijing, demanding religious rights and saying China should not be allowed to host the games while its harsh rule over their homeland continues.

BEIJING - Text of a statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang in response to President Bush's speech, posted on the ministry's Web site Thursday and translated from Chinese by The Associated Press:

TOKYO - Police investigations of marijuana use have surged this year in Japan, the result in part of the easy availability of seeds on the Internet for home cultivation, authorities said Thursday, raising concerns in a country long considered immune from the drug abuse problems of Europe and the United States.

TOKYO - Japan accepted more than 200 Indonesian nurses into the country on Thursday, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.

BEIJING - South and North Korea will not march together in Friday's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A strong earthquake rattled Indonesia's eastern Sumbawa island early Thursday, damaging around 1,200 buildings and injuring at least five people, officials said.

BEIJING - At least two women who have protested being evicted from their homes ahead of the Olympics were taken to a police station amid ramped up efforts by activists to use the games to spotlight their causes.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A popular annual festival at a revered Roman Catholic church near the front lines of Sri Lanka's civil war has been canceled because the government and Tamil rebels have failed to recognize the area as a peace zone, officials said Thursday.

BEIJING - China has responded to President Bush's speech criticizing Beijing for repression, saying no one should interfere in other countries' internal affairs.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia's top opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday dismissed as "treacherous" a sodomy charge against him, but remained free on bail to campaign for a by-election to Parliament.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong deported three Chinese pro-democracy activists based in the United States after denying them entry to the territory, a local lawmaker said Thursday.

BANGKOK, Thailand - When illustrating America's close ties to Asia, never forget the elephants.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom signed and adopted a new constitution Thursday that allows multiparty elections and a number of other key democratic reforms after decades of authoritarian rule.

A day-by-day look at President Bush's trip to Asia:

ISTANBUL, Turkey - A Turkish news agency says several hand grenades have been thrown into a municipal building in Istanbul.

DHAKA, Bangladesh - A Bangladeshi lawyer who works as a human trafficking expert for the United Nations has been released on bail while she appeals a three-year jail sentence on extortion charges, a prison official said Thursday.

KHAR, Pakistan - An attack on a Pakistani military checkpost by some 200 pro-Taliban militants triggered intense fighting that killed 25 insurgents and two paramilitary soldiers near the Afghan border, security officials said Thursday.

LUCKNOW, India - A police official says a boat carrying people home from work capsized overnight in northern India killing 13 people.

KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO says that hundreds of French troops have been deployed to train and mentor Afghan security forces in southern Afghanistan.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea rejected a U.S. envoy's request to visit a joint-Korean industrial complex that he has criticized for exploiting workers, a South Korean official said Thursday.