Asia News

CANBERRA (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged parliament Tuesday to approve legislation aiming to slash carbon pollution by up to 25 percent by 2020 ahead of next month's global talks on climate change. Full Story »

BARIYAPUR (AFP) - Up to a million Hindu devotees gathered Tuesday in a tiny village in Nepal to witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a mass sacrifice that has drawn widespread criticism. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - The White House braced for a tough sell of President Barack Obama's long-awaited decision on whether to commit tens of thousands of new U.S. forces to the stalemated war in Afghanistan, even as the president met Monday with top advisers for possibly the last major deliberations before an announcement. Full Story »

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo placed two southern provinces under a state of emergency Tuesday after gunmen killed at least 24 people in an attack on an election caravan. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hosts Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday for talks considered critical to showing Washington's commitment to New Delhi in a region where its rivals, China and Pakistan, are U.S. priorities. Full Story »

BANGKOK (AFP) - Former Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej, who was forced from office in 2008 for starring in television cooking shows, died of liver cancer Tuesday at the age of 74, associates said. Full Story »

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Last year's Mumbai attacks ruptured a hopeful peace dialogue between arch-foes India and Pakistan and thrust their relations back into a bitter impasse that neither side seems able to break. Full Story »

MANILA (AFP) - Police pulled bullet-ridden bodies from shallow graves on Tuesday as troops hunted down the gunmen who massacred at least 22 people in one of the Philippines' most brutal explosions of political violence. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

WAGAH, Pakistan (AFP) - As he watched elite Pakistani troops go through their paces on the border, Fateh Ali insisted he wants peace with Pakistan's giant neighbour, a year since India's worst terror outrage. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

BEIJING - Renowned Chinese literature translator Yang Xianyi has died at the age of 94, China's official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

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

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. Full Story »

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. Full Story »

KABUL - Bombings and shootings killed 12 people across Afghanistan, including four American troops and three children, as President Barack Obama convened his war council again Monday to fine-tune a strategy to respond to the intransigent violence. Full Story »