A top Afghan peace negotiator said he was cautiously optimistic about prospects for reconciliation with the Taliban and that all sides now realized a military solution to the war was not possible.

The body of a woman, whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India, arrived back in New Delhi on Sunday and was cremated at a private ceremony.

An alliance of Pakistani clerics will hold demonstrations across the country against the killings of polio eradication campaign workers, leaders said on Thursday, as the death toll from attacks this week rose to nine.

The daughter of the South Korea's former military ruler appeared to be leading in Wednesday's presidential vote, putting her on track to become the country's first woman head of state although her narrow advantage meant the race was set t

North Korea may soon witness the birth of the fourth generation of its hereditary dictatorship as television pictures showed that the wife of the country's leader appeared to be heavily pregnant.

North Korea has extended the window for a widely condemned long-range rocket launch by a week after discovering a "technical deficiency", the isolated state's news agency said on Monday.

North Korea's new young leader is using an imminent rocket launch to bolster his prestige internally and crack down on dissent amid signs the transition of power is not going as smoothly as planned, a top South Korean official said on Friday.

Residents in the southern Philippines buried their dead on Friday even as rescue workers continued scouring remote areas for survivors of Typhoon Bopha, the nation's strongest storm this year, which killed 418 people and left nearly as many missi

Police in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on Thursday, a move which could raise tensions further

The Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hunt down Osama bin Laden started a hunger strike in his jail cell this week to protest against his living conditions, prison officials said on Thursday.

Japan warned on Monday that a row over the South China Sea could directly influence "peace and stability" in Asia as the Philippines publicly disagreed with Cambodia over the contentious territorial issue at a regional summit.

Japan dissolved parliament's lower house on Friday for a December 16 election that is likely to return the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to power with a conservative former prime minister at the helm.

China's ruling Communist Party unveiled an older, conservative leadership line-up on Thursday that appears unlikely to take the drastic action needed to tackle pressing issues like social unrest, environmental degradation and corruption.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Tuesday urged Japanese parliamentarians to visit Tibet, and for China to investigate the dozens of self-immolations by Tibetans.

In 1981, five years after his death, China's ruling Communist Party began to save history from Mao Zedong.

China's second stealth fighter jet that was unveiled this week is part of a program to transform China into the top regional military power, an expert on Asian security said on Friday.

Isolated for decades, impoverished and landlocked, Laos is not an obvious choice for investors.

China reshuffled its top military ranks on Tuesday, weeks before a once-in-a-decade generational leadership change which sources said would see the outgoing air force commander promoted to vice-chairman of the military's top decision-making body.

China's ruling Communist Party has dropped its strongest hint yet that it will move in the direction of reform, removing a once standard reference to late leader Mao Zedong in statements ahead of a generational leadership transition.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday that presidential elections in 2014 when his term will end would be on time, despite a continuing insurgency and concerns about a simultaneous NATO combat troop exit.

U.S. policy toward North Korea has made the Korean peninsula the most dangerous place on the planet because a "spark" there could ignite a nuclear war, a senior North Korean official told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.

A Cambodian court jailed a 71-year-old radio broadcaster and land-rights campaigner for 20 years on Monday after finding him guilty of leading an anti-state rebellion, a verdict condemned by activists as the latest crackdown on human rights.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda appointed as finance minister on Monday a veteran lawmaker expected to follow his line on budget reform and currency intervention in a new cabinet unveiled ahead of an election due in months.

The biggest partner in Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's shaky coalition formally withdrew on Friday over big-ticket economic reforms that have cheered investors but sparked nationwide protests.

China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping held on Wednesday his first talks with a foreign official since vanishing from the public eye nearly two weeks ago, telling U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta he wanted to advance ties with the United States.

China moved quickly on Wednesday to snuff out anti-Japan protests after days of angry demonstrations over a territorial dispute forced Japanese businesses to shut their doors and threatened an economic backlash.

Major Japanese firms have shuttered factories in China and urged expatriate workers on Monday to stay indoors after angry protests flared over a territorial dispute that threatened to hurt trade ties between Asia's two biggest economies.

Six Chinese surveillance ships briefly entered waters near disputed islands claimed by Tokyo and Beijing on Friday, raising tensions between Asia's two biggest economies to their highest level since 2010.

A series of earthquakes has hit south-west China, leaving at least 43 people dead and 150 injured, state-run media say.

A Pakistani court adjourned on Thursday a bail hearing for a Christian girl accused of defaming Islam, prompting human rights activists to make fresh calls for her release in a case that has drawn renewed criticism of the country's anti-blasphemy