Nepal's Maoist former rebels, trailing in last week's election, have called for an independent investigation into complaints of vote fraud, but they also signaled willingness to compromise to end political deadlock in the Himalayan nation.

Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead two Russian military instructors in the Yemeni capital on Tuesday, a Yemeni police source said.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign a security deal with the United States, the White House said, opening up the prospect of a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the strife-torn nation next year.

Fierce fighting to the east of Damascus has killed more than 160 people in the past two days as Syrian rebels struggle to break a months-long blockade by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, activists said on Sunday.

China has launched a broad investigation into safety at oil and gas pipelines, state media reported on Monday, as the death toll from an explosion at a Sinopec pipeline last week rose to 52.

Iran on curbing its nuclear program but he and other global leaders now have tough work ahead turning an interim accord into a comprehensive agreement.

Thousands of people protested in Tokyo on Thursday against a proposed secrets act that critics say would stifle information on issues such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

An explosion at a Sinopec Corp oil pipeline early on Friday killed 22 people in east China's Qingdao city, state media reported.

President Hamid Karzai triggered uncertainty about a vital security pact with the United States on Thursday by saying it should not be signed until after Afghanistan's presidential election next April, prompting the White House to insist on a yea

Major powers resumed talks on Wednesday on a preliminary agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program with the United States warning it would be "very hard" to clinch a breakthrough deal this week and Tehran flagging "red lines".

The text of a security pact between the United States and Afghanistan that sets out a military blueprint once Washington starts pulling out its troops after 2014 is unfinished a day before thousands of Afghan elders were due to start debating it.

Indonesia's froze a broad range of cooperation with Australia on Wednesday after reports that its neighbor had tried to eavesdrop on mobile phone conversations of top Indonesian officials, taking relations to their lowest point in 14 years.

Syria's chemical weapons could be processed and destroyed out at sea, say sources familiar with discussions at the international body in charge of eliminating the toxic arsenal.

Iranian parliamentarians gathered signatures on Tuesday to demand that the government carry on enriching uranium to levels of 20 percent, a move that could complicate nuclear talks between Iran and world powers in Geneva this week.

The cost of rebuilding houses, schools, roads and bridges in typhoon-devastated central Philippines could reach 250 billion pesos ($5.8 billion), making it likely that the government will seek cheap loans from development agencies, a senior official

The leaders of Indonesia and Australia traded punches on Tuesday in a row over alleged spying by Canberra, with both sides refusing to back down in a growing rift between the two often uneasy neighbors.

Qatar's construction industry is rife with abuse of migrant workers who are "treated like cattle" and live in squalid accommodations, Amnesty International said on Sunday while calling on world soccer's governing body to help with t

The United Nations expressed fear on Monday that some Philippine islands hit by a giant typhoon have not been reached 10 days after disaster struck and President Benigno Aquino said the scale of suffering "tempted him to despair".

A Boeing 737 airliner crashed on Sunday in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people on board and spotlighting the poor safety record of regional airlines that ply internal routes across the world's largest nation.

Slovenia's government won a confidence vote on Thursday over its efforts to avert an international bailout, even as the imminent cost of a bank clean-up risks tipping the euro zone country's finances over the edge.

Myanmar released 69 political prisoners on Friday in an amnesty the government described as an act of "loving kindness" in line with President Thein Sein's promise to free all prisoners of conscience by year-end.

The death toll from a powerful typhoon that swept the central Philippines nearly doubled overnight, reaching 4,000, as helicopters from a U.S. aircraft carrier and other naval ships began flying food, water and medical teams to ravaged regions.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino was under growing pressure on Thursday to speed up the distribution of food, water and medicine to desperate survivors of a powerful typhoon and to revive paralyzed local governments.

The killing of one of Pakistan's most wanted Islamic militants in a U.S. drone strike has exposed centuries-old rivalries within the group he led, the Pakistani Taliban, making the insurgency ever more unpredictable and probably more violent.

Deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Wednesday he was kidnapped by the Republican Guard and then held at a naval base the day before the military formally ousted him in July.

Desperation gripped Philippine islands devastated by Typhoon Haiyan as looting turned deadly on Wednesday and survivors panicked over delays in supplies of food, water and medicine, some digging up underground water pipes and smashing them open.

A U.S. aircraft carrier set sail for the Philippines on Tuesday to accelerate relief efforts after a typhoon killed an estimated 10,000 people in one coastal city alone, with fears the toll could rise sharply as rescuers reach more isolated towns.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back at U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry late on Tuesday and blamed divisions between Western powers for the failure of talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear program in Geneva last week.

For many of Japan's oldest nuclear refugees, all they want is to be allowed back to the homes they were forced to abandon. Others are ready to move away, severing ties to the ghost towns that remain in the shadow of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear

Dazed survivors of a super typhoon that swept through the central Philippines killing an estimated 10,000 people begged for help and scavenged for food, water and medicine on Monday, threatening to overwhelm military and rescue resources.