SANAA, Yemen -- Jaber Elbaneh is one of the world's most-wanted terrorism suspects. In 2003, the U.S. government indicted him, posted a $5 million reward for his capture and distributed posters bearing photos of him around the globe.
TOKYO -- As the Bush administration inches toward a deal to reward North Korea for retreating from its nuclear ambitions, the odd man out in the negotiations is Japan, the closest ally of the United States in Asia.
For people pinned in the wreckage after catastrophes such as this week's earthquake in China, a successful rescue often marks the beginning, not the end, of the danger.
The Bush administration said yesterday it will restart food aid to North Korea and provide it with more than 500,000 tons of food -- the largest one-year amount since 1999.
Southeast Asian countries are scrambling to demonstrate that they can lead the international effort to assist cyclone victims in neighboring Burma, with a meeting planned for Monday at which foreign ministers will confront their Burmese counterpart over the government's response to the crisis.
DUJIANGYAN, China, May 16 -- Heavy earth-moving equipment on Friday rolled up to the rubble of buildings decimated by this week's massive earthquake and began digging in earnest, as the race to find survivors shifted to a race to control disease from thousands of decomposing bodies still trapped.
CHENGDU, China, May 16 -- Eight is an auspicious number in Chinese tradition, and 2008 was supposed to be a joyful year, a time for celebrating at the Beijing Olympics and basking in international recognition of the country's tremendous progress under the careful leadership of the Communist Party.
Most ambassadors gain real influence only after years of working Washington's corridors of power -- and often only with the help of expensive lobbying firms. But Husain Haqqani, the ambassador-designate from Pakistan, already knows almost everyone who counts.
MIANYANG, China, May 16 -- Thousands of stunned peasants streamed out of devastated mountain villages in search of food and shelter Thursday, transformed into homeless refugees by the violent earthquake that ravaged central China on Monday.
JAIPUR, India, May 15 -- Down dusty alleys in a neighborhood of Bangladeshi migrant workers, police detectives searched house to house Thursday for suspects in the coordinated bombings that tore through this historic city two days ago.
FUXIN, China, May 14 -- The Chinese government accelerated its massive rescue-and-recovery operation Wednesday, dispatching hundreds of busloads of civilian rescue teams, paramilitary police and youthful volunteers toward earthquake-ravaged regions in a vivid demonstration of the Communist Party's...
BANGKOK, May 14 -- Burmese military authorities have agreed to let 160 aid workers from four Asian countries assist its struggling cyclone relief effort, aid officials said Wednesday, the government's first acknowledgment that it needs foreign expertise.
JAIPUR, India, May 15 -- With a dawn-to-dusk curfew stopping everything but funerals a day after seven bombs exploded in this ancient walled city, police and community leaders were hopeful they could prevent an outbreak of communal violence between the local Hindu majority and Muslim minority.
ZIPINGPU, China, May 14 -- The road leading to the epicenter of Monday's massive earthquake still wasn't clear of obstacles, but stretches of it had been transformed into major staging areas. As workers arrived to check the safety of an ancient dam, soldiers and rescue teams massed before heading to...
UNITED NATIONS -- From Burma's remote jungle capital of Naypyidaw, the image of life that emerges in official reports for the government's military rulers appears sunny. Economic growth in Burma has reached about 13 percent annually over the past five years, they say. Literacy is also soaring, with...
COLORADO SPRINGS, May 13 -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates implored the U.S. military Tuesday to prepare more for fighting future wars against insurgents and militias such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than spending so much time and money preparing for conventional conflicts.
JAIPUR, May 14 -- Seven bombs exploded Tuesday night in a crowded and ancient section of the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur, killing at least 60 people and seriously injuring scores of others, officials said.
QINGYANG, China, May 14 -- When the deadliest earthquake to hit China in three decades struck, the little village of Qingyang had the misfortune of being just east of the epicenter. Now, it will never be the same.
BEIJING, May 13 -- The Olympic torch will be carried through quake-ravaged Sichuan province on schedule next month, but China is scaling back celebrations along the route out of respect for earthquake victims and will observe a minute of silence each morning before the torch relay proceeds, offic...
BANGKOK, May 12 -- The head of the U.S. Pacific Command flew into Burma on Monday aboard the first U.S. military aid flight, to press for a full-scale international relief operation for victims of Cyclone Nargis. Facing mounting international pressure to open their country's borders, Burmese offi...
BEIJING, May 13 -- A powerful earthquake hit central China on Monday, killing nearly 10,000 people, as schools and other buildings collapsed across eight provinces and tremors shook buildings as far away as Bangkok.
VIENNA -- At least 40 developing countries from the Persian Gulf region to Latin America have recently approached U.N. officials here to signal interest in starting nuclear power programs, a trend that concerned proliferation experts say could provide the building blocks of nuclear arsenals in so...
BANGKOK, May 11 -- An estimated 1.5 million Burmese are on the brink of a "massive public health catastrophe," the British charity Oxfam warned Sunday, as survivors of Cyclone Nargis poured out of the devastated Irrawaddy Delta into regional towns in search of water, food and other help.
When North Korean businessman Ho Jin Yun first caught the attention of German customs police in 2002, he was on a continental buying spree with a shopping list that seemed as random as it was long.
TOKYO, May 9 -- The two economic giants of Asia courted each other this week during a five-day visit to Japan by Chinese President Hu Jintao that played down wartime grudges and played up pragmatic cooperation.
President Bush plans to call Chinese President Hu Jintao in coming days to seek his help pressing the Burmese government to accept more disaster assistance, U.S. officials said yesterday, after a lower-level diplomatic push this week yielded Burmese permission for one U.S. relief plane, which is...
What makes local news in the rest of the world? What do people debate, celebrate, worry about and condemn from day to day? Headlines, a feature to appear in the newspaper and at www.washingtonpost.com/world, will offer a regular window on communities, their values and their obsessions.
BANGKOK, May 10 -- Burma's military government said Friday it had cleared a U.S. military relief flight for cyclone victims, declaring itself ready to accept aid from "all quarters." But the junta reaffirmed that it alone will handle distribution, without foreign workers, a restriction that inter...
BANGKOK, May 8 -- Two U.N. transport planes loaded with cyclone relief supplies landed in Burma on Thursday, as international leaders heightened pressure on the country's secretive military government to fully embrace foreign help. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried unsuccessfully to telephone...
BANGKOK, May 8 -- Two U.N. transport planes loaded with cyclone relief supplies landed in Burma on Thursday, as international leaders heightened pressure on the country's secretive military government to fully embrace foreign help. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried unsuccessfully to telephone...
BEIJING, May 8 -- The Dalai Lama's senior envoy said Thursday that he used a recent resumption of talks with China to urge an end to repression in Tibet, the release of Tibetan prisoners and suspension of "patriotic education," in which Buddhist monks are required to disown the Dalai Lama.
BANGKOK, May 7 -- Small quantities of drinking water, food, tents and other vital supplies reached Burma's devastated Irrawaddy Delta region Wednesday, as bodies floated uncollected in swollen rivers and sea-flooded rice paddies five days after a cyclone roared through.
NEW DELHI, May 7 -- A brief comment by President Bush about the role of India in the world food crisis has set off a firestorm of criticism in this country.
BANGKOK, May 6 -- The number of dead and missing in the Burma cyclone soared past 60,000 Tuesday amid signs the toll will rise even higher, as much of the disaster zone remained flooded by seawater, threatened by disease and out of reach of an international relief operation that is taking shape.
Laura Bush condemned the military government in Burma yesterday for its "inept" response to a deadly weekend cyclone, marking an unusual foray by the president's spouse into a high-profile foreign policy crisis.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 5 -- Taiwanese prosecutors announced Monday that Vice Premier Chiou I-jen is suspected of corruption in connection with a diplomatic scandal involving an alleged attempt to defraud the government of nearly $30 million.
BANGKOK, May 6 -- The death toll from a 120-mph cyclone that tore through Burma last weekend has reached 15,000, with 10,000 killed in just one town, a top official told the nation Tuesday.
BEIJING -- Each morning, it is the same. She rises and heads to her computer to write, to pierce the silence that otherwise shrouds events these days in Tibet, her homeland.
TOKYO, May 5 -- Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children's Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning.
The Burmese government has asked United Nations agencies and foreign governments for assistance in emergency relief efforts. Many countries are funneling disaster aid through U.N. agencies and the Red Cross.
BEIJING, May 5 -- Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama resumed talks Sunday for the first time in nearly a year and agreed to hold another round of discussions at a later date, sources told the New China News Agency.
CAVELOSSIM, India He's the rugged type, with sculpted arm muscles. He rides a motorcycle and wears a trendy tank top, wraparound sunglasses and slicked-back hair. There's only one problem: His skin color is a few shades too dark. His fair-skinned love interest won't even accept his offer of a rose.
TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 3 -- Two middlemen entrusted with almost $30 million in Taiwanese government funds as part of a secret effort to forge diplomatic relations with Papua New Guinea made off with the money and are refusing to give it back, according to officials in Taiwan.
HONG KONG, May 2 -- Despite an intermittent drizzle, tens of thousands of Hong Kong citizens and visitors donned celebratory red and turned out with Chinese flags Friday to cheer on the Olympic torch relay and drown out demonstrators.
BEIJING, May 3 -- Representatives of the Dalai Lama are scheduled to arrive in China on Saturday to begin informal talks with their Chinese counterparts on the unrest in Tibet.
HONG KONG, May 1 -- Actress and activist Mia Farrow was allowed into Hong Kong on Thursday, a day before the Olympic torch winds through a territory where most citizens support the Beijing Olympics and where officials have denied entry to protesters hoping to exploit the controversial relay.
KABUL, April 30 -- Hundreds of Afghan intelligence agents on Wednesday raided the hideout of fighters with suspected links to a recent assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai, as the war against the Taliban intensified in the Afghan capital.
KUMHARPADA, India -- Hundreds of barefoot villagers left their chores and ran toward the giant cloud of dust blown by a descending helicopter. When the dust settled, a young bespectacled man with dimples and a shy smile stepped out in crisp white tunic and pants, waving to the people. The excited...
MOSCOW, April 30 -- Long-standing tensions between Russia and Georgia over two separatist regions in Georgia have flared dangerously in recent days with each country accusing the other of provocative actions that risk war.
NEW DELHI -- Every morning, Hindu devotees haul buckets of fresh, creamy milk into this neighborhood temple, then close their eyes and bow in prayer as the milk is used to bathe a Hindu deity. At the foot of the statue, they leave small baskets of bananas, coconuts, incense sticks and marigolds.
Senior Air Force officers proposed using 10-to-15-kiloton nuclear bombs against targets in Communist China in 1958, in the event that Beijing blockaded the Taiwan Strait, but President Dwight D. Eisenhower ruled out that option, according to a newly declassified Pentagon document.
BEIJING, April 29 -- A Chinese court Tuesday sentenced 30 people to jail for alleged participation in last month's deadly rioting in Lhasa, the first convictions following an aggressive hunt for the leaders of anti-government protests that swept through Tibetan areas on China's western plateau.
BEIJING, April 28 -- At an airport in northeast China, a young security guard recently spotted a foreign airline passenger with shaving cream in his carry-on bag. "No," he said sternly, wagging his finger like a cross schoolteacher. "No, no, no."
BEIJING, April 28 -- A speeding express train derailed and crashed into an oncoming regional train early Monday in eastern China, throwing a dozen carriages down an embankment and killing at least 70 people, authorities said.
BEIJING, April 26 -- Less than 24 hours after China offered to meet with an envoy of the Dalai Lama, state-controlled news media on Saturday kept up their campaign of denunciations of the Tibetan spiritual leader.
The Bush administration and Congress have been caught flat-footed by rapidly escalating global food prices and are scrambling to respond to a crisis that they increasingly view as a threat to U.S. national security, according to government officials, congressional staffers and human rights experts.
BEIJING, April 25 -- The Chinese government said Friday that it would meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, in an abrupt change in course that follows intense international pressure on Communist Party leaders to open such a dialogue.
The Bush administration charged Thursday that a secret Syrian nuclear reactor was within weeks or months of completion before Israel bombed it on Sept. 6 and demanded that North Korea and Syria publicly acknowledge their collusion on a facility that could have produced plutonium for a nuclear wea...
BEIJING, April 24 -- Tibetan government authorities warned Thursday of severe consequences for anyone who spreads rumors that "excite popular feelings," as the region braces for the arrival of the Olympic torch sometime in the next couple of weeks.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 24 -- A top Taliban leader in Pakistan with links to al-Qaeda has ordered his followers to stop attacking Pakistani forces in the country's troubled northwest region as he negotiates a deal with the new government to end months of political violence, according to Taliba...
A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea's nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be...
LONDON, April 22 -- More than 100 million people are being driven deeper into poverty by a "silent tsunami" of sharply rising food prices, which have sparked riots around the world and threaten U.N.-backed feeding programs for 20 million children, the top U.N. food official said Tuesday.
BEIJING, April 22 -- After weeks of expressing outrage at Western protests over Tibet and the Olympics, officials here have begun tempering their rhetoric in recent days and telling Chinese people to be "rational" about their response.
TOKYO, April 21 - North Korea told the United States in December it has produced a total of around 30 kg (66 lbs) of plutonium, about 20 kg less than what the United States estimates, a Japanese newspaper reported on Monday.
BEIJING, April 20 -- China has spent billions of dollars to fulfill its commitment to stage a grand Olympics. Athletes will compete in world-class stadiums. New highways and train lines crisscross Beijing. China built the world's largest airport terminal to welcome an expected 500,000 foreign vis...
MANILA -- Maria Susana Espinoza wanted only two children. But it was not until after the birth of her fourth child in six years that she learned any details about birth control.
President Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged patience yesterday in nuclear talks with North Korea, arguing that recent concessions proposed by the United States could lead to tangible progress in stalled negotiations with Pyongyang.
BEIJING, April 19 -- A small knot of Chinese protesters demonstrated outside the French Embassy on Saturday, denouncing calls for Tibetan independence and venting anger at those who tried to grab the Olympic torch from a disabled Chinese athlete during the Paris stretch of the relay.
Suicide bombers conducted 658 attacks around the world last year, including 542 in U.S.-occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, according to data compiled by U.S. government experts.
BEIJING, April 17 -- Ratcheting up a campaign against what it calls Western media bias, China demanded a "sincere apology" from CNN for comments made by an on-air personality who called the Chinese "goons and thugs" last week.
NEW DELHI, April 17 -- Protected by thousands of security personnel, the most controversial Olympic torch in history passed through India on Thursday, turning the heart of New Delhi into an impenetrable fortress for the Tibetan protesters who tried to get near the flame.
