DHARAMSALA (Reuters) - Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama voiced his support on Wednesday for an ethnic minority in China's troubled Xinjiang province, risking worsening further his fraught relations with Beijing.
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's main opposition party will have to exclude its leader, detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, if it wants to continue to operate and run in upcoming elections, under the terms of a law made public on Wednesday.
CANBERRA/JAKARTA (Reuters) - A suspected mastermind of the Bali bombings was killed in a police raid in Indonesia in the latest blow to an Islamist militant movement in the world's most populous Muslim country.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Egypt's most prestigious seat of Islamic learning al Azhar, died of a heart attack on Wednesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia, religious officials at al-Azhar said. He was 81.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly may soon visit China for the first time in four years for talks that could pave the way for a return to nuclear negotiations and win aid to prop up his state's broken economy.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to sign over $10 billion worth of deals with India during the visit of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later this week, Putin's deputy, Sergei Sobyanin, told Reuters in an interview.
MANSEHRA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist militants attacked the office of a U.S.-based Christian aid agency in Pakistan on Wednesday with a bomb and gunfire, killing five members of staff, police and the agency said.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ten men captured by Russian security forces in a raid that killed a militant leader last week have been arrested as suspects in a deadly November train bombing, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo vowed on Wednesday to oversee a smooth transfer of power, allaying fears soldiers may intervene in May elections after she installed a loyal general as army chief.
BISHKEK (Reuters) - U.S. General David Petraeus met leaders in Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday, a day after the United States said it would build an anti-terrorism centre for the strategic Central Asian nation near Afghanistan.
