Asia News

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese capital spending in November barely slowed from record heights despite curbs on lending, showing that the central bank's task in keeping the economy from overheating remains formidable.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States demanded Thursday that Malaysia provide fair treatment to five leaders of a rights group held under a security law that allows for indefinite detention without trial.

DILI (AFP) - Australia's newly-elected prime minister Kevin Rudd arrived in the East Timorese capital Dili on Friday for a lightning visit to meet leaders and his nation's troops, an AFP correspondent saw.

EDINBURGH (AFP) - British, US and other allied defense ministers gathered here Friday to start crafting a five-year strategy to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and to press for more NATO troops.

SEOUL (AFP) - The suspect in a military weapons theft which sparked a presidential election security alert was a depressed loner who acted on the spur of the moment, South Korean police say.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Legendary film director Steven Spielberg has appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao for a second time to use China's influence over Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan have peaked this year at about 26,000, as officials tried to push NATO countries to take on more security responsibility, while keeping enough U.S. forces there to counter the stubborn insurgency.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Thursday launched a public-private partnership to promote an independent and fair judicial system in Afghanistan, which has been battered by decades of war and turmoil.

EDINBURGH, Scotland - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday pushed European allies for more troops to re-energize efforts in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency has increased its attacks in the 18 months since NATO took command of the war.

BALI, Indonesia - European nations threatened Thursday to boycott U.S.-sponsored climate talks next month unless the Bush administration compromises and agrees to a "road map" for reducing greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Pervez Musharraf will end emergency rule on Saturday as promised, but first he will amend the constitution to protect his decisions from court review, Pakistan's attorney general said Thursday.

HYDERABAD, India - Two men attacked an 80-year-old, self-proclaimed holy man in southern India and chopped off his right leg, apparently believing it had magical powers, police said Thursday.

GWIDEOK, South Korea - Lee Myung-ja wields a sharpened metal prod as she prepares to take another plunge into the clear ocean waters. Lead weights around her waist will help her reach the sea floor 65 feet below the surface.

BEIJING - Sirens sounded and students stood at attention Thursday to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's notorious wartime massacre of civilians in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

SEOUL, South Korea - A team of U.S. Coast Guard experts arrived in South Korea on Thursday to help with the country's worst oil spill, as hundreds of vessels struggled in bad weather to contain the disaster for a seventh day.

QUETTA, Pakistan - Two suicide bombings killed three members of Pakistan's security forces in the southwestern city of Quetta on Thursday, state television reported.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court's seven-year sentence against a Korean-American convicted of spying for North Korea.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian authorities arrested five ethnic Indian activists Thursday under a security law that allows indefinite detention without trial, a lawyer said.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A civilian car hit a freshly planted land mine in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing six people and wounding six others, and Taliban militants beheaded a woman they accused of spying and her grandson, officials said.

TOKYO - Japan said Thursday that Russia seized four Japanese fishing boats in disputed waters between the two countries, calling the detention unacceptable and demanding an explanation from Moscow.

ADELAIDE, Australia - Australian police applied Thursday for a court order to limit the movements of an al-Qaida supporter after his release from prison this month, an official said.

GAUHATI, India - A bomb tore through a moving train in India's remote northeast Thursday, killing five passengers and wounding four others, officials said. A little-known militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnamese authorities released a French activist who was arrested after preparing pro-democracy pamphlets, making her the fourth foreign citizen released this week after being investigated for suspected terrorism.

TOKYO - The age-old animosity between cats and mice could be a thing of the past with genetically modified mice that Japanese scientists say show no fear and shed new light on mammal behavior.

SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korean soldiers engaged in a minor scuffle amid military talks Thursday over the two countries' long-running dispute on their sea border.

BALI, Indonesia - The United States insisted Wednesday it was taking steps to tackle rising temperatures and that many of its actions to promote energy efficiency and switch to cleaner technologies were going unnoticed by the rest of the world.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban appointed a judge and a police chief and drove through town in stolen police trucks. They oversaw dozens of heroin labs, using the profits to fund their insurgency.

BEIJING - President Hu Jintao congratulated China's military and scientists at a ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the successful launch of a moon probe.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's leader said Wednesday he asked Beijing to allow greater democracy in the southern Chinese territory after more than half the population said it supported direct elections by 2012.