South Asia News - AFP

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Police ended a day-long siege at a mosque in Indian Kashmir late Monday, rescuing the hostages and shooting dead the gunmen who were holding them, the Press Trust of India reported.

COLOMBO (AFP) - The abduction of a newborn boy from a Sri Lankan hospital ended happily on Christmas Eve with police finding the baby after a search that kept the nation on tenterhooks.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two bombs, one of them hidden under a dead body, exploded near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and killed four people, police said.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's opposition Hindu nationalist party, ousted from power nationally in 2004, said it was on the "comeback" trail after its hawkish candidate's massive win in western Gujarat state.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Indian doctor who was arrested in Queensland in relation to two failed bomb attacks in Britain but later released said he would only return to Australia if authorities assured him he would be safe.

COLOMBO (AFP) - Torrential rains have driven more than 175,000 people from their homes in Sri Lanka, authorities said.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner put a positive spin on French ties with India ahead of a visit next month by President Nicolas Sarkozy but admitted no deals would be signed.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia are surfing the wave of another long winning run and targeting their 15th consecutive Test victory -- one short of their record -- against India in the opening Boxing Day cricket Test.

AUCKLAND (AFP) - New Zealand's cricketers have been told to shape up or face the axe in the one-day series against Bangladesh which starts on Wednesday as they look to recover from a torrid past nine weeks.

KABUL (AFP) - Prime Minister Romano Prodi pledged Italy's long-term support for Afghanistan in talks with President Hamid Karzai Sunday during a visit to meet his troops in a NATO-led force fighting an insurgency.

LARKANA, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistan's bitter election campaign heated up again Sunday as the country's main opposition leaders accused President Pervez Musharraf of trying to rig the vote two weeks from now.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Controversial Hindu nationalist party leader Narendra Modi swept back to power in India's religiously divided Gujarat state Sunday in what was called a national victory over the rival Congress Party.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) - Nepal is to abolish its monarchy after rebels Sunday agreed to rejoin the government in a deal to end the country's long-running peace deadlock, a senior minister said.

COLOMBO (AFP) - Tamil rebels and Sri Lankan troops fought fierce battles in the north at the weekend, leaving several combatants dead or wounded, according to conflicting statements from both sides Sunday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban shot dead seven men, two of them truck drivers for a Western security firm, who had been kidnapped in the past week, police and a rebel spokesman said Sunday.

CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFP) - A petite village woman with dark henna on her hands lies wrapped in a blue sheet at the best hospital around -- a British military facility in southern Afghanistan.

SEENIGAMA, Sri Lanka (AFP) - Sri Lanka at the weekend revived an ancient ritual of offering the first cinnamon harvest to the gods, three years after a devastating tsunami wiped out centuries-old plantations here.

GIR, India (AFP) - Success in saving the rare Asiatic lion in India has in turn created new challenges to the king of the jungle in its last natural habitat, as problems with human encroachment and poaching mount.

SYDNEY (AFP) - India will bank on their big batting four to notch up the runs and claim a historic first series win in Australia, starting with the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - Five worshippers were being held hostage inside a mosque for a second day by Muslim rebels in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir as security forces sought to end siege peacefully.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - A deal bringing Nepal's Maoists back into the government in return for an accord to abolish the monarchy was welcomed by analysts who said the peace process appeared to be "back on track".

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's health ministry said it was still investigating whether there was human transmission in the country's first death from bird flu.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistan's military said that the death toll from a suicide attack on an army convoy was up to nine, with 23 people wounded.

ASADABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - Afghan intelligence agents said they had detained a woman hiding a bomb-filled waistcoat of the type used in Taliban suicide attacks under her all-covering burqa.

MADRID (AFP) - Spanish troops will remain in Afghanistan as long "as necessary," Spain's defence minister Jose Antonio Alonso said in an interview.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - More than five billion dollars in US aid to Pakistan has often never reached the military units it was intended for to fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was instead diverted to other programs, the New York Times reported.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AFP) - Nepal's former Maoist rebels Sunday agreed to rejoin the government after striking a deal with political parties to end the country's long-running peace process deadlock, a senior minister said.

KABUL (AFP) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi held talks with President Hamid Karzai on Sunday, the latest leader to visit from a nation that has troops here fighting Afghanistan's growing insurgency.