AFP - The Thai army early Monday began its operation to forcibly return thousands of ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers to communist Laos despite international protests, an army official said.
AP - Thailand early Monday morning launched an operation to close a refugee camp and send some 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to Laos, despite concerns about their safety.
AP - Iranian security forces fired on stone-throwing protesters in the center of the capital Sunday in one of the bloodiest confrontations in months, opposition Web sites and witnesses said. At least five people were killed.
AFP - More than 125 whales have died in two separate strandings in New Zealand, conservation officials said Monday.
AP - A Nigerian man's claim that his attempt to blow up a U.S. plane originated with al-Qaida's network inside Yemen deepened concerns that instability in the Middle Eastern country is providing the terror group with a base to train and recruit militants for operations against the West and the U.S.
AFP - A Chinese cargo ship and its crew of 25 were rescued from Somali pirates Monday, state media said, after their kidnappers collected a ransom of 3.5 million dollars (2.2 million euros).
AFP - Air travellers worldwide faced tightened security Sunday as authorities ramped up efforts to prevent attacks in the wake of a failed bid to blow up an airliner over the United States.
AFP - A bomb attack killed a US service member in Afghanistan, NATO said Sunday, doubling the number of American soldiers killed in the country this year compared with 2008, according to an AFP tally.
AFP - More than 20 pilot whales died in a mass beaching in New Zealand Sunday while another 40 were successfully herded back to sea, conservation officials said.
AP - A suicide bomber targeted a large gathering of Shiite Muslims in the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, killing five people and wounding 80 — a rare sectarian attack in an area police said has little history of militant violence.
AP - In the world of competitive paper airplane throwing, a 20-second flight is exceptional, 25 or better is world class.
AP - A passenger ferry sank in the northern Philippines in a second sea disaster in three days. Six bodies, including three children, were recovered and at least 22 people were missing Sunday.
AP - An American missionary is believed to be in North Korean custody after he illegally entered the communist nation on Christmas Day in an attempt to call attention to the reclusive country's human rights conditions, an activist said Sunday.
AP - NATO says an American serviceman has been killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
AP - The young Afghan woman leaves home every morning with her face and figure hidden by a burqa. At her office, she dons a police uniform, grabs a pistol and starts knocking in doors, looking for drug dealers and Taliban sympathizers.
AP - Buddhist monks in orange robes chanted on a Thai beach, an Indonesian mother mourned her children at a mass grave, and a man scattered flowers in now-placid waters Saturday to commemorate the 230,000 killed five years ago when a tsunami ripped across Asia.
AP - Fewer earthquakes have been recorded in the Philippines' lava-spilling Mayon volcano, but magma continues to build up inside and any lull in activity could be followed by a bigger eruption, scientists said Saturday.
