亞洲新聞

Car Bombing of Police Bus Kills 8 in Pakistan as the Taliban Pursue Security Forces

Ijaz Muhammad/Associated Press

Local residents examined the wreckage of a police bus after a bomb blast in Bannu, Pakistan, on Thursday.

Indian PM: Floods a 'calamity'; aid airdropped in Massive flooding in northern India has displaced nearly two million people and led India's prime minister to call the floods a "national calamity". Manmohan Singh toured the eastern Indian state of Bihar which has been ravaged by the monsoon-swollen Kosi river which breached its banks ten days ago and changed its course. Singh announced an aid package of more than 1.5 million euros. Food and medicine is being airdropped to stranded people. More than 800 people across India have been killed this monsoon season, which lasts until September.

Malaysian opposition leader stages dramatic walkout Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has used his first day back in parliament to stage a walkout with scores of opposition lawmakers. The walkout occurred during a debate on a proposed law that would make it mandatory for criminal suspects to provide DNA samples. Critics claim that the law is meant to bolster a new sodomy charge against Anwar - the government denies this. Anwar was sworn in as a federal legislator on Thursday after ten years of parliamentary absence following convictions for sodomy and corruption.

Malaysia extends peacekeeping mission in southern Philippines Malaysia has agreed to extend its peacekeeping mission in the southern Philippines by three months. Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said his country had acceded to a request by the Philippines to extend the peacekeepers' mandate to monitor a truce between Muslim rebels and the Philippine government. Malaysia has at least 12 peacekeepers on Mindanao island, where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is fighting government troops for self-rule. Their mandate was to expire on August 31, but with the latest extension they will remain in Mindanao until November 30.

China and Iraq sign landmark oil deal China and Iraq have signed a landmark three billion dollar deal to exploit oil in the Middle Eastern country. According to a statement from the Iraqi Embassy in Beijing, the deal was signed late on Wednesday by Chinese officials and Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. The agreement revives a 1997 contract that granted China exploration rights to the Al-Ahdab oil field in the province of Wassit, just south of Baghdad. The statement said the revised terms of the deal increase the anticipated output from the billion-barrel field to 110,000 barrels per day from the originally planned 90,000 barrels per day. It says the contract is to run for 20 years after production begins three years from now.