Israeli air strikes kill 14 in Gaza, including head of militant group

The bodies of two Palestinian men arrive in hospital after a second Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip on Mar 9, 2012. -- PHOTO: AFP

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 14 Palestinians, including a militant group chief, medics said on Saturday, in the deadliest flareup in more than three years.

Pakistan demolishes Osama bin Laden hideout

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani security forces on Saturday began demolishing the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in a covert United States raid last May in the garrison town of Abbottabad, police and witnesses said.

'Two bulldozers are engaged, the demolition work is in progress, it is being done by security forces, including troops,' a police official on the spot told AFP by telephone on condition of anonymity.

Taiwan upgrades fighter jets

Taiwan will this week receive its first batch of a fleet of Indigenous Defensive Fighters upgraded as part as part of a $587 million (S$727 million) project to beef up air defences, officials said on Sunday. -- PHOTO: AP

TAIPEI - TAIWAN will this week receive its first batch of a fleet of Indigenous Defensive Fighters upgraded as part as part of a $587 million (S$727 million) project to beef up air defences, officials said on Sunday.

An unspecified number of the domestically-manufactured jets are scheduled to be delivered in central Taichung city on Thursday, an air force spokesman said.

Nato says strikes on Afghan homes 'necessary'

Nato air strikes on houses in Afghanistan are necessary and will continue in coordination with Afghan forces, the alliance said on Tuesday, after President Hamid Karzai said such operations must stop. -- PHOTO: AFP

BRUSSELS - NATO air strikes on houses in Afghanistan are necessary and will continue in coordination with Afghan forces, the alliance said on Tuesday, after President Hamid Karzai said such operations must stop.

Spokesman Oana Lungescu said Nato and Afghan authorities are investigating Saturday's bombing of a compound in Helmand province, which Mr Karzai said left 14 civilians dead, but made clear there would be no halt to such operations.

S.Korea to survey former US bases for chemicals

South Korean fact-finding mission members are guided by U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Fox, right, during their visit to Camp Carroll, in Chilgok, southeast of Seoul, Monday, May 23, 2011. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

SEOUL - SOUTH Korea said on Monday it would conduct an environmental survey of dozens of former US military bases amid concerns over the alleged burial of a highly toxic defoliant used in the Vietnam War.

The survey follows a report by a US TV station that leftover Agent Orange was buried in 1978 at Camp Carroll, a US army logistics base at Waegwan, 216km south-east of Seoul.

Bomb kills two near Myanmar capital: Official

A bomb blast on a train near Myanmar's capital left at least two people dead on Wednesday during a visit by a US envoy for talks with the new government, a Myanmar official said. -- PHOTO: AP

YANGON - A BOMB blast on a train near Myanmar's capital left at least two people dead on Wednesday during a visit by a US envoy for talks with the new government, a Myanmar official said.

'It was a time bomb. We assume KNU insurgents plotted it,' said the government official, referring to the Karen National Union whose armed wing has been fighting the government in a decades-old ethnic insurgency.

U.S. speeds up direct talks with Taliban

washingtonpost By Karen DeYoung, Tuesday, May 17, 8:45 AM

The administration has accelerated direct talks with the Taliban, initiated several months ago, that U.S. officials say they hope will enable President Obama to report progress toward a settlement of the Afghanistan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July.

A senior Afghan official said a U.S. representative attended at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany, one as recently as “eight or nine days ago,” with a Taliban official considered close to leader Mohammad Omar.

German 'Nazi guard' trial expected to end this week

Defendant John Demjanjuk arrives for another session of his trial on May 3, 2011 in Munich, southern Germany. -- PHOTO: AFP

BERLIN - THE trial of 91-year-old alleged Nazi camp guard John Demjanjuk is due to end this week, marking a watershed moment in Germany's bid to atone judicially for its World War II crimes.

68 years after the facts, the verdict on whether Demjanjuk is guilty of helping to murder 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp, in occupied Poland, could come as early as Thursday.

Gaddafi's office destroyed in air strike

TRIPOLI - Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi's office in his immense Tripoli residence was destroyed in an air strike early Monday, an AFP journalist said.

Fresh fighting at Thai-Cambodian border

A Thai soldier being evacuated after he was shot in an exchange of gunfire with Cambodian troops near the Thai-Cambodian border yesterday. -- PHOTO: AFP

SAMRONG (Cambodia) - CAMBODIAN and Thai troops exchanged heavy weapons fire for the third straight day on Sunday, officials from both countries said, after clashes on their joint border left 10 dead.

Thousands of civilians have been forced to flee the disputed jungle frontier after fighting broke out on Friday, shattering a tense two-month ceasefire. A Cambodian field commander, Suos Sothea, said the fighting started at about 10am local time (0300GMT, 11am Singapore time) and both sides were firing mortars.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, a deterrent against India, but also United States ?

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons have been conceived and developed as a deterrent against mighty neighbour India, more so now when its traditional rival has added economic heft to its military muscle. But Islamabad may also be holding onto its nuclear arsenal  to deter an even more powerful challenge, which to its mind, comes  from the United States, according to Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who led President Barack Obama’s 2009 policy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Libya rebels reject truce plan, say Gaddafi must go

Libyan rebels rejected an African Union peace plan, and insisted that the only solution was the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. -- PHOTO: AP

BENGHAZI (Libya) - LIBYAN rebels on Monday rejected an African Union initiative for a truce accepted by Muammar Gaddafi, and said the only solution was the strongman's ouster, an idea his son called 'ridiculous.'

The rebel rejection came after Nato chiefs warned that any deal must be 'credible and verifiable,' and as alliance warplanes were again in action against Gaddafi armour pounding Ajdabiya and Misrata.

Libya: Rebel leader accuses Nato of failing civilians

Hundreds of people have been wounded
in the fighting in Misrata

The Libyan rebel commander, Gen Abdul Fattah Younis, has accused Nato of standing idly by while pro-Gaddafi forces kill people in Misrata.

If Nato waited another week to intervene, the besieged city's people faced extermination, he told reporters in the de facto rebel capital Benghazi.

A Nato-led coalition mandated by the UN to protect civilians is enforcing a no-fly zone and attacking ground targets.

Nato takes command of Libya operations

A Libyan man inspects destroyed military vehicles that belonged to pro-Gaddafi forces at the site of a Nato air strike on the outskirts of Benghazi, Libya. Nato assumed command of all operations in Libya on Thursday. -- PHOTO: AP

BRUSSELS - NATO assumed command of all operations in Libya from 0600 GMT (2pm Singapore time) on Thursday, taking over from an international coalition in charge since March 19, a diplomat told AFP.

'The operation 'Unified Protector' agreed on Sunday evening by the countries of the alliance officially began this morning at 0600 GMT as planned,' he told AFP, confirming the transfer to the alliance of responsibility for bombing raids on Libya previously commanded by US, French and British forces.

China strengthens N. Korea border fence

This picture taken on March 29, 2011 shows four-metre-high steel fences, linked with woven metal wires and topped with barbed wire, being erected along Yalu River at the Chinese city of Dandong. -- PHOTO: AFP

SEOUL - CHINA has reinforced fences and patrols along parts of the border with North Korea in an apparent bid to ward off a growing stream of refugees from its impoverished neighbour, a report said.

Four-metre-high fences topped with barbed wire are being erected along the Yalu River around the Chinese city of Dandong facing the North's north-west city of Sinuiju, Yonhap news agency reported late Tuesday.

Khmer Rouge jailer's war crimes appeal to begin

This handout picture taken and released by the Extraodinary Chamber in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on November 25, 2009 shows former Khmer Rouge chief of 'S-21', known as Tuol Sleng prison, Kang Guek Eav, alias Duch. -- PHOTO: AFP

PHNOM PENH - LAWYERS for former Khmer Rouge prison chief Duch will call for his release on Monday when Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court begins hearing appeals against his 30-year sentence.

Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, was found guilty in July of war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing the deaths of some 15,000 people at the notorious torture prison Tuol Sleng in the late 1970s.

Libya air force ‘destroyed’

TRIPOLI: Blasts and anti-aircraft fire rattled Tripoli today as allied air raids against Muammar Gaddafi’s forces entered a sixth day and a British officer said Libya’s air force was mostly obliterated.

The anti-aircraft gunfire began at around 0430 GMT and there were ensuing explosions, an AFP reporter said.

As an armada of Nato warships patrolled Libya’s coast to enforce an arms embargo against Gaddafi, fresh efforts to hand the alliance command of the military operations collapsed after days of sometimes acrimonious debate.

'Many civilians' killed in raids east of Tripoli

Mourners gather around the body of a rebel killed by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Libyan state news agency Jana claims that coalition forces were responsible for a 'large number' of civilian casualties. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

TRIPOLI - LIBYAN state news agency Jana said on Wednesday that coalition raids on a residential neighbourhood east of the capital killed 'a large number' of civilians.

'The bombardments carried out by the colonialist crusader aggressors in the Tajura region in Tripoli targeted a residential neighbourhood... killing a large number of civilians,' it said, quoting a military official.

Unesco plans museum for destroyed Afghan Buddhas

A Hazara Afghan woman walks past the ruins of the ancient Buddha statues that once stood in the city of Bamiyan. -- PHOTO: AFP

Malaysian Blogger - PARIS - WORLD culture body Unesco unveiled plans on Wednesday to preserve the site of the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, an Afghan archaeological treasure destroyed by the Taleban 10 years ago.

The UN cultural body said international experts and Afghan officials at a meeting in Paris stopped short of recommending the two Buddha statues be fully rebuilt in replica, but called for several museums to be set up nearby.

Libyan warplanes strike rebels at key oil port

RAS LANOUF, Libya - Libyan warplanes launched fresh airstrikes on rebel positions around a key oil port Monday, trying to block the opposition fighters from advancing toward Muammar Qaddafi's stronghold in the capital, Tripoli.

Rebels in the area said they can take on Qaddafi's elite ground forces, but are outgunned if he uses his air power.

"We don't want a foreign military intervention, but we do want a no-fly zone," said rebel fighter Ali Suleiman. He added that the rebels can take on "the rockets and the tanks, but not Qaddafi's air force."