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March 24, 2014 5:54 AM MUMBAI (REUTERS) - Unseasonal rains and hailstorms this month have damaged the winter-sown crops of millions of Indian farmers, but Ms Rekha Garole lost more than others.         ...

March 24, 2014 6:42 AM TAIPEI (AFP) - Dozens of people were detained in Taipei late on Sunday after violent clashes erupted between police and protesters, following the Taiwanese President's refusal to scrap a contentious trade agreement with China.         ...

March 24, 2014 12:55 AM TAIPEI (AFP) - Clashes erupted between protesters and police on Sunday after Taiwan's president refused to scrap a contentious trade agreement with China and denounced the "illegal" occupation of Parliament by students opposed to its ratification.         ...

March 23, 2014 1:55 PM TAIPEI (REUTERS) - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said on Sunday that the island needed to pass a contentious trade pact with China for the sake of its economy, and called on protesters who have occupied parliament in protest to respect democracy and leave.         ...

March 23, 2014 2:34 PM TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated on Sunday that he wanted Tokyo and Seoul to put wartime enmities behind them ahead of his first meeting with South Korean President Park Geun Hye.         ...

March 23, 2014 4:38 PM BEIJING (AFP) - Visiting US first lady Michelle Obama held a meeting on Sunday at the US embassy with Chinese educators and families, after her arrival there sparked a minor security alert.         ...

March 23, 2014 10:38 AM SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea test-fired 16 short-range rockets into the sea on Sunday, the South's military said - the latest of dozens launched in recent weeks in apparent protest at joint drills between Seoul and Washington.         ...

March 23, 2014 11:43 AM BEIJING (REUTERS) - Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli reaffirmed to a group of visiting senior foreign executives and officials on Sunday that the country will introduce market-based interest rates and a market-based exchange rate for the yuan currency.         ...

March 23, 2014 8:49 AM AMSTERDAM (REUTERS) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam on Sunday to highlight Japan's friendship with the Jewish people and sees no contradiction with his recent controversial visit to the Yasukuni Shrine at home.         ...

March 23, 2014 12:09 AM NEW DELHI (AFP) - India must stop its doctors from prescribing "irrational" treatments to cure tuberculosis, medical humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday, warning the practice is increasing drug-resistant strains of the disease.         ...

March 22, 2014 7:19 AM SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea test-fired 30 short-range missiles into the sea on Saturday, the South's Yonhap news agency said, the latest in a series of launches that have provoked criticism from Seoul and Washington.         ...

March 22, 2014 3:28 AM COLOMBO (AFP) - The "highest levels" of Sri Lanka's government were complicit in raping, torturing and abducting ethnic Tamils following the nation's ethnic civil war, a report by rights groups warned Friday.         ...

March 22, 2014 7:19 AM SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea test-fired 30 short-range missiles into the sea on Saturday, the South's Yonhap news agency said, the latest in a series of launches that have provoked criticism from Seoul and Washington.         ...

March 22, 2014 12:47 AM KABUL (AFP) - Shocked colleagues of Sardar Ahmad, the senior reporter in AFP's Kabul bureau, Friday mourned the loss of a charming and talented journalist with a deep, nuanced understanding of Afghanistan's wrenching conflict.         ...

March 21, 2014 1:08 AM NEW DELHI (AFP) - Indian budget airline SpiceJet said Thursday it has run into trouble with the aviation regulator for performing a mid-air song and dance sequence to celebrate the popular Hindu festival of Holi.         ...

March 21, 2014 2:35 AM KABUL (REUTERS) - Gunmen attacked a luxury hotel on Thursday in the centre of the Afghan capital Kabul, police said.         ...

March 21, 2014 4:14 AM GENEVA (AFP) - China locked horns Thursday with Western nations after campaigners tried to get the UN's top human rights forum to hold a minute's silence for a dissident who died in detention.         ...

March 21, 2014 12:04 AM VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Ancient manuscripts in the Vatican library penned from East Asia to the Pre-Colombian Americas will be digitised by a Japanese company as part of a global project to make the collection available for free viewing by the public.         ...

March 20, 2014 2:37 PM Satellite company DigitalGlobe put up satellite images and asked volunteers to help tag features in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane         ...

March 20, 2014 2:48 PM MUMBAI (AFP) - A Mumbai court convicted four men on Thursday over the gang rape of a photographer on assignment in the city last year, in a case that reignited nationwide anger over women's safety.         ...