Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has said he will not resign, despite mounting anti-government protests.
Mr Samak earlier held an unexpected meeting with King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who normally stays above politics.

Samak Sundaravej was appointed Thailand’s prime minister in January

Thousands of protesters continue to occupy government offices in Bangkok, two provincial airports remain closed, and rail travel [...]

SINGAPORE: The controversy surrounding the Singapore Table Tennis Association has been called to a close by the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Sports.
In a special media conference on Friday evening, it announced that team manager Antony Lee will continue for another three months, to finish up his Olympics reports. He will then move to [...]

JAKARTA: Indonesia has seized US$134 million from a firm linked to Suharto’s youngest son, reports said Saturday, in the latest move to bring the ex-dictator’s family to account for alleged graft.
The finance ministry ordered Bank Mandiri to hand over US$134 million belonging to Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra’s now-defunct car company Timor Putra Nasional, The Jakarta [...]

BEIJING: Chinese police killed six people and arrested three others during a clash in the restive Muslim northwest region of Xinjiang, state media reported on Saturday.
Police carried out an operation late Friday in Kashgar prefecture in the far west of Xinjiang against a group of people suspected of involvement in an attack on August 12 [...]

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has briefed King Bhumibol Adulaydej on the anti-government protests spreading around the country, a government official said Saturday.
The premier flew from Bangkok around midnight by private jet to the nearby seaside resort town of Hua Hin, where the king is in residence, the official told AFP, speaking on condition [...]

I should have guessed something was afoot. However, even if I had surmised that Laurie was planning something, I would never have imagined that she had set her plan in motion so far in advance or that it had such an astonishing number of details. Frankly, I generally considered her to be a “fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants” type [...]

It was Friday afternoon, and I just didn’t feel like cooking. But what could I do about it? Well, the answer is really quite simple: get my darling husband, Josh, to take me out for dinner. So I walked into the bedroom and took a look at myself in the full-length mirror.
Ugh! This would [...]

MADRID: Espanyol’s Pablo Zabaleta, part of Argentina’s Olympic gold medal-winning team, is to join Manchester City after the English club agreed to pay the eight-million-euro buy-out clause in his contract, the Spanish side said Friday.
“Late on Thursday, Manchester City told RCD Espanyol that it was ready to pay the buy-out clause for Argentine Pablo Zabaleta,” [...]

SINGAPORE: The Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society has suggested that the making and distribution of political films be allowed and also to lift the ban on 100 websites in Singapore.
The council was appointed in March last year.
Its task is to propose suggestions on how the government can better manage new [...]

SINGAPORE : A resolution is expected to be reached soon over the controversial decision by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) to end its team manager’s services.

While extensive meetings have been held over the past few days between STTA and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to resolve the issue, [...]

SINGAPORE: More are coming forward to do their part to save water. The national water agency PUB saw a 140 per cent jump in its “Friends of Water” membership in the last one year – from 750 members to 1,800.
The “Friends of Water” programme recognises those who help raise awareness about water and what it [...]

DENVER, Colorado : In a deafening moment of history, Democrats anointed Barack Obama the first black major-party nominee for president, in a cathartic release of unity, hope and tears.

The newly-minted nominee then sent the Democratic National Convention into raptures by crashing his own party a day early, after a stemwinding speech from running-mate Joseph Biden [...]

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was sworn in to parliament Thursday, ending a decade-long political exile and taking another step towards his plan of toppling the government.

Anwar claimed a landslide victory this week in a by-election to return him to parliament, capping a stunning comeback after he was sacked as deputy [...]

SINGAPORE : Parliament saw a lively debate on Wednesday as Members of Parliament (MPs) spoke on the issue of by-election laws in Singapore.
Eight MPs spoke on the motion to fine-tune the electoral system – tabled after the death of MP Dr Ong Chit Chung in July.
He had been part of the five-member Jurong Group Representation [...]

SINGAPORE: Singapore retail magnate Tang Wee Sung will be sentenced on September 3 for his role in the country’s first kidney-for-sale case.
He pleaded guilty to two of three charges on Wednesday. The first charge is for agreeing to buy a kidney and the other, for lying to the Commissioner of Oaths.
The third charge – of [...]

SINGAPORE: Parliament has rejected a motion tabled by Nominated MPs Thio Li-Ann and Loo Choon Yoong for amendments to the Parliamentary Elections Act to allow by-elections to be called in a Group Representation Constituency (GRC) when a member vacates his or her seat for any reason.

MPs, who voted with a division in the House, [...]

SEOUL – Tens of thousands of South Korean Buddhists rallied Wednesday in central Seoul to protest alleged pro-Christian bias by the government of President Lee Myung-Bak.
A crowd estimated by police at 55,000, including thousands of grey-robed monks, packed City Hall Plaza for the rare protest which began with the beating of a giant drum.
Organisers said [...]

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday celebrated an election victory that will return him to parliament, boosting his plan to seize power after a decade-long political exile.

Anwar, who had already led a revitalised opposition to unprecedented gains in March general elections, insists he is on track to topple the government by mid-September [...]

BANGKOK: Thailand issued arrest warrants Wednesday for protest leaders besieging the main government complex, as authorities scrambled to find a peaceful end to the administration’s most serious challenge yet.

As riot police moved in, leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) vowed to stay inside the Government House compound until Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej [...]

BISHKEK: A passenger plane bound for Iran crashed shortly after take-off from the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek on Sunday, claiming the lives of 68 people onboard, the health ministry said.

The Boeing-737 with 90 people onboard went down a few kilometres from Bishkek’s Manas airport after the plane suffered a dramatic loss of cabin pressure, [...]

PENANG: Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the recent announcement to bring down fuel prices in Malaysia has nothing to do with the Permatang Pauh by-election.

Speaking to Channel NewsAsia, he said the Barisan Nasional machinery is pleased with its campaign and the response to the party’s outreach efforts.
Expressing similar confidence on his [...]

PENANG: In an exclusive interview with Channel NewsAsia, the wife of de facto opposition leader, Ibrahim Anwar, said a consensus would be reached by three parties – Parti Keadlian Rakyat (PKR), Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) – on the choice of the leader in the Malaysian legislature, in the event [...]

The Beijing Olympics, played out against a background of political intrigue and featuring 16 days of compelling and controversial action, drew to a spectacular close on Sunday.

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge described the Games as “truly exceptional” in a lavish closing ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium which culminated in the handing over of [...]

UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari held a second meeting with top leaders of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party Friday, but again failed to meet her or senior military leaders.

Five leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) met for 90 minutes with Gambari, following a 20-minute meeting on Wednesday, party spokesman Nyan Win [...]

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday the financial storm that began last year “has not yet subsided,” creating “one of the most challenging” economic environments in memory.
In comments to the Fed’s annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Bernanke said economic conditions remain soft as unemployment is rising and inflation pressures remain hot.
The mix has [...]

Malaysia will cut the petrol price by 5.6 per cent to 2.55 ringgit (76 US cents) a litre due to a drop in global oil prices, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Friday.

The diesel price will also fall by 3.1 per cent to 2.50 ringgit a litre with effect from Saturday, Abdullah said according to [...]

Russia said Friday it had completed a pullback of troops from Georgia but the Georgian government challenged the claim while the United States and France called for further withdrawal.

Two weeks after rolling into the former Soviet republic, several columns of Russian tanks and troops withdrew from deep inside Georgian territory and allowed Georgian police to [...]

A video of the Madrid air disaster showed no engine on fire as the Spanair jet hurtled to a fiery crash and experts now believe a chain of faults caused the catastrophe, media said Friday.

As investigators pursued a painstaking operation to identify the 153 victims, authorities announced that a national funeral service will be held [...]

Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba produced another astonishingly fast final lap to win the women’s 5000m gold at the Beijing Olympics on Friday for the first long-distance running double in 28 years.

Dibaba, 23, who last week won the 10,000m crown, finished the 12-and-a-half lap race around a packed 91,000-capacity National Stadium in 15min 41.40sec, more than 1:30 [...]

BEIJING – China’s world number one Zhang Yining won back-to-back Olympic Games table tennis golds Friday, defeating teammate Wang Nan and handing the hosts a clean sweep of the medals in the women’s singles competition.

A composed and confident Zhang fought back from one game down against the retiring veteran Wang, winning 8-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-8, [...]