Malaysia: Thousands of people have been attending huge celebrations in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, to mark 50 years of nationhood. (BBC)

Iraq: Lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation has led to 5,000 people in northern Iraq contracting cholera. (The Independent)

Afghanistan: Taliban kidnappers Thursday released the seven remaining South Korean hostages and handed them over to Red Cross officials, Afghan and Taliban officials said. (CNN)

Uzbekistan: Eight years after the Grace Presbyterian Church in the capital Tashkent bought a former cinema to use as its church, the city department of the State Property Committee wants to annul the sale, Protestants have told Forum 18 News Service. (Forum 18)

India: A number of policemen are feared dead after Maoist rebels attacked a security convoy in central India, police say. (BBC)

India: The Taj Mahal, India's famous monument to love, has been closed to tourists after violent clashes in the northern Indian city of Agra, officials say. (BBC)

Afghanistan: Taliban militants released three South Korean hostages today, the first of 19 captives scheduled to be freed under a deal struck between the insurgents and the South Korean government. (The Independent)

Pakistan: Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has agreed to step down as the country's military chief during negotiations on a power-sharing deal with Pakistan's former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, she told CNN Wednesday. (CNN)

Bangladesh: A crackdown on Muslim militants begun after internal and foreign pressures came to bear on the previous, Islamic-allied government of Bangladesh has resulted in death sentences for two extremists who killed Christian converts. (Compass Direct)

Turkey: Turkey's controversial Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has been sworn in as the country's new president. (BBC)

Afghanistan: Britain faces a war on two fronts in Afghanistan, following the revelation that the province where British troops are deployed has become the biggest source of illicit drugs in the world. (The Independent)

Thailand: Thailand has set a date for the first general election following last year's coup that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from power. (BBC)

India: Islamist extremists have been blamed for a double bombing in Hyderabad, the south Indian information technology hub, which left 42 people dead, including several women and children, and more than 50 injured. (The Telegraph)

Burma: One of the leaders of fuel price protests in Burma has been arrested by the military junta following a manhunt across the country's Yangon region. (BBC)

India: Police forensic teams are hunting for clues to who carried out twin bomb attacks that killed at least 42 people in the south Indian city of Hyderabad. (BBC)

Malaysia: Malaysia has shut down a newspaper for a month after it published a picture of Jesus holding a cigarette and what appears to be a can of beer. (BBC)

Pakistan: Two Pakistani Christian children have converted to Islam and married Muslim men after they went missing earlier this month in Faisalabad, according to apparently falsified marriage certificates delivered to their families. (Compass Direct)

Bangladesh: Traffic returned to the streets, and residents crowded markets in Bangladesh's six largest cities Friday after the military-backed government temporarily lifted a curfew imposed to quell violent student protests. (CNN)

Pakistan: In a swingeing blow to General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's Supreme Court has ruled that an exiled former prime minister should be allowed to return to the country where he plans to challenge the military leader's efforts to secure another term as president. (The Independent)

Bangladesh: Bangladesh's military-backed government has re-imposed a curfew aimed at quelling three days of rioting in which one person was killed and 30 injured. (BBC)

Pakistan and India: It is one of the most remarkable and fascinating human spectacles you are likely to witness - so long as you are not taking part. On either side of the India-Pakistan border in the Punjab, teams of porters are involved in an unnecessary, pointless toil that highlights the fraught relations that have existed between the two countries. (The Independent)

Myanmar: The military dictatorship of Myanmar (once known as Burma) arrested 13 leading dissidents who were protesting against a huge rise in fuel prices. A week ago, without explanation or even a formal announcement, petrol was put up by two-thirds, diesel doubled and canisters of gas quintupled in price. Four days after the rises pro-democracy activists led a rare, 400-strong demonstration on the streets of Yangon, the main city. The arrests were followed by more protests. (The economist)

India: The palm-fringed beaches of Goa attract millions of tourists lured by the white sands, dreamy blue water and trance parties held alongside the pounding surf. But the idyllic coastline of Goa is poised to get a controversial new addition, a flotilla of casinos that will operate offshore to get around federal laws restricting such enterprises on land. Reports suggest that up to 11 ships could be operating along the coast by the end of the year. (The Independent)

Iraq: Fifteen aides of Saddam Hussein have been accused in a court in Iraq of "one of the ugliest crimes ever committed against humanity in modern history". (BBC)

Thailand: Voters in Thailand's first-ever national referendum approved a new constitution Sunday, clearing the way for an election by the end of December that would restore civilian rule after last year's military-led coup, unofficial results showed. (CNN)

Pakistan: A suicide bomber has killed at least three soldiers in an attack in north-western Pakistan, officials say. (BBC)

Thailand: Thailand's military coup leaders have won a referendum on a new constitution by a large margin, taking around 70% of Sunday's vote, exit polls suggest. (BBC)

Kazakhstan: The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe says an election in Kazakhstan has made progress, but not fully met international standards. (BBC)

Turkey: Two men who tried to hijack a Turkish plane have surrendered after all 136 passengers and crew escaped unharmed. (BBC)

Pakistan: 'Pakistan's exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has warned another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, against cutting a deal with embattled President Pervez Musharraf, saying it would dent her credibility.' (Reuters).

South Korea: 'Two weary-looking South Koreans held hostage for about a month by the Taliban in Afghanistan returned home on Friday, hoping for the safe return of 19 others who remain captive.' (Reuters).

Gaza / West Bank: 'Hamas has to renounce "any and all" claims to govern Gaza before there can be any reconciliation between the Palestinian factions, Salam Fayad, the Prime Minister of the two-month-old emergency Palestinian administration in Ramallah, said yesterday.' (Independent).

Afghanistan: 'U.S. and Afghan air and ground forces pounded al Qaeda militants for a second day on Thursday in the Tora Bora mountains close to the Pakistan border where Osama bin Laden once fled in the wake of the 2001 invasion.' (CNN).

Indonesia: Some 100,000 Islamists have met in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to press for the re-establishment of a caliphate across the Muslim world. (BBC)

Afghanistan and Pakistan: Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has addressed a "peace jirga" in Afghanistan, calling for a better mutual trust between the two countries. (BBC)

Afghanistan: Taliban militants holding 21 Korean hostages in Afghanistan will release two female hostages who are unwell, a Taliban spokesman says. (CNN)

South Asia: India asked doctors to cancel vacations Friday and rushed food and medicine to flooded regions where disease has stricken thousands of people. A wild storm hit Pakistan's largest city, pushing the death toll from a particularly calamitous South Asia monsoon season past 2,000. (CNN)

Pakistan: Pakistan's Supreme Court has issued a key ruling on electoral registers a day after President Pervez Musharraf backed away from implementing emergency rule. (BBC)

Malaysia: A government halt to media discussion of whether Malaysia is an “Islamic state” last month was one indicator of how close to the surface strong religious feelings are raging. (Compass Direct)

Egypt: Egyptian police detained the head of a Christian rights group yesterday after he held a high-publicity, online chat session with a controversial Muslim convert to Christianity, the group's international leader said. (Compass Direct)

Pakistan: Pakistan has stepped back from imposing emergency rule, after mounting speculation that President Pervez Musharraf was considering the move. (BBC)

North Korea and South Korea: Leaders from North and South Korea are to hold their second-ever summit, officials have announced. (BBC)

Egypt: Human Rights Watch has called on Egypt to investigate allegations that its border guards killed three Sudanese migrants trying to cross into Israel. (BBC)

Laos: Soldiers, police and others have killed at least 13 Christians in Laos in the past month in a swarming crackdown on Hmong villagers falsely accused of stirring rebel dissent, sources told Compass. (Compass Direct)

China: China is harassing, intimidating and detaining foreign journalists who report on subjects deemed sensitive, violating its own media-freedom pledges a year ahead of the Beijing Olympics, a rights group said on Tuesday. (CNN)

Pakistan: Pakistani troops, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, have launched an attack on a militant base in North Waziristan, army officials say. (BBC)

South Asia: More than 360 people are now thought to have died in the flooding in India and Bangladesh caused by monsoon rains. (BBC)

Egypt: A Muslim convert to Christianity filed suit against Egypt last week for refusing to legally recognize his change of religion, sparking a reactionary lawsuit by Muslim clerics and death threats against his lawyer. (Compass Direct)

South Asia: Fears are mounting that people forced from their homes by floods that have hit south Asia could be exposed to deadly epidemics as emergency teams struggle to deal with almost 20 million in need of help. As the death toll from the most recent monsoon floods reached 330 - most of them in central India and Bangladesh - experts said immediate action was needed to prevent outbreaks of measles, gastroenteritis, dengue fever and other diseases. (The Independent)

Lebanon: An opposition candidate has defeated a government-backed rival in a tense by-election near Lebanon's capital Beirut, the interior ministry says. (BBC)

South Asia: Torrential rains overnight compounded the misery of 2 million marooned Indian villagers, killing another 11 people and raising the death toll from house collapses and floods in South Asia to 240, officials said Sunday. (CNN)

Tibet: Chinese authorities demanded the right yesterday to veto the reincarnation of "living buddhas", the holy figures most revered by the Tibetan faithful. (The Telegraph)

South Asia: Monsoon rains in South Asia have driven millions from their homes and caused what the United Nations says is the worst flooding in living memory. (CNN)

Turkey: The water supply to residents of the Turkish capital Ankara has been reduced to two days on, two days off because of a severe drought. (BBC)

Malaysia: Deaths from dengue fever in Malaysia have risen by a third so far this year, and health authorities said on Friday that the worst is yet to come. (CNN)

South Asia: Millions of people across South Asia have spent another night stranded in flood waters. (BBC)

Pakistan/Afghanistan: Britain and America have been urged to prepare an exit strategy from Afghanistan by sources within the Pakistan government as the number of fatalities among Nato forces fighting the Taliban grows. (The Telegraph)

Afghanistan: A South Korean delegation has arrived in the Afghan province where 21 Koreans are being hostage in an attempt to hold direct talks with Taliban kidnappers and end the two-week ordeal. (CNN)

Afghanistan: The families of the remaining 21 South Korean hostages being held in central Afghanistan say they have all but lost hope for the survival of their loved ones after a second hostage's body was recovered. (CNN)