Myanmar: 'Myanmar's junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centers on Friday, apparently out of concern the 'tented villages' might become permanent.' (Reuters).

Egypt: 'Four Coptic Christians have been shot dead in broad daylight at a jewellery shop in a busy district of the Egyptian capital, Cairo.' (BBC).

Bahrain: 'Bahrain's king has appointed a Jewish woman as the country's envoy to the United States.' (BBC).

Cambodia: 'Saving children from Cambodia's trash heap' (CNN).

Gaza / Israel: 'Archbishop Desmond Tutu has denounced the international community for its "silence and complicity" on what he called Israel's "abominable" 11-month blockade of Gaza.' (Independent).

India: 'Thousands of protesters from an ethnic Indian group burned tires and blocked roads leading to New Delhi on Thursday, bringing a battle for college and government job quotas in which dozens have died closer to the capital.' (Reuters).

UK: 'Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali: Radical Islam is filling void left by collapse of Christianity in UK' (Telegraph).

Nepal: 'As Nepal becomes a republic, are there many absolute monarchs left?' (Independent).

Israel: 'The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's most powerful coalition partner has called on him to step aside in the face of widespread anger at allegations that he had repeatedly received envelopes stuffed with cash from a US businessman.' (Independent).

Nepal: 'Thousands of Nepalis marched, danced and sung in the capital's streets on Wednesday to celebrate "the dawn of the republic" hours before the Himalayan nation was set to abolish its once-revered Hindu monarchy.' (Reuters).

Algeria: 'Why authorities have begun clamping down on Christians' (Compass Direct).

Burma: 'Unable or unwilling to provide emergency aid to the hundreds of thousands of its people left homeless and desperate after Cyclone Nargis, the Burmese regime made it a priority yesterday to ensure the country's most prominent citizen remains under house arrest. (Independent).

Australia: 'Authorities in an Australian town are due to decide whether or not to allow an Islamic school to built there.' (BBC).

Egypt: 'Bread shortages, hunger and unrest' (Guardian).

Nepal: 'The Nepali government warned on Tuesday that it could use force to throw unpopular King Gyanendra out of the royal palace if he refuses to leave voluntarily after the 239-year-old monarchy is abolished.' (Reuters).

China: 'China is relaxing its one-child policy for victims of the earthquake that struck the country on 12 May. Couples whose only child was killed or badly injured can get a certificate allowing them to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee, which oversees the policy in the capital of Sichuan province, said. (Independent).

Israel: 'Messianic Jews in Israel say they want an inquiry into the burning of hundreds of copies of the New Testament by Orthodox Jews in Or Yehuda last week.' (BBC).

Afghanistan: 'Two Afghans and a Nato soldier were killed yesterday during a violent protest in western Afghanistan against a US soldier who used the Qur'an for target practice.' (Guardian).

China: 'The Sichuan earthquake is the biggest disaster for the world's children in seven years, an international charity organisation said yesterday, as the overall death toll jumped above 51,000, with 29,000 more still missing.' (Guardian).

Israel / Gaza: 'Israeli troops killed three Hamas gunmen on Friday in clashes with militants in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical workers said.' (Reuters).

Burma / Myanmar: 'In an apparent breakthrough for delivering help to millions of Myanmar's cyclone survivors, the military government agreed to allow in "all" aid workers, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.' (Reuters).

Israel / Syria: 'The fact that both Israel and Syria have publicly acknowledged their indirect talks using Turkish mediation is of significance in itself.' (BBC).

Pakistan: 'The provincial government in north-west Pakistan has agreed to pull troops out of a valley under a peace agreement signed with pro-Taleban militants.

The authorities say they will also allow the militants to impose Sharia law in Swat in return for promises to close training camps and end attacks.' (BBC).

Lebanon: 'Lebanon's long-standing political deadlock came to an end yesterday as the western-backed government conceded key demands to the Hizbullah-led opposition, agreeing a national unity coalition and paving the way for the election of a new president by consensus.' (Guardian).

Gaza: 'An explosives-laden truck driven by a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up on Thursday near an Israeli border crossing with the Gaza Strip but only the attacker was killed in a blast heard 30 kilometers (18 miles) away.' (Reuters).

India: 'The walls still keeping untouchables out' (BBC).

India / Pakistan: 'Top Indian and Pakistani officials have resumed talks in Islamabad to review the two countries' peace process.' (BBC).

Lebanon: 'Rival Lebanese factions today agreed to resolve an 18-month political crisis that pushed the country to the edge of another civil war.' (Guardian).

Middle East: 'Iran's neighbours began their nuclear programmes within months of Tehran's decision to start enriching uranium, according to a new report.' (Telegraph).

Pakistan: 'Demolished by the Pakistan army: the frontier village punished for harbouring the Taliban' (Guardian).

Lebanon: 'Rival Lebanese leaders were running out of time on Tuesday to clinch an agreement to end their 18-month-old political crisis, with Arab mediators set to leave the talks within hours.' (Reuters).

India / Pakistan: 'An Indian army trooper was shot to death Monday on the border between the Indian- and Pakistani-administered parts of Kashmir, the Indian Defense spokesman said.' (CNN).

Burma: 'The Burmese junta has yielded to international pressure by agreeing to a limited regional and UN-co-ordinated aid operation more than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis killed an estimated 100,000 people, but the generals will continue to deny unfettered Western access to the stricken zone.' (Independent).

Burma: 'Hopes of a deal to speed up aid to millions of Myanmar cyclone victims rose on Monday as the U.N. said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would visit this week and Southeast Asia kicked off its own disaster-response meeting.' (Reuters).

Iraq: 'A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday.' (CNN).

Afghanistan: 'Pervez Kambaksh, the Afghan student sentenced to death after being accused of downloading internet reports on women's rights, yesterday pleaded innocent to charges of blasphemy. He told an appeal court in Kabul that he had been tortured into confessing. (Independent).

China: 'China declared three days of national mourning for victims of the Sichuan earthquake and suspended the Olympic torch relay as the nation's most famous rescuer said the search for survivors would go on.' (Independent).

China: 'Court officials in Kashgar, Xinjiang province may soon decide the fate of Uyghur Christian Alimjan Yimit, arrested on January 12 and accused of “endangering national security.”' (Compass Direct).

Israel: 'At least 14 people were wounded – three of them seriously, including a child – when a Grad rocket fired by Gaza militants exploded in a shopping centre in the Mediterranean Israeli city of Ashkelon yesterday.' (Independent).

China: 'Tens of thousands of people have poured down from the mountainsides of Sichuan searching for food and water as rescuers evacuated towns where more than 40,000 people are dead, buried or missing.' (Telegraph).

Burma: 'The Red Cross said that almost 130,000 people may have perished in the Burmese cyclone disaster, as a second deadly storm gathered off the Burmese coast. (Telegraph).

Gaza: 'The Israeli army killed a Hamas militant and a Palestinian civilian on Wednesday in separate incidents in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, medical workers said.' (Reuters).

Burma: 'Relief agencies have accused the Burmese military authorities of keeping the best-quality supplies donated for victims of Cyclone Nargis and handing out rotten and low-grade food. The United Nations says only a small portion of aid is getting through.' (Independent).

India: 'India is on high alert after a series of near-simultaneous explosions killed at least 60 people and wounded 150 others in a top tourist spot, government and local officials told CNN-IBN. (CNN).

China: 'Rescuers struggled to reach some of the hardest-hit areas of southwestern China on Tuesday after a massive earthquake that left a death toll well above 12,000.' (CNN).

Lebanon: 'Hizbullah yesterday took control of a strategic mountain-top village in Druze heartlands south-east of the capital after fierce fighting with government allies, consolidating strategic gains that analysts said would be used in confrontations with Israel.' (Guardian).

Burma: 'Officials in Burma's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta area are appropriating emergency aid supplies and selling them in local markets, it was claimed on Monday.' (Telegraph).

China: 'Tens of thousands of people are feared dead after the biggest earthquake in three decades struck China.' (Telegraph).

Pakistan: 'The Commonwealth restored Pakistan's membership yesterday in recognition of the democratic steps taken there since the country rescinded emergency rule late last year.' (Independent).

Lebanon: 'Pro-government Sunni Muslim gunmen and militiamen loyal to Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shia Hizbollah have fought with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the northern city of Tripoli.' (Independent).

India: 'India successfully tested a home-grown, long-range missile on Wednesday, capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to targets more than 3,000 km (1,900 miles) away, the government said in a statement.' (Reuters).

Iran: 'Members of Iran's parliament have made a formal complaint to the intelligence minister over remarks made by former President Mohammad Khatami.' (BBC).

Lebanon: 'Lebanon's government has declared an extensive telecommunications network run by the powerful Shia opposition movement, Hezbollah, illegal.' (BBC).

Burma: 'The deadly cyclone that ripped into Myanmar over the weekend could shake the stranglehold on power of the country's ruling generals -- becoming a force for change more powerful than massive pro-democracy demonstrations and international sanctions.' (CNN).

Pakistan: 'A suspected suicide bomber blew himself near a police checkpost in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu on Tuesday, killing two civilians and wounding five people including a soldier, police said.' (Reuters).

Gaza: 'Israel has made a last-minute provision of fuel to a UN aid agency in the Gaza Strip after the body warned a lack of fuel was about to hit aid deliveries.' (BBC).

Tibet / China: 'Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama ended day-long talks without a breakthrough but agreed to more talks, Chinese state media say.' (BBC).

Burma: 'The death toll from the Myanmar cyclone is more than 15,000 people, Myanmar's government has said, with at least 10,000 killed in the township of Bogalay alone, according to the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.' (CNN).

China: 'China is investigating thousands of enterprises suspected of using child workers abducted from the southwestern of province of Sichuan and sold into slavery, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Thursday.' (Reuters).

Egypt: 'Nine people have been killed and 28 injured after a tourist bus crashed and caught fire in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.' (BBC).

Pakistan: 'Pakistan's new leaders failed to meet their Wednesday deadline to restore judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf, but said they would keep trying to resolve a dispute that is threatening their month-old coalition government.' (CNN).