North Korean poster North Korea said it will reduce South Korea’s government to ashes in a matter of minutes, should a military escalation of the decades-old conflict occur. ­The statement by the North’s military, carried by the state media, did not elaborate as to how exactly such an attack would be carried out. It mentions “special actions” that would “reduce... 

A Red Cross volunteer talks to Hoang Thi Kim Phung, whose two-and-a-half -month-old son was admitted to hospital in Long An, Vietnam, with symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease Hanoi has asked the World Health Organization for help to cure a virulent disease affecting children. Symptoms include blistering on hands, feet and mouths accompanied by high fever and eventual... 

China will send 16 naval ships and two submarines to its first joint naval exercise with Russia, slated to start this weekend in the Yellow Sea, the Ministry of National Defense said on Tuesday. The drill, which Russian authorities said will involve warships cruising near Japanese waters, has rattled the nerves of media from Japan and South Korea. Japanese media speculated... 

A North Korean soldier stands guard in front of an Unha-3 rocket at Tangachai-ri space center on April 8, 2012 Seoul claims North Korea is assembling another heavy ballistic missile similar to the ill-fated one launched on April 13. ­Seoul’s assumptions are based on American space reconnaissance data. They say both rockets were delivered at the site simultaneously... 

India has test-launched its first long-range intercontinental ballistic missile, significantly upgrading the emerging Asian nation’s military capabilities. It has the capacity to target major Chinese cities and Europe. According to Indian media the missile was launched just after 8am local time from WheelerIsland off India’s east coast. It rose to an altitude of... 

TEPCO plans to use a robot today to photograph possible damage inside the suppression pool at the bottom of Fukushima’s damaged number 2 reactor. TEPCO is the operator of the tsunami damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. “We want to check whether there is no deformation or damage in the suppression pool. And, with any luck, we hope to see areas where... 

Over 50 Chinese cities are sinking into the ground because of the continuous subsidence of the soil. The excessive consumption of ground water is to blame. As its result, under many Chinese cities, including Beijing, the world’s largest underground funnels have formed. But there are other environmental problems in the country. In China lakes are evaporating, rivers... 

The Nepalese government has teamed up with notorious agricultural giant Monsanto to force farmers use its GMO seeds. The strain, banned in several EU countries, will be used to substitute imports and boost the starving nation’s maize production. ­Corn is one of Nepal’s biggest crops but the country produces only about half of what it needs for its feed industry,... 

A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening... 

Humiliating: North Korea, embarrassed by the failure of the much-hyped rocket launch, is now widely believed to be weighing undertaking its third nuclear test in order to show its military strength The United States will not go forward with planned food aid to North Korea, the White House said on Friday, after the impoverished nation’s unsuccessful launch of a... 

Baby Afreen: The three-month-old died at Vani Vilas Hospital in Bangalore after her own father allegedly beat her because she was born a girl instead of the son he desired For about a week, she tried hard to hold on and fight hard. But allegedly brutalised by her father for being born a girl, she stood little chance. Baby Neha Afreen died after a cardiac arrest in a government... 

In this file picture taken on April 8, 2012, the North Korean Unha-3 rocket is pictured at Tangachai-ri space center A North-Korean carrier rocket took off at 7:39 am local time on Wednesday. However, the launch has been confirmed to have failed. The North American Aerospace Defend Command (NORAD) says the first stage of the rocket fell into the sea, while the other two... 

David Cameron has given North Korea a stark warning over firing their rockets North Korea have threatened to launch a rocket into space today, which is believed by Americans to be a ballistic missile. During his trip to East Asia, David Cameron today warned North Korea not to launch the rocket as it would be in breach of UN resolution. The North Koreans claim that the... 

Indonesia’s Geophysical Agency has registered an 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the Aceh region, off the coast of northern Sumatra. A tsunami warning has been issued, the US Geological Survey reports. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency is sending a rescue team to Aceh, after the quake knocked out the province’s electricity and sent locals scrambling for... 

North Korea has threatened retaliation and “merciless punishment” against any country that shoots down the long-range rocket it is preparing to launch this coming week. Japan and South Korea have put their armed forces on standby in response to North Korea’s plans, prepared to shoot down the missile if it passes over their territory. North Korea was...