Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak criticised organisers of a weekend protest demanding his ouster, saying the timing and venue of the demonstration would clash with independence day parade rehearsals.
Vietnam said it will free more than 18,200 prisoners to mark its independence day celebrations, but political activists will be excluded from the country's second biggest-ever amnesty.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said nuclear weapons -- not negotiating skills -- secured what he described as a "landmark" agreement this week with South Korea.
Bars spilled joyous supporters into the streets of oil-rich Kazakhstan's capital Astana early after the Central Asian country's leading football club became its first to make the Champions League group stages.
Monarchist Prime Minister Tony Abbott insisted that efforts to resurrect a push for Australia to become a republic were doomed despite his treasurer's new role as a bipartisan torchbearer for the movement.
A Dutch lecturer accused a top university in Kazakhstan of sacking him after he tried to hold a talk on the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict", a claim denied by the university.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turkey to vote for "stability" in November 1 polls, as three pro-Kurdish MPs were invited into a caretaker government in an unprecedented move.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called snap polls after his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to form a coalition government with the opposition.
Reeva Steenkamp's devastated parents remain adamant Oscar Pistorius deliberately killed their daughter, telling Australian television their life has been ruined.
A huge blaze broke out Monday at steel plant near Tokyo's Haneda airport as television images showed plumes of thick black smoke and flames shooting up into the air.
North and South Korea sat down to urgent top-level talks, seeking some way out of an escalating crisis that has pushed both their militaries to the brink of an armed conflict.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev landed Saturday in the Kuril islands, prompting a swift rebuke from Tokyo, which claims sovereignty over the northwest Pacific archipelago in a long-running dispute.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he would call snap elections likely to be held on November 1, after coalition talks failed in an unprecedented political impasse.
Thailand's police chief insisted his officers were making "a lot of progress" in the hunt for the Bangkok shrine bomber despite the lack of arrests and mystery over the attackers' motives.