The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday it had failed to secure an agreement with Iran during talks over disputed atomic activities and that the Islamic Republic had rejected a request to visit a military site. The failure of the two-day meeting may hamper any resumption of wider nuclear negotiations between Iran and six [...]

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned Wednesday, his office said, amid speculation that he might mount a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Australian media have been abuzz in recent days with reports that Rudd is considering contesting Gillard’s leadership of the governing Labor Party. Observers predicted a showdown could take place next [...]

Police don’t travel far to monitor the goings-on at the Gami Temple at the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The police station sits inside the monastery, just outside the gates to the main prayer hall. Smothering security has become a fact of life in China’s Tibetan areas, from police stationed around monasteries to document checks [...]

Officials with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency begin a second round of talks Monday with Iranian officials over the country’s nuclear program, a day after Tehran cut off crude exports to British and French companies in retaliation for a new round of sanctions imposed on the regime. The two days of talks come amid heightened [...]

A leading Chinese newspaper accused Western countries on Monday of stirring civil war in Syria, where police and militia patrols clamped down on a district of the capital to prevent new demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad. After almost a year of protests against Assad’s 11-year rule, the uprising has moved to his centre of power [...]

South Korea conducted live-fire military drills near its disputed sea boundary with North Korea on Monday despite Pyongyang’s threat to respond with a “merciless” attack — a threat it did not immediately make good on. Analysts said North Korea was unlikely to respond with more than words because it is focusing on internal stability two [...]

  Burmese monk Shin Gambira, one of the leaders of anti-government protests in 2007, will face fresh legal action, according to state media. He is accused of staying in a monastery that had been sealed by the authorities and of breaking into two others. Gambira had been released as part of an amnesty last month, [...]

China said on Sunday it believed a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis was still possible as any armed intervention would only spread turmoil through the region, but Britain’s foreign minister said he feared Syria will slide into civil war. The comments were published by the official Xinhua news agency a day after a Chinese [...]

  Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is in Pakistan for talks expected to focus on attempts to bring the Taliban into the peace process. Mr Karzai is likely to tackle claims that Pakistani military personnel continue to support the insurgency. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to join the meeting later for talks focusing on trade [...]

The 358 prisoners who died when a Honduran prison burned down had been locked inside an overcrowded penitentiary where most inmates had never been charged or convicted, according to an internal Honduran government report. More than half of the 856 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected [...]