A local tsunami alert has been lifted after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Sumatra, Indonesia.

Pakistan will investigate alleged links between the Times Square bombing accused and militant groups operating in the country.

Guns, temples and French replicas punctuate Laos, says Brett Atkinson.

Laos' bizarre capital is a languid collection of wide French-style avenues furnished with cruising tuk tuks, and plane-tree studded neighbourhoods dotted with Buddhist temples and French colonial architecture.

A NZ schoolboys cricket team has travelled to play in India for two weeks despite a Mfat warning of an "extreme risk" of terrorism.

A major hospital has evacuated patients and suspended all but emergency surgery.

In Manipur, locals coyly point out that, unlike many varieties of chilli, umorok burns while entering the body but not on the way out.

China is undergoing an awful wave of frenzied attacks on schoolchildren by knife-weilding men.

A Chinese gymnast, now living in Huntly, has been stripped of an Olympic bronze medal for being too young during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.