Asia Pacific News

Jetstar 'sorry' after taking Paralympic hero's wheelchair

MELBOURNE (AFP) - - Australian budget airline Jetstar apologised on Tuesday after making a Paralympic champion check in his wheelchair before catching a flight, prompting him to drag himself through the airport.

Troops deployed after Philippine massacre: military

MANILA (AFP) - - Hundreds of extra troops have been deployed in the southern Philippines after gunmen believed linked to a local politician kidnapped and killed at least 22 people, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

6 more bodies uncovered in Philippine massacre

AMPATUAN, Philippines - Authorities have recovered six more bodies, bringing the death toll to 52 in one of the Philippines' worst election massacres.

Thailand tightens sex change laws

BANGKOK (AFP) - - Punlop Tongchai is awake for the entire two hours it takes to be turned into a woman on the operating table of a Bangkok sex change clinic, realising a childhood dream.

Japanese woman faces death penalty in Malaysia

BANTING, Malaysia (AFP) - - A Japanese woman was charged in a Malaysian court Wednesday with trafficking 4.7 kilograms (10 pounds) of methamphetamines, and faces the death penalty if convicted.

Malaysian woman tries to reverse Muslim conversion

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian woman is fighting to be recognized as a Hindu after being converted to Islam when she was a child, in the latest interfaith dispute to hit Muslim-majority Malaysia, her lawyer said Wednesday.

India is 'indispensable': Obama

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Barack Obama threw the biggest party of his presidency for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hailing the world's largest democracy as "indispensable" and pledging to work out a range of thorny issues.

Man slashed by kangaroo while trying to rescue dog

MELBOURNE, Australia - An Australian man was in stable condition Monday after being slashed across the abdomen and face by a kangaroo that was holding his dog underwater.

China executes two over tainted milk scandal

BEIJING (AFP) - - China executed two men on Tuesday for their roles in a contaminated milk powder scandal last year that led to the deaths of at least six infants and sickened up to 300,000, state media said.

Four US teens 'wanted for attempted murder' in Japan

TOKYO (AFP) - - Japanese police plan to arrest on suspicion of attempted murder four children of US military personnel after a motorcyclist was badly injured by a rope stretched across a road, according to media reports.

'Amazing' Bangladeshi twins out of intensive care

MELBOURNE (AFP) - - Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna are out of intensive care and seeing each other for the first time as they make an "amazing" recovery from surgery to separate their conjoined heads, doctors said Tuesday.

Former Thai PM Samak dies at 74

BANGKOK (AFP) - - Former Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej, who was forced from office in 2008 for starring in television cooking shows, died of liver cancer Tuesday at the age of 74, associates said.

Festival of mass animal sacrifice begins in Nepal

200,000 animals to be sacrificed at Nepal festival

KATMANDU, Nepal - Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered at a temple in southern Nepal on Tuesday for a ceremony involving the slaughter of more than 200,000 animals, a festival that has drawn the ire of animal-welfare protesters.