U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that Myanmar's junta chief rejected his initial request to meet jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a rocky start to what he has called "a very tough mission" to win her freedom.

Scientists have confirmed for the first time that Australia was once home to a dinosaur that was big, fast and terrifying, and they've named it like something from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Meet the Australovenator.

Japan and Hong Kong reported Friday that they have each found a patient with the type of swine flu that has proven resistance to Tamiflu -- days after Denmark reported the first such case.

U.S. missiles struck a training facility operated by Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and a militant communication center Friday, killing 17 people and wounding 27 others, intelligence officials said.

South Korea shrugged off North Korea's firing of short-range missiles saying Friday they were part of routine military exercises and warning more launches are likely in coming days.

A Philippine police officer has been accused of killing a radio commentator outside his house last month, an official said Friday.

The economic downturn is allowing Malaysia's leader to chip away at an affirmative action program for Malay Muslims that has been considered virtually untouchable in the past.

U.S. Marines moved into villages in Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan on Friday, meeting little resistance as they tried to win over local chiefs on the second day of the biggest military operation here since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

South Korea said Friday it is closely monitoring North Korean military sites because the communist nation may fire more missiles, amid speculation that a long-range test launch aimed toward the U.S. is possible in coming days.

U.S. forces have encountered little resistance in the initial phase of a massive operation by some 4,000 Marines in Taliban-controlled areas of southern Afghanistan, but that's a common tactic by insurgents.