Japan's cabinet on Friday rubber-stamped a package of government reforms aimed at rebooting the economy, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe readied to explain the measures to fellow G-8 leaders.

Vietnamese police have arrested one of the country's best known bloggers for posting criticism of the communist government, intensifying a crackdown against Internet-fuelled dissent in the one-party, authoritarian state.

An Australian radio presenter was sacked Friday after sparking outrage by pressing embattled Prime Minister Julia Gillard on air whether her hairdresser boyfriend Tim Mathieson is gay.

A former senior Singapore civil servant was jailed for six months Thursday for receiving oral sex from a female executive of a supplier company in return for business favours.

The Dalai Lama waded into Australia's bitter gender war Thursday, saying his successor as the spiritual leader of the Tibetans could be a woman.

Dozens of suspected Maoist rebels fired at a passenger train passing through their stronghold in eastern India on Thursday, killing three people and injuring two others, police said.

Going straight after a lifetime spent as a member of Japan's feared yakuza organized crime mobs poses a number of challenges. Chief among them is what to do about the fingers you chopped off.

Thailand Thursday expressed impatience at continuing insurgent violence in its Muslim-majority south as delegates began a third round of peace talks in the Malaysian capital with the rebels.

After months of denial and an inexplicably huge surge in home runs, Japan's baseball chiefs have admitted they secretly switched the design of the ball to make the game more exciting.

North Korea played hard to get Wednesday following the scrapping of high-level talks with South Korea, refusing to answer calls from Seoul on a recently restored inter-government hotline.