Asia

This video image released by Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research shows animal rights group Sea Shepherd's boat Ady Gil (left) after a collision with Japan's whaling ship Shonan Maru No. 2 (right) in Antarctic waters. The space-age powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers was rammed and sliced in two in its very first clash, activists said. © AFP/HO Institute Of Cetacean Research

SYDNEY (AFP) - A space-age powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers was rammed and sliced in two in its very first clash on Wednesday, activists said, dramatically escalating hostilities in icy Antarctic ...

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama speaks to reporters infront of his residence in Tokyo. Hatoyama said he had picked his deputy Naoto Kan as finance minister, replacing 77-year-old Hirohisa Fujii who is resigning for health reasons. © AFP/Jiji Press Str

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's prime minister named his deputy Naoto Kan as finance minister Wednesday, replacing 77-year-old Hirohisa Fujii who is stepping down for health reasons in a blow to the three-month-old ...

Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to tell the world of the horrors, is seen here in 2008. Yamaguchi has died at the age of 93. © AFP/Jiji Press/File

TOKYO (AFP) - Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived the US atomic bombings of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to tell the world of the horrors, has succumbed to stomach cancer, his family said Wednesday.

Yamaguchi, ...

Handout photo issued by the National Disaster Management Office shows a local man checking damage after a series of powerful earthquakes and a 2.5 metre tsunami struck the Solomon Islands. A string of fresh earthquakes have rocked the island chain but there have been no early reports of damage or casualties, officials have said. © AFP/HO/NDMO/File

MUNDA, Solomon Islands (AFP) - A string of fresh earthquakes rocked the western Solomon Islands late Tuesday and through Wednesday but there were no early reports of damage or casualties, officials said.

The ...

Sea Shepherd Society issued photo shows the vessel, the 'Ady Gil'. The futuristic powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers has been sliced in two and is sinking after a clash in Antarctic waters, a report has said. © AFP/HO/Sea Shepherd Conservation/File

SYDNEY (AFP) - A futuristic powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers has been sliced in two and is sinking after a clash in Antarctic waters, activists said on Wednesday.

All six crew on the Ady Gil trimaran, ...

Rescuers evacuate passengers trapped in a train after heavy snowfall in Ulan Bator, China's Inner Mongolia region. Extreme weather has brought more travel chaos to north China, stranding thousands of truckers for two days on a Beijing highway and 1,400 rail passengers in Inner Mongolia, state media has said. © AFP

BEIJING (AFP) - The Chinese capital was in the grip of its coldest weather in 20 years Tuesday after snow storms caused chaos, while South Korea sent out an army of civil servants and soldiers to clear clogged ...

Police officers escort Andal Ampatuan Jnr (right), the prime suspect in the country's worst political massacre, inside a court in Manila on January 5. Ampatuan Jnr has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder after appearing in the special police court. © AFP Ted Aljibe

MANILA (AFP) - The prime suspect in the massacre of 57 people in the volatile southern Philippines last year pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to multiple counts of murder.

The case against Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a local ...

Police officers escort Andal Ampatuan Jnr (right), the prime suspect in the country's worst political massacre, inside a court in Manila on January 5. Ampatuan Jnr has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder after appearing in the special police court. © AFP Ted Aljibe

MANILA (AFP) - The prime suspect in the worst political massacre in the Philippines pleaded not guilty when he appeared in a special police court on Tuesday on multiple counts of murder.

The case against Andal ...

A snow truck clears the snow on Tiananmen Square after a heavy snowfall in Beijing. Planes were grounded and thousands of schools were forced to close as the heaviest snow in over six decades blanketed Beijing and Seoul, with temperatures plummeting across much of Asia. © AFP Str

BEIJING (AFP) - Planes were grounded and thousands of schools were forced to close as the heaviest snow in over six decades blanketed Beijing and Seoul on Monday, with temperatures plummeting across much of ...