N Korea offers US talks over nuclear impasse

Proposal follows US refusal to end decades-old military drills with Seoul as condition to suspending nuclear tests. North Korea has offered holding talks with the United States in a renewed bid to sway Washington after it rejected Pyongyang's proposal to suspend nuclear tests under the condition that annual US military drills with South Korea were put off.

Japan approves record defence budget

Record $42b budget is to boost defences of disputed islands amid China's assertiveness in the region. Japan's cabinet has approved the country's largest defence budget, with plans to buy surveillance aircraft and F-35 fighter jets to improve defences of disputed islands amid China's increasing assertiveness in the region.

S Korea arrests activist for 'praising' North

Former politician arrested for praising North Korea, just days after her colleague was deported for similar offence. South Korean authorities have arrested an activist and former leftist politician for praising neighbouring North Korea.The move to arrest Lee Hwang Sun, leftist politician and a pro-unification activist on Wednesday, comes days after authorities deported another Korean-American woman for the same offence.

Twelve Vietnamese workers trapped in collapsed tunnel

Rescuers drilled a hole through a collapsed tunnel in central Vietnam and were communicating with 12 trapped workers who said they were safe on Wednesday, according to an official.

UN General Assembly seeks North Korea ICC charges

The UN General Assembly has voted in favour of referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity.

The resolution was passed by 116 votes to 20, with more than 50 abstentions.

Australia PM orders investigation after
gunman dropped off watch list

Australians laid mounds of flowers at the site where a gunman held hostages for 16 hours at a popular Sydney cafe. The siege ended early Tuesday with a barrage of gunfire that left two hostages and the Iranian-born gunman dead, and a nation that has long prided itself on its peace rocked to its core.Prime Minister Tony Abbott joined the outpouring of national mourning and laid a bouquet at Martin Place, the plaza in Sydney's financial and shopping district where the crisis occurred that has since become the site of a makeshift memorial.

Deaths reported in China 'terrorist attack'

State news agency says 15 people, including 11 assailants, killed in Shache district of violence-hit western region. Up to 15 people have been killed in an attack in China's western Xinjiang region, according to the state news agency. Xinhua said besides the dead, 14 people were injured in what it said was a terrorist attack on Friday in Shache county. The Tianshan news portal said on Saturday that the attackers used vehicles, knives and explosives in the assault. The dead included 11 of the attackers, it said.

China to end using executed prisoners' organs

Under pressure from human rights groups, China set January 1 to end using executed prisoners for organ transplants. China has said it will stop relying on executed prisoners as the source of transplanting organs, in response to human rights concerns, although uncertainties linger over where a replacement supply will come from, state media reported. China has previously said it would phase out the practice by sometime in early 2015, but state media on Thursday reported January 1 as the first firm date to end the practice, citing the architect of China's transplant system, Huang Jiefu.

Lockdown lifted at US base in South Korea

Lockdown on Osan Air Base was put in place as precaution after an unscheduled "active shooter drill" was reported. The US Osan Air Base in South Korea lifted a lockdown that had been ordered as a precaution after someone reported an unscheduled "active shooter drill" at a high school on the base. Security forces swept the school and its perimeters and found no injuries or suspicious activities, according to a posting on the base's Facebook site on Monday.

China jails 'wild imams' in mass crackdown

China has imprisoned almost two dozen people - mostly Muslim religious leaders - in the western region of Xinjiang, in a stepped up crackdown on "illegal religious activities", Chinese media reported.

The 22 suspects, including so-called "wild imams", were given prison terms ranging from five to 16 years at a mass public sentencing in Xinjiang on Monday, the state-run China News Service reported.

Report accuses Myanmar generals of war crimes

Military activities carried out by Myanmar's powerful minister of home affairs when the country was under army dictatorship could constitute war crimes, a new study has said.

Human rights researchers at Harvard Law School said in the report released on Friday that there was evidence that Home Affairs Minister Ko Ko and two other generals were responsible for the executions, torture and enslavement of civilians by troops during a large-scale offensive against ethnic rebels of the Karen state between 2005 and 2008.

Japan to restart nuclear energy production

Local officials have approved to restart a nuclear power plant in Japan's south, ushering the country's return to nuclear power generation more than three years after the Fukushima disaster. Kagoshima Governor Yuichiro Ito said two reactors at the Sendai Nuclear Power Station would be restarted despite concerns among some local residents.