The Hamas government has decided to impose stricter rules on those caught smuggling drugs. Things don’t look good for those who get caught bringing drugs into the Gaza...

Sandra Gregory, the Briton jailed in Thailand in the 1990s for drug smuggling, has been deported after trying to enter the country. She was pardoned by the King of Thailand in 2000 after initially being sentenced to death in 1993. The 44-year-old, of West Yorkshire, had texted friends to say she was refused entry to Thailand, despite having a valid visa. It is understood the Thai authorities have put her on a plane to Qatar.

Security forces in the Philippines this morning raided the homes of the family suspected of last week’s massacre of 57 civilians, after recovering a buried arsenal of heavy weaponry. The finds included mortars, machine guns, anti-tank rockets, dozens of automatic assault rifles and hundreds of boxes of ammunition from a patch of ground close to the family compound of the Ampatuan family, a powerful local clan. Soldiers with sniffer dogs, metal detectors and a mechanical digger dug up a dozen more boxes of ammunition today from the compound itself.

Dinesh Shrestha is a photojournalist. But he is not a mainstream photographer like others. What he does, he claims, is “mission journalism.” And according to this mission journalism, people like him work for a specific purpose. “We tell news as it happens; we are there on the ground and report as we see it. And we do this for a reason,” he admits and derides the idea of “desk journalism” which, according to the scribe, tends to “assume a lot of things and remains far from facts.” An original of Gorkha, Shrestha was involved with “party activities” since his schooldays. By party, he meant the Maoists.

Many adventurers are driven to go to extremes. They visit remote places and seem to revel in the challenge and suffering that goes along with those expeditions. Back in 2006, a team of climbers from the U.K. took that philosophy to new limits, when they set out on an expedition that began at the Dead Sea and ended on the summit of Everest. The team began their adventure at 1385 feet below sea level on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan, where they climbed aboard their bikes and proceeded to ride all the way Everest Base Camp on the Tibetan side of the mountain. The journey took more than six months to complete, and they faced about every type of weather imaginable along the way.

A Chinese man has signed a contract with his wife that entitles her to attack him once a week. The 32-year-old man, who was named by the Chongqing Evening News as Mr Zhang, took the unusual step after suffering intense abuse from his wife, who studies kung fu. "I don't want to beat him, but arguments are inevitable and I can't help myself," his wife told the newspaper. She added that in the week before they signed the deal, she had beaten him up three times. Mr Zhang said his wife, who is a sales manager at a trading company, had studied kung fu since her childhood and that he was attracted to her "strong and independent temperament".

Hundreds of people marched through Bhopal with torches before dawn Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster and demand the cleanup of toxic chemicals they say still contaminate the Indian city's soil and water. Early on Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide spewed about 40 tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas into the city's air, quickly killing about 4,000 people. The lingering effects of the poison raised the death toll to about 15,000 over the next few years, according to government estimates.

FROM CNN IBN After two serving generals were indicted in a land scam in Darjeeling on Monday, in Chandigarh the government has scrapped a deal cleared by Punjab Governor, former army chief General Rodrigues. A decision from the court of inquiry in t...

All cash transactions in North Korea have been frozen after the Government’s shock decision to revalue the won currency in an effort to crack down on the country’s burgeoning free-market economy. In the capital, Pyongyang, today only the few shops and restaurants permitted to trade in foreign currencies, patronised by the privileged elite and the city’s small foreign population, were open for business.

Mascots in the shape of a heart and a condom are seen at a march during a campaign against HIV to mark World AIDS day in Bangkok December 1, 2009. (Reuters) A heart-shaped mascot is seen at a march during a campaign against HIV to mark World ...

“Only Maharjans, Shahis and Shresthas of the Newar community are permitted to cremate their dead at this site, and that too only if they are active member of one of the five guthis (associations) we have here,” says Chandra Mali, 36, pointing at the nearby cremation site. The cremation site is adjacent to the Bishnu Devi Temple – a shrine dedicated to one of the avatars of Goddess Parvati – and is legendary to the residents of the surrounding villages of Panga and Bhajangal in Kirtipur.

Some 1,000 journalists and activists marched Monday in the capital to protest the massacre in the southern Philippines of 57 civilians, including at least 30 journalists and their staff in the world's deadliest attack on the media. Clad mostly in black shirts and carrying a black mock coffin as well as placards calling for a stop to media killings, they demanded the arrest of all suspects in the Nov. 23 massacre in southern Maguindanao province.

Herâs' some weekend wanderlust inspiration for you. Get out and explore. Photo: *wanderings* Trying to find new markets or become a successful travel photographer? Grab Matador’s Free...

One year ago, Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital came under a well-coordinated terrorist attack...

Old trees are cut down in the center of Tashkent - the shocking news was spread in the city within a day. Planetrees, or platanus, planted at the end of the 19th...

Rare, heavy rainstorms soaked pilgrims and flooded the road into Mecca, snarling Islam’s annual hajj as millions of Muslims headed for the holy sites. The downpours add an extra hazard on top of intense concerns about the spread of swine flu. Pilgrims in white robes porting umbrellas, some wearing face masks for fear of the flu, circled the black cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, the opening rite for the hajj. But the shrine, Islam’s holiest site and the nearby, rain-soaked streets did not see the usual massive crowds, because many tried to stay inside nearby hotels or were caught up in the traffic jams heading into the city.

Tourism entrepreneurs in Nepali western Pokhara have urged tourists not to go on trekking alone, following a series of robberies in different trekking routes. According to tourism entrepreneurs, about half a dozen of robbery cases have been reported on different trekking routes around Pokhara. Local media myrepulica.com reported on Tuesday that tourism entrepreneurs had organized a meeting with security officials that requested all tourists to trek in company to avoid any untoward incidents.

Rescuers plucked a woman from choppy waters Monday, some 25 hours after she jumped from a crowded ferry that sank in a storm off Indonesia's Sumatra island. At least 29 people drowned, and 20 others were missing. A total of 255 survivors have been pulled from the sea since Sunday when the Dumai Express 10 was hit by towering waves and sank about 90 minutes into an inter-island trip from Batam to Dumai in Riau, a province off Sumatra island in western Indonesia. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but all its passengers were said to be safe.

Shanghai human rights activist Feng Zhenhu has been living and waiting in the hall of Japan's Narita airport since November 4 when he was barred from entering his own country by the Shanghai...

See Panda Diplomacy report on reuters.com A tough time for trade and diplomatic ties between China and Australia, but the loan of this cuddly couple may repair the rift. Wang Wang and Fu Ni, from China’s southwest Sichuan province, will be se...