Australian trade unions have urged the Labor government led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard to overturn a decision by her immigration minister to allow an iron ore mining project in Western Australia to import 1,700 overseas workers. Most of this crucial resource is expected be exported to the rapidly developing Asian economies like China and India.

 Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the Afghan parliament, Saturday ratified a strategic partnership agreement signed by President Hamid Karzai and his US counterpart Barack Obama.

An armed group called the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) blew up a power grid post in Myanmar's northern Shan state, state media reported Saturday.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered stern action against those involved in the killing of participants at a political rally in Karachi.

At least 11 people were injured Saturday in a grenade attack in Karachi, Dawn News reported.

A prime accused in the murder of a reporter of Pakistan's Geo News channel was killed Saturday in a firefight with police in Karachi.

A man has been arrested in Finland on charges of killing one person and injuring eight early Saturday, Xinhua reported.

At least 15 people, including three women and a child, were killed and 30 others injured when a speeding bus overturned in Pakistan's Punjab province, police said Saturday.

The situation in Syria "remains extremely serious" and UN efforts to end the political crisis in the country have seen only "small progress", UN  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said in a report to the Security Council.

Highlighting the "human dimension" of an adopted Indian American woman who faces deportation 30 years after she came here, India has asked the US to ensure her case is treated with the utmost sensitivity and compassion.