The Court of Appeals has ruled that the field trials for genetically-modified, pest-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) talong (eggplant) have not yet proven the plants to be safe for humans and the environment. More »PHL court orders end to genetically-modified eggplant field trials
Militants killed four soldiers Friday in an ambush outside Srinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir, sparking a gun battle in which one rebel also died, local officials said. More »Militants kill four soldiers in Indian Kashmir
JAKARTA, May 24 (Reuters) - Indonesian andVietnamese shares rebounded from their previous session'ssteep falls, while most Southeast Asian markets were closed onFriday for a local holiday. Jakarta's Composite Index rose 0.66 percent to 5,155.09,boosted by a 2 percent jump in property shares. Vietnam's broader benchmark index closed up 0.4 percent asinstitutional investors bought shares of real estate andbuilding materials companies on expectation of a boost to theeconomy, and on lower inflation numbers. The Philippine index closed 0.62 percent lower at7,268.91. ... More »SE Asia Stocks-Indonesia, Vietnam recover from previous session's falls
By Yoshiyuki Osada OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Two elderly South Korean women forced to work in Japanese war-time military brothels cancelled a meeting on Friday with the mayor of the city of Osaka after he refused to withdraw remarks asserting the brothels were "necessary" at the time. The mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, an outspoken populist who has often stirred controversy, sparked a storm of criticism at home and abroad when he said last week that the military brothels had been needed, and Japan has been unfairly singled out for wartime practices common among other militaries. ... More »Korean women scrap meeting Japanese mayor over brothel remarks
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Friday it had forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad's army, one day after foreign backers of his rebel foes demanded Tehran withdraw its fighters from Syrian territory. "The true enemies of Syria make up these accusations to provoke the people of this country," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said, quoted by Iranian state television. At a meeting in Jordan on Thursday, the Friends of Syria grouping of Western and Arab governments called for the immediate withdrawl from Syria of Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. ... More »Iran denies it has forces in Syria
Syria's most powerful ally Russia said Friday that the Damascus regime had agreed "in principle" to attend an international peace conference on the crisis that world powers hope will take place in Geneva in June. More »Syria regime agrees to attend peace conference: Russia
By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - A colliding truck may have triggered the collapse on Thursday of part of a four-lane freeway bridge that sent vehicles and drivers tumbling into a frigid river in Washington state, officials said. A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into what led part of the Interstate 5 bridge to fall into the Skagit River 55 miles north of Seattle was expected to continue on Friday. Two of the three people rescued from the river were hospitalized with hypothermia, but no one died, officials said. ... More »Truck strike may have caused Washington state bridge collapse, officials says
Turkey's parliament on Friday passed a controversial law restricting the consumption and advertising of alcohol in the predominantly Muslim country. More »Turkish parliament passes law curbing alcohol sales
LONDON (Reuters) - Dramatic video footage showing the moment when police shot the two men suspected of hacking to death a soldier in London was published on a British newspaper's website on Friday. The shaky, 10-second clip shows one of the men sprinting towards a police car with a knife in his hand before he is shot and tumbles to the ground. The second man appears to aim a gun at the police and is then shot. Soldier Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old who served in Afghanistan, was hacked to death near an army barracks in south London on Wednesday. ... More »Video shows British police shooting soldier's suspected killers
Chinese hospitals are, to put it mildly, a bureaucratic nightmare. Just checking into one generally involves, among other processes, waiting in line to take a number and often also waiting in another line ... More »Beijing Shuts Down Taobao's 'Take a Number' Service for Hospitals, But Consumers Cry Foul
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet on Friday formally denied months-long rumours that the premier had not moved into his official residence over fears the mansion is haunted. More »Tokyo denies 'ghosts' keeping PM out of residence
Relief workers and clean-up crews defied thunderstorms while families and friends gathered for the funeral of one of the Oklahoma tornado's youngest victims. More »Tornado-hit US city mourns and rebuilds
BEIJING (Reuters) - China hopes that this week's visit by a senior North Korean envoy can ease tension in the region and help spur efforts to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday. Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, met Chinese officials in the highest-ranking visit by an official from Pyongyang in about six months. ... More »China says hopes visit of North Korean envoy can ease tension
More than a dozen cars were torched and schools, shops and a police station were set ablaze as riots swept through Stockholm's immigrant-dominated suburbs for the fifth straight night, police and firefighters said Friday. More »Cars, schools torched in fifth night of Stockholm riots
* Taiwan dlr up on exporters; intervention caps - traders * Philippine peso, won gains on short-covering (Adds text, updates prices) By Jongwoo Cheon SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - Most emerging currencies reboundedon Friday on pre-weekend short-covering in choppy trading, butinvestors hesitated to chase regional units due to shakyJapanese financial markets and expectations of a shift in U.S.monetary policy. The Taiwan dollar rose on demand from exporters,while the Philippine peso and the South Korean won advanced as investors covered bearish bets. ... More »EM ASIA FX-Short-covering supports Asia FX, but sentiment fragile
Facebook users may have to be wary of a browser extension targeting Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome, as it can hijack their profiles. More »Facebook users warned: Rogue browser extensions can hijack profiles
A South Korean government commission will probe a $20 billion effort to dredge, dam and beautify four major rivers that has been tainted by charges of environmental damage, cost-overruns and corruption. More »S.Korea commission to probe $20 bln river project
Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano remained the poorest congressman in the 15th Congress, a document from the House of Representatives showed. More »Meet PH's poorest congressman
Two South Korean women forcibly drafted into Japanese military brothels during World War II have cancelled a meeting with a Japanese mayor who sparked outrage by calling them a wartime necessity. More »'Comfort women' cancel meeting with Japan mayor
Google could be putting one over social networking juggernaut Facebook—by letting users of its Google+ social network search for the photos they uploaded to the Facebook rival. More »Google+ amps up photo search AI
Will Apple Inc. release its rumored iPhone 5S and budget iPhone in several colors, including black but excluding white? More »Budget rainbow-colored iPhones coming soon?
Vietnamese inflation slowed to its weakest pace in eight months in May, official data showed on Friday, in the latest sign that the communist-run economy is cooling. More »Vietnamese inflation lowest in eight months
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved to allay fears about the economy on Friday saying it had strong fundamentals, after US carmaker Ford announced an end to production in the country. More »Australia economy strong despite end to Ford production: PM
If you think 3D printing is just another fad or a useless hobby, think again: a 3D-printed body part just saved a baby's life. More »3D-printed airway saves baby's life
By Matt Spetalnick and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twelve years after the "war on terror" began, President Barack Obama wants to pull the United States back from some of the most controversial aspects of its global fight against Islamist militants. In a major policy speech on Thursday, Obama narrowed the scope of the targeted-killing drone campaign against al Qaeda and its allies and took steps toward closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. He acknowledged the past use of "torture" in U.S. ... More »Obama seeks end to perpetual U.S. 'war on terror'