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(AP) - LAHORE, Pakistan - Pakistani police arrested 12 foreign militants in a remote area Friday after they sneaked into the country from neighboring Iran, an official said. The men from Sudan, Russia, Turkey and Iran were nabbed in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan, said Hassan Iqbal, a district official. Police also seized a laptop computer and US$10,000 from the men, he said. The detainees “had links with Taliban” and they wanted to go to Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region, Iqbal said without giving further details. South Waziristan is a stronghold of former Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud who was killed in a CIA missile strike earlier this month. Pakistan is a key ally of…

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s president says he will not meet with the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan spiritual leader visits the island Sunday to comfort victims of the island’s worst storm in half a century. All parties involved, including China and the Taiwanese opposition, have big stakes in what happens during the five-day visit. China has long vilified the Dalai Lama for what it says are his attempts to fight for independence in Tibet, which has been under Communist rule for decades. Beijing routinely lashes out at…

Fresh fighting in northeast Myanmar has erupted after days of clashes that killed at least one person on Chinese territory and sent dozens of wounded people to hospitals along the Chinese border. Thousands of people have fled to the border town of Nansan in China’s Yunnan province this month after clashes in Kokang in Myanmar’s Shan state, following the deployment of Myanmar government troops in the area. A wave of “furious” fighting began in the border area at around 8.15am on Saturday morning and is continuing, a report on the website of the Chinese newspaper Global Times said. Myanmar groups in exile said the fighting began after the Myanmar military took control of facilities run by the…

AP - Jimena developed into a dangerous Category 4 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast Sunday, threatening to hit the Baja California peninsula as a major hurricane in coming days.

TOKYO — The conservative party that has run Japan for virtually all of the past 54 years was widely expected to face overwhelming defeat as candidates made their final pitches Saturday in one of the most heated parliamentary elections in decades. All major media polls have forecast that the Liberal Democratic Party will lose badly to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in Sunday’s balloting for the 480 seats in the powerful lower house of parliament. If it does, opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama is likely to become prime minister and form the country’s first non-LDP Cabinet in more than a decade and only its second since the party was created in 1955. CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS More World…

The United States may refuse a visa to Hamid Karzai’s running mate in the election because of his alleged links with the drug trade. Muhammed Fahim, due to become vice-president if Mr Karzai wins, has been accused by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of being involved in opium trafficking. American officials say this could make it legally impossible to let him enter the US. The controversy over Mr Fahim, defence minister in Mr Karzai’s last government, is yet another sign of rising tension between Washington and the incumbent president. The Independent revealed this week how Richard Holbrooke, the American envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, clashed with Mr Karzai over his choice of…

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Coast Guard says North Korea has freed four South Korean fishermen and their boat. Coast Guard spokesman Kim Tae-jong said Saturday the two Coast Guard vessels retrieved the fisherman and the boat from North Korea along their shared eastern sea border. North Korea seized the fishermen and held them for a month after their boat strayed into northern waters because of a problem with its satellite navigation system. Latest from world news…