UK officials have sought to play down low voter turnout in Afghanistan's elections amid reports just 150 people cast their ballots in an area where four British troops died securing it from the Taliban. British media claimed that early estimates of ballots in the former Taliban stronghold of Babaji in Helmand province indicated few exercised their voting rights, despite the efforts of Operation Panther's Claw, a five-week offensive against militants in the region. The claims have fueled debate in ...

South Korea's Yang Yong-Eun's historic victory over Tiger Woods in the U.S. PGA Championship ensured he became the first Asian-born male winner of a major and prompted an excited reaction across the world of golf. The 37-year-old was two shots adrift of overnight leader Woods but kept his cool to card 70 to the American's 75 to win by three on the final green at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota. South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak got up ...

A bomb threat forced authorities in China's remote northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region to bar a plane from landing in the city of Urumqi, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported Sunday.

One year after Russian tanks rolled into the former Soviet republic of Georgia, the conflict that erupted over a breakaway territory continues to stoke tensions in the region, with repercussions around the world. Earlier this month, Georgia and the Russian-backed enclave of South Ossetia accuse each other of violating a cease-fire that ended the brief conflict. In another development with global consequences, an attempt to silence a pro-Georgia blogger with a cyber attack resulted in severe disruptions to social networking ...

Baitullah Mehsud is a natural leader: cagey, dogged and charismatic, with an apparent knack for uniting disparate factions around a common cause. But instead of channeling those talents toward building an empire, Mehsud is trying to bring one to its knees. The shadowy Pakistani Taliban commander, whose vertiginous rise to infamy landed him on 2008's TIME 100 List, has transformed the badlands of South Waziristan into al-Qaeda's most important redoubt. Among the atrocities attributed to Mehsud is the brazen ...

The European Tour looks set to suffer a major body blow this week when it announces a reduction in prize money for this year's flagship $20 million Race to Dubai and Dubai World Championships. A golf insider from the region has told CNN that the impact of the credit crunch on Leisurecorp, the company behind the concept, and the fact the Dubai World Championship has not attracted the handful of marquee sponsors hoped for, has led to a decision to ...

Some 700 people have been killed in clashes with Islamic militants in Nigeria, a military commander told CNN. The fighting in the northeast Nigerian town of Maiduguri began with attacks by the Muslim militants on police and government targets, starting a week ago. Col. Ben Ahonotu, commander of the operation to combat Islamic militants, gave the new total. Previous reports said at least 400 rebels, troops and civilians had died in the region, including Borno, Yobe, Kano and Katsina states. ...

An Al Qaeda-linked militant group waging war against Somalia's fragile government is becoming an increasing threat to Western ally Kenya and could potentially destabilize the region with dire consequences for global security, officials and analysts warn. Al-Shabaab, one of the strongest Islamic militias battling for control of Mogadishu, has gained ground in recent weeks, according to officials, and has started to flex its muscles beyond Somalia's border with terror strikes, kidnappings and recruitment drives. They warn that unless the world ...

On July 30, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev sat down for talks with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries that sit in the crosshairs of the U.S.-led war on terror. The meeting with Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Zardari, took place in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. Reportedly on the table were plans to beef up trade ties as well as improve cooperation in the fight against Islamist extremism — clear signs, experts say, that ...

The earthquake in Sichuan, southern China last May left around 69,000 people dead and 15 million people displaced. Now ecologists have assessed the earthquake's impact on biodiversity and the habitat for some of the last existing wild giant pandas. According to the report published in "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment", 23 percent of the pandas' habitat in the study area was destroyed, and fragmentation of the remaining habitat could hinder panda reproduction. The Sichuan region is designated ...