Chinese authorities have seized 72 tons of milk powder tainted with melamine and are trying to track down an additional 100 tons, less than two years after contaminated milk killed babies and sickened people across China.

As they head toward a rendezvous with the international space station, crew members of the space shuttle Endeavour are checking for any signs of damage after Monday’s early morning launch.

A MAN was arrested on Monday evening for suspected involvement in loan-sharking activities.

The 29-year-old was caught when patrolling officers from Clementi Police Division spotted him loitering suspiciously at an ATM machine on Clementi Avenue 3.

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead, three Taliban sources said Tuesday.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave one more week to veteran Congress politician and former Andhra Pradesh Governor N D Tiwari to file his response on a paternity suit filed by a youth claiming to be his biological son.

Toyota’s president apologized profusely Tuesday, as he announced the global recall of more than 400,000 of the automaker’s 2010 hybrid models.

THE number of visitors to Singapore fell by 4.3 percent last year to 9.7 million, driving the revenue from the sector down 19.2 percent to $12.4 billion, the country’s tourism promotion agency said on Tuesday.

Michael Jackson’s father suspects his son was murdered and that Dr. Conrad Murray is “just a fall guy” in a conspiracy.

KUALA LUMPUR – MALAYSIA on Tuesday called on military-run Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of national elections it expects to be held around October.

‘We want a free, fair and an inclusive election. We should give everybody a chance, including Aung San Suu Kyi,’ Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told AFP, adding he thought the vote would be held ‘around October’.

THERE just a couple hundred parkour practitioners (or traceurs) in Singapore and out of these, only a handful are women according to Ashton Law, one of the pioneers of parkour here.

THERE just a couple hundred parkour practitioners (or traceurs) in Singapore and out of these, only a handful are women according to Ashton Law, one of the pioneers of parkour here.

MANILA – A FORMER close ally of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and 196 other people were on Tuesday charged with murder over an election-linked massacre, a prosecutor said.

Andal Ampatuan Sr, the head of a Muslim clan and the former governor of Maguindanao province where the slaughter of 57 people occurred last year, was among those charged with murder, according to papers filed in a Manila court.

KUALA LUMPUR – MALAYSIA said on Tuesday it needed to boost security surveillance in Borneo after gunmen travelling by boat abducted two men near a town cited in a US travel warning.

Police in Sabah state on Borneo said on Monday that Malaysia’s maritime border with the Philippines had been sealed off to prevent the gunmen escaping after they snatched the two men from a seaweed farm near the town of Semporna.

A fresh avalanche hit Kashmir Valley on Tuesday, killing an army jawan in Kupwara district, a day after 17 armymen met a similar fate during a winter warfare training exercise.

One local policeman was killed when separatist guerrillas attacked a police station in north Kashmir’s Sopore town on Tuesday morning.

Toyota announced a global recall Tuesday for three of its 2010 hybrid models — the Prius, Sai and Lexus HS250h – - totaling about 400,000 vehicles.

THE art dealer is accusing an ex-lover of refusing to return hundred of thousands of dollars worth of antiques out of spite.

Continuing his testimony on Tuesday, Mr Subhash Kapoor, 61, the managing director of New York-based Art of the Past, said he had been intimate with Ms Paramaspry Punusamy, 54, since 1998 but never mixed business with pleasure.

THE art dealer is accusing an ex-lover of refusing to return hundred of thousands of dollars worth of antiques out of spite.

Continuing his testimony on Tuesday, Mr Subhash Kapoor, 61, the managing director of New York-based Art of the Past, said he had been intimate with Ms Paramaspry Punusamy, 54, since 1998 but never mixed business with pleasure.

A PORT operation executive who sent a false e-mail about a bomb at a train car and station was jailed for six months on Tuesday.

Chu Seng Chou, 37, had earlier pleaded guilty to transmitting the false message to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ feedback section from his Chai Chee home on Feb 26 last year (09).

MANILA – THE Philippine election season kicked off on Tuesday with the world’s best boxer and the defiant wife of a dead dictator among the dizzying array of characters hoping to grab a share of power.

The nation’s chaotic brand of democracy will see 50 million voters choose a new president and thousands of lower positions on May 10, but observers warned candidates’ promises of change were likely to prove hollow. The official start of the election season on Tuesday allowed the presidential candidates to hold rallies and appeal directly to people for their votes, while spending limits on advertising took effect.

SC has directed the Allahabad HC to dispose of within four months a batch of writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Mayawati government’s decision to construct memorials and statues of Dalit icons

PUTRAJAYA, KUALA LUMPUR – AFTER a year-long legal tussle, Barisan Nasional’s Zambry Kadir was declared the rightful Menteri Besar (MB) of Perak in a unanimous decision made by the Federal Court on Tuesday morning.

Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) ousted MB Nizar Jamaluddin accepted the decision calmly. He said the decision was not unexpected but felt that democracy has been snatched from the people.