UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Tuesday called for "an orderly and peaceful transition" in Egypt and voiced his hope that "genuine dialogue between the leaders and the people will lead to the beginning of such a process."

 East China's Shandong Province, one of the country's major grain producers, is bracing for its worst drought in 200 years.

A 1,000-year-old building is believed to have been destroyed in a fire at a Buddhist temple in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province, Monday.

Over 40,000 cases of cancer among children are being reported in India every year, the Indo-Asian News Service Sunday said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US State Secretary Hillary Clinton will exchange the instruments of ratification for the New START arms reduction treaty on February 5.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomes NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen for bilateral talks at last year's Munich Security Conference Revolt in Egypt and the implications for the Middle East are set to be key talking points for top defence officials at this year's conference.

 Egypt's army has vowed it will not use force against the tens of thousands of people protesting for the removal of President Hosni Mubarak from office.

The government's call for protesters to obey a curfew and low-flying fighter jets overhead did nothing to deter thousands of Egyptians from continuing their protests, raising prospects that demonstrations could continue for a seventh day on January 31, when the U.S. plans to begin flying thousands of Americans out of the country. 

The annual meeting of the 41st World Economic Forum (WEF) ended on January 30 in the Swiss Alpine ski resort of Davos with a sense of cautious optimism. 

The man who detonated a bomb at Domodedovo Airport in Moscow on January 25, killing 35 people, was a 20-year-old from the North Caucasus, the Russian Investigative Committee said on January 29.

More than 100 people have been killed during anti-government protests that have swept Egypt, according to reports from medical sources, hospitals and witnesses.

Overseas Vietnamese in the Republic of Korea and Bangladesh joined other Vietnamese communities worldwide in celebrating the Lunar New Year (Tet), the eve of which falls on February 2 this year.

Researchers said the cholera bacterium today is more deadly than its previous types, urging that vaccines should be considered even after an outbreak starts, according to media reports Friday.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Laos hosted a get-together to welcome the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival in Vientiane on January 25.

Iran on Wednesday reopened its border with Pakistan, which was closed after two suicide attacks in an Iranian border city, blamed on Pakistan-based anti-Iran group, officials said.