For all his laudable composure after the high tension on Tuesday, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej did display a worrisome blip: he urged the Thai media to choose sides.

A brothel owner who smuggled five Thai women into Australia to be prostitutes had her conviction and 10-year sentence for sex slavery upheld by the High Court on Thursday (28 Aug) in the first case of its kind in the country.

Demonstrators occupying the grounds of the Thai prime minister's office formed human chains around their leaders Thursday, hoping to prevent their arrest for organizing the takeover.

Aid workers stepped up food assistance Thursday (28 Aug) to hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in the southern Philippines, as fighting eased after government troops overran 18 Muslim rebel camps in a 10-day offensive.

South Korea’s government arrested an alleged North Korean spy earlier this month for passing confidential military information to Pyongyang, investigators said Wednesday (27 Aug).

Kidnapped Japanese aid worker Kazuya Ito was found dead Wednesday (27 Aug) in a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, according to Ichita Yamamoto, senior vice minister of Japan's foreign ministry.

The world Islamic bloc on Wednesday (27 Aug) condemned violent attacks on civilians by Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines that prompted the government to launch an offensive and scrap a preliminary peace deal.

Anti-government protesters in Thailand faced court orders Thursday (28 Aug) for their removal from the prime minister's office compound and for the arrest of their leaders on insurrection charges.

A Thai court has granted a police request for arrest warrants for nine leaders of the anti-government movement whose members are occupying the prime minister's compound.

A human rights monitor urged the Philippine government and Muslim separatists Wednesday (27 Aug) to protect civilians after dozens were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in recent fighting in the country's troubled south.