JAKARTA, Nov 19 (AFP) - Indonesia's counter-terror chief called Thursday for greater power to hold suspects, warning that Islamist extremists remained active despite the death of terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top.

KABUL, Nov 19 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term on Thursday, vowing to combat corruption and reaching out to his political rivals under Western pressure to restore legitimacy.

JAKARTA, Nov 19 (AFP) - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should intervene to free three Papuan protesters sentenced to years in prison for raising a separatist flag, a rights group said Thursday.

MANILA, Nov 19 (AFP) - President Gloria Arroyo on Thursday stepped down as leader of the Philippines' ruling party but offered no clues about her future plans amid talk she may seek a seat in Congress.

MANILA, Nov 19 (AFP) - An unknown gunman has shot and killed a son of a senior aide of President Gloria Arroyo after a traffic row in the Philippine capital, police said Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (AFP) - A group of China's famed terracotta warriors are going on display at the National Geographic Society in Washington, on the last stop of a four-city US tour.

TAIPEI, Nov 19 (AFP) - The number of underage sex offenders in Taiwan has increased four-fold over the past five years, with the youngest aged only seven, a study showed Thursday.

TOKYO, Nov 19 (AFP) - Smoke rose Thursday from the world's largest nuclear power plant in Japan, which was hit by a deadly earthquake two years ago, but the operator said no-one was injured and there was no radiation leak.

BANGKOK, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- The second wave of the Influenza A/H1N1 outbreak in Thailand has started, Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai said Thursday, the Thailand news agency (TNA) said.

BANGKOK, Nov 19 (AFP) - Cambodia has ordered all Thai air traffic control staff to leave work after one of them was arrested on charges of spying on fugitive Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, a company letter showed Thursday.