Legaspi, Philippines, Aug 9, 2006 - Despite being hampered by communist rebels and reluctant residents, Philippine troops Wednesday completed the evacuation of nearly 40,000 people from around the rumbling Mayon volcano.
Madrid, Aug 9, 2006 - Some 110 fires were burning Wednesday in Galicia, northern Spain, an official said, as police investigated claims, including from the environment minister, that arsonists had been at work.
Beijing, Aug 9, 2006 - Nineteen people were injured in a riot over a clan dispute in the central Chinese province of Hunan after stores were smashed and police vehicles overturned, state media reported Wednesday.
Kuala Lumpur, Aug 9, 2006 - Malaysia has to turn to nuclear power as an alternative source of electricity for its rapidly growing economy, an official from a nuclear agency said.
Rome, Aug 9, 2006 - The United States will close its Maddalena military base in Sardinia in the Mediterranean, used for nuclear submarines, by September 2008, a spokesman for the island's authorities told AFP Wednesday.
Ahmedabad, India, Aug 9, 2006 - Swirling floods intensified in parts of rain-lashed India Wednesday as the authorities warned that 3.5 million residents of the main diamond-cutting city of Surat were at risk from rising water levels.
Shanghai, Aug 9, 2006 - China's central bank said Wednesday it plans to use the exchange rate to adjust the country's economy but warned against the view that yuan appreciation was the sole solution to global imbalances.
Beijing, Aug 9, 2006 - China will start work next year on extending its newly opened Tibet railway to the Himalayan region's second largest city Shigatse, state media reported Wednesday.
Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, Aug 9, 2006 - Rescue workers have recovered at least 12 bodies in their search for hundreds of people missing from weekend flash floods that devastated an Ethiopian town, officials said Wednesday.
Moscow, Aug 9, 2006 - Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Wednesday welcomed a plan by President Vladimir Putin to pull out all non-permanent Russian troops from Chechnya by 2008, the Interfax news agency said.
Beijing, Aug 9, 2006 - China on Wednesday reported a fresh outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, with 230 head of cattle affected in the northwestern province of Gansu.
Baghdad, Aug 9, 2006 - The US military on Wednesday defended itself against criticism by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of a raid on a crowded Baghdad suburb which culminated in a deadly air strike.
Brussels, Aug 9, 2006 - The Spanish government has requested fire-fighting equipment from its EU partners to help put out blazes in the western Galicia region, the European Commission said Wednesday.
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Aug 9, 2006 - Pakistani Kashmir's regional television station, which was destroyed by a massive earthquake last year, will return to the airwaves on Thursday, officials said.
Jodhpur, India, Aug 9, 2006 - The Indian military is planning an airborne rescue bid to save at least 40 passengers from a bus stuck in a flooded channel in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, police said.
Sarajevo, Aug 9, 2006 - Bosnia's arms exports rose 55 percent year-on-year to 63.5 million euros (80 million dollars) in 2005, with former foe Serbia-Montenegro among the biggest buyers, the SRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
