Six inmates led by a mob boss died by suicide at a prison in Taiwan after a failed break-out attempt in which they seized weapons and held a warden and guards hostage.

A Taiwanese flight with 58 people aboard went sideways, clipped an elevated road and crashed into a river shortly after takeoff from the island’s capital of Taipei, killing at least 12 people.

Firefighters uncovered ID cards and body fragments as they picked through wreckage for evidence to identify the victims of a plane crash that killed 48 people on a Taiwanese island.

A plane landing in stormy weather has crashed outside an airport on a small Taiwanese island, with 47 people feared dead.

A plane has crashed in a failed emergency landing in Taiwan, killing 51 people, according to the Central News Agency.

An apparently drunken man wielding a knife attacked riders aboard a subway train in Taiwan’s capital, killing three people and injuring 16, reports said.

The Kremlin has confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has arrived in Russia and will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during his trip.

A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Taiwan today, causing widespread damage and disrupting communications around the island.

The US said today North Korea may be planning more long-range missile launches as the communist nation threatened to retaliate against punitive United Nations sanctions.

The US and its allies were seeking punishment today for North Korea’s defiant launch of a rocket that apparently fizzled into the Pacific.

North Korea sent a letter to the United Nations nuclear watchdog today, inviting inspectors to the isolated country to discuss shutting down its main nuclear reactor, state media reported.

North Korea today said it would conduct a nuclear test as part of measures to bolster its self-defence amid what it calls increasing US hostility toward the communist regime.

North Korea today warned it will react to upcoming joint US-South Korean joint military exercises with a “strong measure of self-defence,” condemning the drill as a preparation for a nuclear attack on the North.

North Korea reconfirmed today that it has nuclear weapons and demanded the United States give it “nuclear cooperation” instead of seeking to disarm it.

North Korea today said its scientists had developed a method of identifying all types of bird flu viruses as the country stepped up a nationwide campaign against the deadly disease.

HUNDREDS of Taiwanese protesters scuffled with riot police, threw eggs and broke windows yesterday as they stormed into the Central Election Commission’s headquarters, where officials certified the results of last weekend’s disputed presidential vote.

North Korea today accused Washington of using the nuclear weapons row as a excuse for mounting an invasion.