NORTH KOREA’S football squad have been subjected to a public humiliation in the wake of their World Cup failure.

Burma’s military government has freed the 82-year-old deputy leader of the pro-democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi after nearly seven years in detention.

Australia plans to broadcast a Burmese language radio service into the south-east Asian nation to promote democracy and human rights, it was revealed today.

Burma’s Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced new charges today less than two weeks before her house arrest was due to end after an American man swam across a lake and entered her home, her lawyer said.

Chinese authorities have been accused of preventing a Tibetan-born radio reporter from covering the Beijing Olmpics.

China vowed today to ramp up its controversial “patriotic education” campaign for monks even though the latest deadly protests in Tibetan areas were sparked by deep resentment over its enforcement.

Chinese state media today accused the Dalai Lama of slamming the door on talks over Tibet’s future, an apparent response to rising international calls for Beijing to negotiate with Tibet’s exiled Buddhist leader.

A group of more than 100 Tibetan exiles went on hunger strike today after being arrested in northern India during a march protesting China’s hosting of the Olympic Games, organisers said.

Burma’s ruling military lashed out at Western powers and foreign media today for fomenting recent protests that were put down in a brutal crackdown.

Thousands of demonstrators in cities across Europe and Asia joined today in protests against the military junta in Burma after the regime acknowledged detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks who had led huge protests.

A UN envoy is hoping to meet Burma's top two military leaders today to persuade them to ease a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

CHINESE police arrested hundreds of people in western China after residents there called for the return of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, reports said yesterday.

Scores of people have been arrested in a traditionally Tibetan area of China following calls for the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reports said today.

China has shut down a newspaper supplement known for its in-depth reporting on sensitive issues, employees said today, in the latest measure by the communist government to tighten control over the media.

ARMED police have sealed off a village in southern China after violent clashes with residents that rights group Amnesty International said marked the first time Chinese police had fired on protesters since 1989.

Riot police were called in to rescue the mayor when former military construction workers surrounded him while protesting their compensation in China’s showcase business city of Shenzhen, news reports said today.

The International Federation of Journalists welcomed today the release of an Irish man detained for two days in a remote jungle.

NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong-il visited an air base just hours after Iraq’s leadership crumbled and told pilots he was confident they could “beat back the enemy,” the North’s media reported yesterday.

Hundreds of people were injured along with widespread property damage after a business dispute sparked clashes between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese Muslims in western China, a US government-financed broadcaster reported today.