Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have extended a curfew to most of the disputed Himalayan region in an attempt to prevent an anti-India protest march to a prominent shrine, but clashes erupted as thousands defied the restrictions.

Ireland all-rounder Kevin O’Brien says the younger members of the squad are ready to make the “step up” to the big stage in the ICC World Twenty20 in India.

Indian security forces are trying to secure a major air force base near the border with Pakistan where an attack by suspected militants left at least 11 people dead, amid reports of fresh gunfire at the compound.

Veteran nature documentary maker David Attenborough has set himself a challenge to find the Yeti.

The death toll from severe flooding in Indian-controlled Kashmir rose to at least 39, as overwhelmed local authorities requested help from federal rescue officials.

Helena Attlee

USA:

More than 5,700 people missing since last month’s devastating floods that ravaged northern India are presumed dead, the government has said.

Floodwaters surging through Himalayan foothills in western China have swept bridges, houses and hillsides into surging brown rivers, leaving at least 19 people dead and dozens missing as heavy rains buffet many parts of the country.

The Pakistani army has said Indian troops fired at one of its posts on the disputed Kashmir border, killing one soldier.

ABAR-HEADED goose visits our local estuary. It hangs out with swans, gorging itself on stale bread offered by local children.

Rescuers have finally reached some of the villages in India’s remote north-east cut off by a powerful earthquake as the death toll in the disaster climbed past 100.

Thousands of homeless villagers in the Himalayas spent a miserable night outdoors in heavy rains after a powerful earthquake flattened houses and rescuers struggled to reach victims in the mountains of India, Nepal and Tibet.

An Irish man who has died attempting to reach the summit of Everest did not know his wife had just given birth to a baby girl back home.

THE international body set up to study global warming needs major changes in the way it is run following a series of high-profile mistakes, a report said yesterday.

The UN body on climate change, accused of ignoring critics and allowing glaring errors into its work, today declared a broader range of experts will write its next report on global warming.

Weather groups around the world have agreed to collect more precise temperature data to try to improve climate change science.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged environment ministers to reject attempts by sceptics to undermine efforts to forge a climate change deal, stressing that global warming poses "a clear and present danger".

Three more soldiers have been killed as avalanches swept through their posts in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said today.

Errors in an authoritative report about the impact of global warming on Himalayan glaciers should not detract from the overall conclusions drawn in the study, the UN climate chief said.

THE embattled chief of the United Nations climate change panel admitted yesterday that a mistake in a landmark 2007 report had damaged the body’s credibility.

A Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists who wrote the world's most authoritative report on global warming have apologised after five glaring errors were discovered in one paragraph.

China appointed a former soldier as the new governor of restive Tibet.

India and China are in talks to discuss the melting Himalayan glaciers which are crucial to the water supplies of both countries, an Indian minister said today.

The trial of the only surviving gunman from the Mumbai massacre began today with the prosecutor calling the attacks “a criminal conspiracy hatched in Pakistan to attack India”.

Tibet’s governor said today he expects activists advocating independence to cause “trouble” for the Olympic torch relay when it comes through the Himalayan region on its way to Mount Everest next month.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is holding talks in Dublin today with representatives from the Tibet Support Group.

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles made preparations today for a six-month march from India to Tibet to protest against Beijing’s hold on the Himalayan region and China’s hosting of the Olympic games.

Benazir Bhutto supporters ransacked banks and burned train stations in furious rampages across Pakistan today.

The Dalai Lama today brushed aside China’s furious reaction to his receiving a prestigious award from US President George Bush, saying he rejected Tibetan independence and was eager to meet leaders in Beijing.

Pakistan said it successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads deep into India.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approved its latest report at a five-day conference on the dangers posed by global warming.

CUTS in emissions of greenhouse gases can mute the worst impacts of global warming, such as water shortages for billions of people or extinction of almost half of Amazonian tree species, a draft UN report shows.

A passenger bus slid off a lower Himalayan road in dense fog and plunged into a river today, killing at least 10 people.

Heavy rain and snow buffeted Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas for a second day today, grounding helicopter aid flights and blocking roads as doctors reported increasing respiratory infections among survivors.

THE heaviest rain and snow of the winter so far lashed Pakistan's earthquake-hit areas yesterday, grounding helicopters flying relief supplies and deepening the misery of survivors who huddled around camp fires.

The heaviest rain and snow of the winter so far lashed Pakistan’s earthquake-hit areas today, grounding helicopters flying relief supplies and deepening the misery of survivors who huddled around camp fires to keep warm as temperatures plummeted.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan beseeched the world's governments and private donors yesterday to give more generously to help millions of Pakistanis rebuild lives and homes destroyed by last month's earthquake.

NEARLY six weeks after Pakistan’s killer earthquake, people with untreated injuries are still being brought down from remote mountain settlements.

DOCTORS fanned out yesterday to immunise children in Pakistan’s earthquake zone against measles and other diseases ahead of winter, but they warned they may not have enough money to finish the job.

THE UN said yesterday more than 100,000 Pakistani survivors of the region’s huge October 8 earthquake still have not received any form of aid, and a leading British charity warned of a health crisis from poor sanitation at squalid tent camps for victims.

THE United Nations almost doubled its emergency aid request for quake-stricken Pakistan to $550 million (€455 million) yesterday as aid workers warned thousands of survivors face death from exposure and disease.

Countries and other donors told the United Nations today they were pledging an additional £300m (€440m) for Pakistani earthquake victims, but UN officials said it was unclear how much was going to combined emergency relief efforts.