The body of a British holidaymaker who was brutally murdered together with a fellow tourist in Thailand has returned to the UK, her family said.

The Philippines government has raised the official death toll from the typhoon disaster to 1,744 people, but the final number is expected to be much higher.

More people around the world are living abroad, with the United States the most popular destination, new United Nations data shows.

The US military stands ready to strike Syria at once if president Barack Obama gives the order, the country’s defence secretary Chuck Hagel has said.

Japan’s outspoken finance minister has refused to resign or apologise over remarks suggesting the country should follow the Nazi example of how to change its constitution stealthily and without public debate.

Denis O’Brien is teaming up with billionaire investor George Soros in a bid to secure a telecommunications licence in Burma.

I MUST admit, I had huge reservations about imparting this south-east Asian hideaway.

Facebook is being used more frequently in the East to target girls for the sex trade, writes Margie Mason

South Korea’s defence chief has had to apologise after troops failed to spot a North Korean soldier defecting across their heavily guarded border.

The United States has said it will not resume adoptions from Vietnam as the country “does not yet have a fully Hague-compliant process in place”.

MINISTER for Children Frances Fitzgerald is to visit Vietnam as part of talks aimed at establishing a safe inter-country adoption system between the south-east Asian nation and Ireland.

A revered former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong guerrillas in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War has died.

SINCE May of last year, countless headlines have reported the clamour amongst lobby groups for adoptive parents, politicians and scores of couples left in limbo to reopen Vietnam as a country from which Irish couples can adopt.

CORRUPT adoption procedures in Vietnam had reduced the country’s children to a commodity worth “less than a pig”.

South Korea is planning a massive security screen to protect world leaders during next month’s G20 summit in Seoul.

A VIDEO of an Indonesian toddler who smokes 40 cigarettes a day has shocked health experts and provides further graphic illustration of the south-east Asian country’s growing addiction to tobacco.

Thai troops cleared the wreckage of armoured carriers today as anti-government protesters left the site of last week’s bloody clashes in favour of an up-market shopping district to intensify their campaign to oust the prime minister.

The flood-devastated Philippines was braced for a new tropical storm today, as the death toll from waters that submerged the homes of more than two million rose to 246.

AN INTERPOL search is under way for a white man who features in at least 100 images of child sexual abuse taken in Thailand.

A Burmese state radio station says the death toll from a devastating cyclone has risen to almost 4,000.

Chelsea’s pre-season tour of Asia has hit further controversy after Amnesty International implored the Barclays Premier League club to address human rights issues during their trip to China.

Ah Meng, an orang-utan who met celebrities and starred as a poster girl for Singapore’s tourism campaign, has died of old age, the city-state’s zoo said. She was about 48.

The EU should impose more sanctions on Burma's military rulers without hurting the ordinary citizens, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern told the UN tonight.

INDONESIAN diplomats yesterday signalled their appreciation for Ireland’s “sympathy and assistance”.

A British girl and two Irish youngsters are recovering tonight after a terrifying armed school siege in Cambodia in which a fellow kindergarten pupil was killed, officials confirmed.

TULLOW OIL had good news for shareholders yesterday when it announced the discovery of gas at a well in Bangladesh.

POLICE gunned down machete-wielding militants who stormed security outposts in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated south yesterday, killing at least 112 people in one of the bloodiest days in the south-east Asian kingdom.

Rock band Limp Bizkit has cancelled the south-east Asian leg of their world tour over terrorism fears in the region, it was reported today.

A UN envoy who met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today in Burma said she was “well and in good spirits” and that the military junta had assured him she would be released soon, perhaps in about two weeks.

The last Irish soldiers stationed in East Timor are due to leave the south-east Asian country today, ending three years of Irish involvement in the UNTAET peacekeeping force.

Seasonal flooding in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta has left at least 222 people, including 182 children, dead, according to officials in the south-east Asian country.

The British stepfather of a girl kidnapped in the Philippines has arrived in the south-east Asian country.