Australia warns China on spy case
Australian PM Kevin Rudd reminds China that the world is watching how it handles a case of alleged business espionage in Shanghai.

Tsunami alert after NZ earthquake
A strong earthquake has shaken New Zealand, generating a small tsunami and briefly putting the country on alert.

China's foreign reserves top $2tn
China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, have surpassed $2 trillion, the country's central bank says.

Missing backpacker is found alive
A 19-year-old British backpacker missing for a fortnight in the Australian bush west of Sydney has been found alive.

China issues alert in Algeria
China urges its citizens in Algeria to take care, after reports that Islamist militants might target them because of unrest in China.

Religious row flares in Malaysia
Malaysian police say they will release nine Christians mistakenly accused to trying to convert Muslim students.

Japan economic outlook downgraded
Japan's central bank downgrades its economic forecast, but says the worst of the country's recession is now over.

Kyrgyz journalist death 'private'
The authorities in Kyrgyzstan say an off-duty policeman has confessed to beating a journalist to death.

EU lifts Indonesian airline ban
The EU takes Garuda and three other Indonesian carriers off its aviation blacklist, citing safety improvements.

Australian competition to seek new army robots
Australia launches a competition to build a new generation of military robots that can do some of the army's "dirty work".

Olympic hopeful opens NZ brothel to fund 2012 bid
An Olympic hopeful from New Zealand opens a brothel in a bid to raise cash for a tilt at taekwondo glory at the London Olympics in 2012.

FROM BBC SPORT >>
Cricket: Flintoff quits Tests after Ashes
England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff announces he will retire from Test cricket after the Ashes series against Australia.

Sex sells
How Japan's love hotels are beating the recession

Bushtucker trial
Eat bugs and leaves to survive in the wild

Grain drain
Thailand's rice policy puts farmers in poverty

Lost in translation
Lackey, brigandish, stooge: N Korea's verbal bluster

Aso's last stand?
The Japanese PM fights for political survival

China demands Turkish retraction
China urges the Turkish prime minister to retract his accusation that Beijing practised genocide against ethnic Uighurs.

Pressure remains on Japanese PM
Japan's PM Taro Aso is still under pressure, after he wins a lower house vote of no-confidence but is censured in the upper house.

Kenya seizes Asia-bound ivory
Kenyan authorities seize almost 300kg of ivory and rhinoceros horn hidden in coffins on a plane bound for Asia.

China's Rio Tinto inquiry widens
China investigates five more steel firms, as Australia presses for haste the case of a detained Rio Tinto executive.

Doubts emerge over Papua killings
An autopsy on a man killed at a Papuan mine and rebels' denial of any role cast doubt over who committed recent shootings.

Singapore economy bounces back
Singapore is emerging from recession after its economy expanded at an annualised rate of 20.4% between April and June.

Japanese brewers consider merger
Japanese food and drink groups Kirin and Suntory are considering merging to create the world's fifth-largest food group by sales.

China airline buying local rival
China Eastern Airlines is to buy its smaller rival Shanghai Airlines, in an all-share deal set to be worth about $1bn.

Xinjiang: Views from China
People from across China discuss the recent unrest

Burma's Karen on fleeing home
Thousands of Burma's ethnic Karen have fled to Thailand after renewed fighting between Karen rebels and government forces. One man tells the BBC what forced them to flee and the difficult dilemma they now face.

Twitterers defy China's firewall
Twitterers in China discuss whether the government's attempt to censor the web has worked.

North Koreans learn Southern ways
N Korean refugees adjust to life in capitalist South

China seeks control through openness
The Chinese authorities have allowed foreign media organisations to report the protests in Xinjiang - in stark contrast to their restrictions on coverage of the crackdown in Tibet last year. The BBC's Chris Hogg in Beijing investigates why.

China's ethnic tinderbox
The recent Urumqi and Lhasa riots have shattered the myth of a monolithic China, writes China expert Professor Dru Gladney.

Dentists practise on robot patient
Robot patient takes the pain of the dentist's chair

BBQ diplomacy in Pyongyang
Unlikely middleman between North Korea and the US