Iranian government officials have confirmed that the mayor of Tehran, Islamic hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won an overwhelming victory in Iran's presidential election.
Iraqi security officials say eight policemen have been killed and another wounded in an insurgent attack on a police station near the city of Ramadi.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari says he hopes President Bush will re-create a "Marshall Plan" to help Iraq and its people.
Taiwan has reimposed a ban on U.S. beef imports after American officials announced the discovery of an animal with mad cow disease.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said today (Saturday) that North Korea's nuclear ambitions are the biggest threat to regional peace.
The United Nations says Laos could be mostly free of opium by the end of this year. The world body says in its 2005 Laos Opium Survey that the country has cut opium production by two-thirds over the past year. The report, issued this week by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, says 18-hundred hectares of opium poppies were under cultivation early this year, compared with nearly 7,000 last year. The figure was 30,000 hectares 15 years ago.
A U.N. representative in Laos (Klaus Nyholm) says the absence of armed rebel groups has contributed to the fall in opium production. Government eradication programs and projects to develop alternative cash crops have also fueled the decline.
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