SEOUL -- Seoul says it is considering taking action against North Korea for its continued detention of a South Korean worker. North Korean officials have held an employee of Hyundai Asan Corp. since March 30 in the border town of Kaesong, home of a joint North-South industrial park developed by the company. South Korean officials said Monday the worker's detention is "serious" and will consider taking action if he isn't released, the South Korean news agency ... [full story]

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- An airplane carrying a U.S. congressman was fired on Monday as it took off at the Mogadishu International Airport, the representative's spokeswoman said. "His airplane was fired upon," Kerry McKenny, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., told CNN. McKenny said Payne was visiting Somalia and was scheduled to visit Nairobi. The spokeswoman said local police told her the aircraft left safely and no one was hurt but she said she hadn't spoken ... [full story]

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines government says it won't offer kidnappers any pullbacks of troops until the release of more Red Cross hostages is guaranteed. Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno told reporters Monday that the militant group Abu Sayyaf must offer to trade a hostage if it wants military, police or civilian forces to move back, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. "If there is any request for a pullback that is going to be directed to a ... [full story]

OTTAWA -- The Canadian Defense Department is grappling with how to keep soldiers equipped with double-A batteries for the growing number of devices that need them. With increasing technology, each of the 2,800 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan uses about 40 batteries every three days, the Toronto Star reported Monday. That runs to about 750,000 batteries for each six-month deployment at a cost of $1 million, the Defense Department said. The batteries are used in night-vision goggles, flashlights, ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., met with Pakistani leaders Monday to discuss aid to the country, officials said. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told Kerry that Pakistan doesn't want the United States to base aid considerations on a campaign against militants, Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he urged quick passage of a bill on reconstruction in Pakistan and work out a strategy to terrorism, ... [full story]

TOKYO -- Japanese officials say the country's fiscal 2008 whale catch fell short of expectations due to disruptions from anti-whaling protesters. The Japanese Fisheries Agency said Monday 680 were caught in the past season, well short of the targeted 850, because of the actions of the U.S. environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the Kyodo news agency reported. Fishery officials said Sea Shepherd made it impossible for Japanese whaling vessels to operate for 16 out of the ... [full story]

LONDON -- British officials said they refused to issue a visa to U.S. President Obama's brother to re-enter Britain after he was questioned on attempted sexual assault. Samson Obama, a half-brother of the U.S. president, was arrested in November after a group of girls told police a man fitting his description approached them and followed them into a cafe, The Times of London reported Monday. While denying sexual assault allegations, Samson Obama reportedly accepted an official caution ... [full story]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- More than 600 people were arrested during a four-day Pakistani police sweep of suspected militants, officials said Monday. Those arrested -- 625 people -- were detained in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and include Afghan nationals with suspected ties to Taliban militants in the Swat Valley near the Afghanistan border, Pakistan's English-language newspaper Dawn reported. Police also arrested people suspected of involvement with the March 30 siege of the police academy in Manawan, the newspaper said. Authorities ... [full story]

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- An ambush in Lebanon Monday killed four soldiers and wounded a fifth in the town of Temnin in the Bekaa Valley, say Lebanese army officials. Unidentified gunmen ambushed the soldiers' truck, army officials told CNN. Residents in the area were asked to cooperate with army officials in a search for the gunmen and to deny them refuge, CNN reported. Copyright © 2009, by United Press International. All Rights Reserved. [full story]

LONDON -- Most of the men arrested in last week's anti-terrorist operation will be deported from Britain rather than charged, senior counter-terrorism officials said. Officials in London and Islamabad, Pakistan, said British officials have begun seeking assurances about how the men would be treated if they were returned to Pakistan, The Times of London reported Monday. "The British wanted to be reassured that if some of these men were deported they would not face torture," an source ... [full story]

BEIJING -- China says it has adopted a national human rights action plan that guarantees the rights to fair trials and to participate in government decisions. The document, released Monday by China's Cabinet, also commits Beijing to implementing measures discouraging torture and includes measures designed to protect children, women, the elderly, disabled people and ethnic minorities, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. "The realization of human rights in the broadest sense has been a long-cherished ideal ... [full story]

MOSCOW -- The Russian company Atomenergoprom says the first batch of uranium pellets has been delivered to India as part of an international fuel supply deal. The Russian civil nuclear industry company said in a statement that as per the long-term fuel agreement between India and Russia, a large batch of uranium dioxide pellets were sent to the Nuclear Fuel Complex in the Indian city of Hyderabad, the Press Trust of India said Friday. "Thirty metric tons ... [full story]

HAFLONG, India -- A suspected militant attack on a train in the Indian state of Assam has reportedly left one person dead and another 14 critically injured. The Press Trust of India reported Friday that the individual killed in the train attack was a Central Reserve Police Force officer, while all those injured were passengers on the Badarpur-Lumding Barak Valley Express. Gunmen thought to belong to the Dima Halam Daogah militant group fired at the moving train ... [full story]