Luke Harding

An Indian judge recently ordered an independent scientific investigation into allegations that Pepsi drinks sold in India contain dangerously high levels of pesticides. Fresh tests are to be carried out on Pepsi products across the country this month.

A suicide bomber in Kabul blows up a bus and kills German soldiers in the latest, deadliest attack on Afghan capital.

The most important person in Kathmandu these days is neither King Gyanendra nor the celebrated climber, Sir Edmund Hillary, but Bhattarai, the formidable leader of Nepal's Maoist rebels.

When the crops failed and there was no work, the villagers of Mundiar began searching for food in the jungle. They didn't find any. Instead, they found grass. And so for most of the summer, the village's 60 households got by eating sama -- a fodder normally given to cattle.

General Pervez Musharraf gave his strongest hint on Wednesday night that he will continue to run Pakistan after the general election on Thursday, and will dismiss the new prime minister if necessary. In a TV address he declared that he was returning Pakistan to democracy.

The dead are not hard to find. Turn left into the desert after the town of Shiberghan and they lie all around -- some in shallow graves, others protruding from the sand. The clothes they wore are still there: decaying black turbans, charred shoes, a prayer cap.

April 11 2002. About 10.20am. A coach full of German tourists is bumping down the road that leads to the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba. Around the corner, in a narrow, cobbled lane that runs alongside, an old Iveco tanker truck is waiting, driver inside.

India this week looked set to anoint as its next president the man responsible for carrying out the country's controversial nuclear tests four years ago -- a Muslim scientist with no political experience. Dr Kalam met the country's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

India could consider pulling back some of its troops from its international borders with Pakistan once it is convinced Islamabad has permanently stopped the flow of Islamic rebels into Kashmir and dismantled their camps, an official said on Thursday.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday struck an optimistic note at the end of his two-day trip to India and Pakistan and said that though the situation remained dangerous a war on the subcontinent was "not inevitable".

British citizens retired overseas on Wednesday lost their high court battle for the right to have their state retirement pensions increased in line with inflation. A judge rejected accusations that the government was unlawfully discriminating.