His father was a peasant and carpenter, and 44-year-old Yu Minhong will never forget watching him collect bits of waste brick and stones and stack them up in the small courtyard of their rural home. What use was all this rubble and debris? The day Yu saw his father transform the stones into a small pen to shut in the pigs, hens and ducks, he was amazed. At that time, his family could not afford to buy bricks.

Thai Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla on Friday gave the go-ahead to plan for a vaccine plant to produce both influenza and bird-flu vaccines for humans in case of a global pandemic, Thai newspaper The Nation reported Saturday.

The Philippines is bracing for another super typhoon which is expected to hit the central and northern Luzon region from Sunday night, one month after typhoon Xangsane killed more than 200 in the country and caused power breakdown in the Manila region for nearly one week.

Out of a total of 2,009 suspected dengue fever cases reported in Pakistan, 596 have been confirmed as positive cases, a Pakistani health official said Sunday.

At least 12 persons died and hundreds of others became ill in the last one week due to a mystery disease that has spread in the flood affected areas of Banke district in mid-western Nepal, the National News Agency, RSS, reported Sunday.

Over half of Zambia's households cannot afford three meals a day, the Central Statistical Office ( CSO) of Zambia has said.

Lions Gate's "Saw III" debuted as the top movie in North America this weekend, as Halloween moviegoers were hungry for watching the latest sequel of the horror franchise, which took in estimated 34.3 million dollars in ticket sales, according to box office figures released here Sunday.

China should set up more museums and improve their management to meet people's needs, scholars told a seminar on museums here.

Two Chinese movies, "Thirteen Princess Trees" and "After This Our Exile" won awards Sunday at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival, which staged its closing ceremony at Shibuya's Bunkamura, Tokyo.

China's State Post Bureau is going to issue a set of stamps marking the 15th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue between China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).