Government leaders from Asia have pledged to boost air quality control programs in some of the most polluted cities of the world. As Chad Bouchard reports from the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, widespread urban smog threatens economic growth and is blamed for more than a half-million premature deaths each year.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has blocked a bill that critics say would set up a Taleban-style religious police force in a province bordering Afghanistan.

Afghan police say a suicide bomber has blown himself up near a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan, killing at least four people.

A renowned professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States has been in a coma in a Hanoi hospital since December 5, after being struck by a motorbike. Seymour Papert is a computer education pioneer who was working on a computer model of Hanoi traffic before the accident. The tragedy has brought attention to the high death tolls on Vietnam's roads. In Hanoi, Matt Steinglass has more.

The Japanese government has told families of Japanese abducted by North Korea that the fate of their relatives will not take a back seat to improving ties with the communist state. VOA's Steve Herman reports from Tokyo, where Japan's government has wrapped up its first conference on the subject of the missing.

The Philippine government is still denying it postponed two major regional summit meetings due to fear of a terrorist attack, even as reports emerge that a car bomb plot had been uncovered days before the summits were to open. VOA's Heda Bayron reports from our Asia News Center in Hong Kong, Manila is sticking to its insistence that an approaching typhoon was the reason for the postponement.

Reports from southern Kyrgyzstan say police have released former lawmaker Mamat Orozbaev on health grounds.

The Philippines, long known for having the freest and boldest press in Asia, has become one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists, trailing only Iraq in the number of reporters killed. The head of the Philippines' National Union of Journalists was in Hong Kong to talk about an environment where journalists are targets for assassination and political intimidation. Claudia Blume reports.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country is "losing patience" with the continuing attacks from insurgents allegedly based in neighboring Pakistan. Mr. Karzai released his comments after a critical meeting with Pakistan's foreign minister in Kabul to discuss border security and the resurgence of Taleban-led violence.

Storm damage delayed the start of some competitions today at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. In most cases, however, debris and water from overnight storms was cleared up for events to begin on time. The Asian Games formally opened on December 1 with a ceremony that was a whirlwind of Asian culture and Arabian splendor.