"Becoming an astronaut was a little bit of happenstance for me," says Sunita Williams, an Indian-American astronaut who took off on her second space journey today onboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Japan recalled its ambassador to China for consultations on Sunday amid a simmering row between the Asian powers over disputed territory in the East China Sea, reports said.

Almost a quarter of a million people were ordered to leave their homes in southwest Japan on Saturday as heavy rain pounded the area for the third day, with 20 already dead, officials and reports said.

Little more than a dozen years after the region's crippling financial crisis, Southeast Asia is looking more a safe haven than a risky bet, with foreign investors souring on China and India and pouring money into markets proving resilient to the global gloom.

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who is on a private visit to Kashmir, on Saturday said dialogue is the only way to resolve any issue as violence is in no one's interest.

US President Barack Obama called on Congress Saturday to approve an extension of tax cuts for most Americans, but not the top income earners.

Peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday Syria had 'flouted' Security Council resolutions with mass killings in Treimsa village, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded that the Council act to stop the bloodshed.

India will construct 43,000 housing units for displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka's former war zones of the north and the east, as part of a USD 270 million project.

More than 200 Syrians, mostly civilians, were massacred in a village in the rebellious Hama region when it was bombarded by helicopter gunships and tanks and then stormed by militiamen, opposition activists said.

India on Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Agni-I ballistic missile, with a strike range of 700 km, as part of the Army's user trial from a test range at Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.