Asia NewsTopix News on Asia continually updated from thousands of sources around the net. Nepal in mass poultry cull after flu found 5 Feb 2012 at 7:20pm pHealth workers in Nepal are to cull thousands of chickens following the discovery of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the southeastern part of the Himalayan country, officials said yesterday./p Car Bomb Kills Kandahar Police Officers; Injures Dozens 5 Feb 2012 at 3:15pm pAfghan officials say at least seven people, including five police officers, were killed when a car bomb exploded outside police headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday./p Moscow support for Assad well-calculated 5 Feb 2012 at 11:01am pBy bluntly using its veto power to block a United Nations resolution urging Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, Russia has shown a willingness to defy the West at a scale rarely seen since the Cold War times./p Merkel unhappy China blocked lawyer from meeting 5 Feb 2012 at 6:41am pGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed regret Saturday that Chinese police blocked a human rights lawyer from meeting her and said the Communist government should have the confidence to allow dissent./p Afghan police: US soldier shoots Afghan guard 5 Feb 2012 at 2:27am pAn American soldier shot and killed an Afghan guard at a base in the countrys north, apparently because the American thought the guard was about to attack him, Afghan police said Sunday.There have been a growing number of attacks by Afghan soldiers against international forces in Afghanistan in recent years, some the result of arguments and others ... (more)/p Taliban responsible for 77% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, U.N. repor... 4 Feb 2012 at 10:22pm pThe Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible for nearly 80 percent of the civilian deaths in the war in Afghanistan last year, said a U.N. report released Saturday./p Sudan rebels planning to hand over abducted Chines.. 4 Feb 2012 at 6:12pm pSudanese rebels said they are looking for ways to hand over 29 Chinese workers held in the border state of South Kordofan, Chinese state media said, as Sudans government confirmed the death of one worker in a firefight./p Bushs evil trio holds sway over US decade later 4 Feb 2012 at 2:07pm pIt was the first State of the Union address after the 9/11 attacks, and America was leading an invasion of Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden./p Text of proposed UN resolution on Syria 4 Feb 2012 at 2:07pm pText of the proposed U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria that was vetoed Saturday by Russia and China: Recalling General Assembly resolution A/RES/66/176 of 19 December 2011, as well as Human Rights Council resolutions S/16-1, S/17-1 and S/18-1, Expressing grave concern at the deterioration of the situation in Syria, and profound concern at ... (more)/p NATO: Missile shield plans proceed despite Russia 4 Feb 2012 at 9:54am pNATO leaders on Saturday downplayed Moscows fears that a new Europe-based missile defense system represents a threat to Russia, while vowing to move ahead with it, even if those concerns cannot be fully addressed./p Afghan officials hope to reopen Kabul airport after heavy snowfall 4 Feb 2012 at 5:49am pAfghan officials say they are hopeful that the countrys largest airport will reopen after being closed due to heavy snowfall./p Pakistan PM to visit Qatar to talk Afghan peace 4 Feb 2012 at 4:44am pPakistani rescue workers look for survivors after a bomb blast destroyed the building in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Friday, Feb 3, 2012./p UN: 2011 was deadliest year on record for Afghan civilians, saw increase in s... 4 Feb 2012 at 3:44am pA U.N. report issued on Saturday said last year was the deadliest on record for Afghan civilians, with 3,021 killed in the war./p Canadian PM to visit China next week 4 Feb 2012 at 1:34am pCanadas prime minister heads to China next week where hell discuss Canadas vast oil reserves in a visit thats being viewed as an open warning to the United States, which rejected a pipeline from Canada to Texas./p Charges dropped against soldier in Afghan deaths 3 Feb 2012 at 9:34pm pThe Army on Friday dropped all charges against the fifth soldier accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport during a 2010 deployment, in one of the most gruesome cases to emerge from the Afghan war./p