TOKYO - JAPAN urged India to do more as part of global efforts to combat climate change when the foreign ministers from the two Asian powers met Friday, a Japanese official said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, held talks in Tokyo during Mr Krishna's four-day visit.

BEIJING - A CHINESE bus fire that killed 27 people and injured dozens last month was deliberately set by a man who committed suicide, state media said on Friday.

The air-conditioned bus caught fire during the morning rush hour in the southwestern city of Chengdu and was destroyed within minutes. Besides those killed, more than 70 people were injured, some seriously.

TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S detained former president Chen Shui-bian has rejected an appeal from his wife to plead guilty to corruption charges, his former lawyer said on Thursday.

The Taipei-based Next Magazine said Chen's wife, Wu Shu-chen, made the appeal last month in a letter which called on him to help their son Chen Chih-chung and daughter Chen Hsing-yu, who face charges linked to his own.