PATTAYA (Thailand) - DEADLY border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia were caused by a 'misunderstanding' and will not harm ties, the Thai premier said on Friday after meeting his counterpart.

HANOI - THREE Malaysians, three Burmese and one Indonesian were missing after a Malaysian tugboat caught fire off the Vietnamese coast, officials said on Friday.

CUTUD (Philippines) - DOZENS of Catholic devotees were nailed to crosses, scores more whipped their backs and others chanted the Passion of Jesus Christ as Filipinos mixed faith and gory ritual on Good Friday.

Frowned on by church authorities, the voluntary crucifixions in villages north of the capital Manila are one of the most extreme displays of religious devotion in Asia's largest Roman Catholic state.