MANILA - TROPICAL Storm Nangka has left at least 18 people dead or missing and destroyed hundreds of homes, the government disaster agency said, as it blew away from the Philippines on Friday and headed toward the Taiwan Strait.

HANOI - A COURT in northern Vietnam sentenced three people to prison for trafficking children in a scheme that sold babies to a welfare center, an official said on Friday.

BANGKOK - RIGHTS group Amnesty International urged Thailand on Friday to open the trial of a political campaigner charged with insulting the monarchy after it was closed for reasons of 'national security'.