The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to a sweeping healthcare overhaul on Sunday, expanding insurance coverage to nearly all Americans and handing U.S. President Barack Obama a landmark victory.

Four Rio Tinto executives on trial in China, including Australian Stern Hu, pleaded guilty to taking bribes, while contesting the amounts, lawyers at the hearing said on Monday.

Proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to weaken the 21-year-old ban on ivory sales were shot down by a U.N. conservation meeting Monday over fears it would fuel the illegal trade of elephant tusks.

Taiwan's unemployment rate declined for a sixth consecutive month in February as exporters hired more people to meet increasing international demand for the island's products.

Visiting Republic of China President Ma Ying-jeou announced Monday that his administration will donate NT$4 million (US$125,786) worth of medical supplies to the Marshall Islands.

The Democratic-controlled Congress handed President Barack Obama a huge victory Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is meeting first thing Monday with his prime minister to work out a response to their conservative party's crushing defeat in regional elections, a vote that informally kicked off the 2012 presidential race.

Tiger Woods acknowledged "living a lie," saying he alone was responsible for the sex scandal that caused his shocking downfall from global sporting icon to late-night TV punchline.

The biggest-ever sandstorm hit the whole of Taiwan yesterday, obscuring the whole island in thick dust-clouds that caused air pollution and a big jump in the number of outpatients in hospitals.