Reuters - Afghanistan's Taliban said on Sunday they would attempt to disrupt elections this month and warned Afghans to boycott the vote, the first explicit threat against the poll by the hardline Islamists.

AFP - A fourth Pakistan cricketer was reportedly being investigated over alleged match-fixing Sunday, with fresh betting scam claims casting a shadow over the country's match against England.

AP - Afghanistan's largest bank remained solvent Sunday after a nearly weeklong run on the troubled institution, according to the governor of the nation's central bank, which is being criticized for looking the other way at the bank's mismanagement problems for too long.

AFP - Hong Kong's Tsui Hark unveiled his latest blockbuster, a Tang Dynasty whodunnit, at the Venice film festival Sunday while Kelly Reichardt cast her feminine eye on the Wild West in "Meek's Cutoff".

AP - A Japanese journalist who was abducted by apparent Taliban militants in Afghanistan five months ago has been freed by his captors, reports said Sunday.

AFP - A British soldier was killed on Sunday by an exploding grenade in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.

AP - The Taliban vowed Sunday to attack polling places in Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, warning Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote.

AFP - Nepal's parliament failed for the sixth time to elect a prime minister on Sunday, as the house speaker warned of a "serious crisis" if a new government is not in place soon.

AFP - NATO on Sunday announced the death of two foreign soldiers, one of them American, in Afghanistan's insurgent heartland as the Taliban was blamed for attacks that wounded civilians across the country.

AP - East Asia is the world's electronics factory, yet unless they are Japanese, producers are largely anonymous. Now HTC Corp., a Taiwanese maker of smart phones, is moving out of the shadows and trying to establish its own brand name as it competes with Apple's iPhone.

AP - The powerful earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around the New Zealand city of Christchurch also ripped a new fault line in the Earth's surface, a geologist said Sunday.