Graduates trail in the search to find work after college

The employment rate for higher vocational school graduates is better than that for college postgraduates this year.

Philippines evacuates coast as typhoon nears

The Philippines evacuated northern coastal villages, suspended ferry services and called in fishing boats on Friday as an approaching category-five storm, already labeled a super typhoon, gained strength on a path set for southern China.

Starbucks' Internet called safer than Pentagon's

Using the Wi-Fi connection at Starbucks was a better bet than risking putting confidential defense documents on a glitch-prone Pentagon computer network, a senior Defense Department official testified late on Thursday at the Guantanamo trial of five prisoners charged with plotting the Sept 11 hijacked plane attacks.

IN BRIEF (Page 4)

Assad vows to hand over arsenal

Syrian president tells US network it will take at least a year and cost $1bn

McCain responds to Putin's article

US Senator John McCain on Thursday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of allying himself with tyrants and ruling through violence and repression, in a scathing retort to a New York Times editorial by Putin earlier this month.

Iran forswears nuclear arms, says president

New leader's conciliatory comments intrigue a wary West and its allies

Massive mudslide buries village

Mexican death toll from storms rises to 80, with dozens missing

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Restart Six-Party Talks, says Wang

Easing of tensions on peninsula presents 'a good opportunity'

Brazilian president postpones US state visit over spying

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff postponed a long-planned state visit to the United States on Tuesday, the most serious diplomatic fallout yet from Edward Snowden's leak of Washington's spying secrets.

Please leave your guns at home, Starbucks asks US customers

Coffee chain Starbucks Corp has asked customers in the United States to leave their guns at home, after being dragged into an increasingly fractious debate over gun rights in the wake of multiple mass shootings.