Asia, Women | featured news

Japan has won the Women's World Cup, stunning the United States 4-1 in a penalty shootout Sunday night after finishing in a 2-2 tie.

Many hope today's election will bring an end to years of unrest between two political factions whose differences led to deadly protests last year.

The newest Miss World is from the United States. Alexandria Mills, a soft-spoken 18-year-old, was named the winner in Saturday night's contest in southern China. The tall blonde was a relative surprise winner after speculation focused on other contestants.

Turbaned men in Pakistan gather around a woman with a black hood over her head, pick up large rocks and repeatedly throw them at her until she lies motionless, stretched along the ground, a video purports.

Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva is inaugurated as president of troubled Kyrgyzstan, weeks after hundreds died during ethnic violence, state media reports.

Authorities in a devoutly Islamic district of Indonesia's Aceh province have distributed 20,000 long skirts and prohibited shops from selling tight dresses as a regulation banning Muslim women from wearing revealing clothing took effect Thursday....

Only 14 women in the world have earned their own 10-figure fortunes, and half of them struck it rich in China.

More than 1,000 followers of an Indian sect pledge to marry female sex workers wanting to escape exploitation.

Islamic officials in Malaysia unexpectedly free a woman who was due to receive six strokes of the cane for drinking beer.

Indian farmers -- desperate for rain -- have asked their unmarried daughters to plow dry fields naked, in a bid to spark interest from the weather gods, and bring some badly needed monsoon rain.