The former Maldives president recently forced to resign on Wednesday called for the new leader to step down, a lawmaker said.

It isn't everyday that video from inside a routine legislative session causes an uproar big enough to force three politicians to resign all at once but that is just what happened in South India after video surfaced of Indian ministers watching what appeared to be video of a sex act on a cell phone during a debate in the house assembly.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani filed an appeal against a Supreme Court decision to charge him with contempt, his lawyer said, the latest move in a drawn-out struggle between political leaders and the judiciary.

Ten suspected militants were killed Wednesday when a U.S. drone fired two missiles at an insurgent hideout in Pakistan's northwest tribal region, three security officials said.

Voters in India's most populous and politically important state went to the polls Wednesday, in the first of seven ballots to select members for the 403-seat assembly.

The Philippine authorities have significantly revised down the death toll from a strong earthquake that shook the country's third-largest island on Monday.