Beijing - About 1,200 people were evacuated Wednesday after an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale damaged homes in China's south-western province of Yunnan, the government and state media said.

The State Seismological Bureau said it recorded the quake at 5:35 am (2135 GMT Tuesday) with an epicentre in Yunnan's Yingjiang county and a depth of about 10 kilometres.

Many homes collapsed in towns and villages close to the epicentre and about 1,200 people were evacuated, the official Xinhua news agency quoted local authorities as saying.

Washington, Aug 18 : Biracial Asian Americans are twice as likely to be
diagnosed with a psychological disorder as monoracial Asian Americans,
a new study suggests.

Researchers at the Asian American Center on Disparities Research at the
University of California, Davis, say that 34 percent of biracial
individuals in a national survey had been diagnosed with a
psychological disorder, such as anxiety, depression or substance abuse,
versus 17 percent of monoracial individuals.

"Up to 2.4 percent of the U. S. population self-identifies as mixed
race, and most of these individuals describe themselves as biracial,"
said Nolan Zane, a professor of psychology and Asian American studies
at UC Davis.

Kidapawan City, Philippines - Philippine troops on Thursday recovered a homemade bomb planted near a public market in a southern province where days of fighting with Muslim separatist rebels have displaced nearly 160,000 people, the military said.

The device was found in a bag left near a garbage collection area of an old bus terminal in Kidapawan City in North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, which is near the wet section of the public market.

Singapore - Women in Hong Kong, China and Singapore do not need to rely on their men to pay for their shopping binges, a survey said on Sunday.

Across the Asian region, women from Hong Kong are the most financially independent, with 81 per cent of respondents paying the bills for their purchases, followed by mainland Chinese at 75 per cent.

The survey was conducted by market researcher Synovate with the findings in The Business Times.

Nearly three-quarters of Singaporeans queried confirmed that they too can afford to pay for what they want without asking for money from their husbands or partners.

More than 2,000 women from the ages of 15 to 64 were polled.

Singapore - Thai Airways has edged out Singapore Airlines (SIA) as the top choice for business travellers in the Asia-Pacific region, a study said on Thursday.

Cotabato City, Philippines - One soldier was killed in a clash with Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines, where the guerrillas are reportedly gathering following a setback in peace talks with the government, officials said Tuesday.

The firefight erupted Tuesday when about 50 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels stormed a sugarcane plantation in Aleosan town, North Cotabato province, 930 kilometres south of Manila, said army Major Randolph Cabangbang, a regional military spokesman.

Cabangbang said government troops responded to the attack, triggering a firefight that killed one soldier.

He said the rebels raided and burned the 10-hectare plantation.