Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. Friday said it will start selling Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3GS in Singapore on July 10.

SingTel said in a statement it will announce pricing plans for the smartphone early next week. The firm began offering the device in Australia through its unit, Optus, last week.

A rampaging elephant stomped three rubber tappers to death in southern Thailand on Wednesday after it was left to wander freely by its handler, police said.

The 38-year-old domesticated elephant is believed to have attacked the workers in three separate plantations in Trang province before it was recaptured.

The beast first crushed a 44-year-old male worker before dawn, then struck at another plantation a few kilometers away, killing a 38-year-old female rubber tapper, said police Lt Sonjit Ma-ou. “Her husband saw it charging toward her, grabbing her body with its trunk and throwing her on the ground before stomping on her body,” Sonjit said.

It is the uniquely beautiful art architecture that makes the fascination of India so memorable, and each region boasts its own format and pattern. This trip takes me to Delhi, before we proceed to Agra to gaze upon the monument of lasting love – the majestic Taj Mahal. Probably my next destination in India is Rajashan in northern India. Unfortunately, we only have time for Jaipur, Pushkar the pink city, and the holy city of Udaipur, India's most romantic city, having to bypass many other beautiful cities like the blue city of Jodhpur and the gilded city of Jaisalmer. If only we had time.

We join a tour company, OliOle, for traveling convenience, which coordinates with local tour companies to secure our rooms in the hotel, converted from a classic palace, and a personal sedan, complete with chauffeur for the entire trip. However, the long distance from Udaipur to Delhi makes it necessary to rely on domestic air travel.

After a full night, our first day in Delhi is hectic, as we have to head for Agra early next morning, with a stop for a meal at a nice restaurant in a small hotel that has a clean lavatory. We arrive in Agra in the afternoon and go directly to the Taj Mahal immediately after hotel check-in.

The Indian women's national team has been dropped from the FIFA world rankings, as they had not played a single international match in the last 18 months.

The Indian team played their last international match in the AFC Women's Asia Cup 2008 Qualifiers in October 2007, when they went down to Iran 1-4 in Tehran.

India was ranked 50th in the world and 11th in Asia in the last FIFA women's rankings issued in March but they are not among 25 Asian sides, which figure in the latest rankings, released yesterday.

Philippines reports Asia's first death related to H1N1 in Asia, a 49-year-old Filipino with heart and liver ailments has died after contracting the new flu virus, health officials in Manila confirmed.

The woman died at her home on June 19, two days after she first showed symptoms of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus.

About 20 state and private schools in the Philippines have suspended classes for 10 days since two weeks ago after some students were confirmed to have contracted the virus after trips to some of the affected countries, such as United States, Canada, Japan, China and Hong Kong.

The Public Health Ministry on Monday reported 68 new cases of the Type-A (H1N1) influenza, bringing the number of the cases in Thailand to 773.

Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai told a press conference that 14 of the new cases were undergoing treatment at some hospitals in Bangkok.

Thailand may allow more local autonomy and consider extending Shariah law to defuse a separatist insurgency in Muslim provinces that border Malaysia, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.

“More decentralization and provisions that respond to specific needs are fine,” Abhisit said in an interview in Singapore yesterday. “We can respond to needs on Shariah law, on the education system.”

Abhisit, 44, is seeking to undermine suspected separatists in four southernmost provinces who have attacked teachers, Muslim worshippers and policemen this month, leaving at least 31 dead and more than 50 injured. The prime minister, who took office in December, has insisted any decentralization of power wouldn’t be tantamount to autonomy, which the government opposes.

Thailand has been in dire need of some good news recently thanks to political upheaval and the gloomy economic outlook. The surprise birth of a baby panda has cheered the nation.

Officials at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand had tried unsuccessfully for years to breed the mammal and were unaware the mother was pregnant. Thailand joins the United States and Japan in a rare club: the only countries outside of China to breed a panda in captivity.

The 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships will be organized at UP Badminton Academy, Gomti Nagar, in the North Indian city of Lucknow from November 16 to 22 this year. The seven-day event will host events like men’s and women’s team championships, men’s and women singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles event.

According to UPTTA honorary Arun Kumar Banerjee, “As some of the most competitive table-tennis playing nations come in Asia, therefore, top players of the world like the Olympic champions, world Champions and Asian champions are expected to be seen in action during the meet.”

The FBI has issued a nationwide alert to ethnic business owners, particularly those of Asian decent. Calls are being made to businesses that appear to be originating from foreign countries and telephonic threats are allegedly being made to the owners.

It is believed that the caller gathers information about the business owners through Internet research and then misleads the victims into thinking that they have personal knowledge about them. There have been no reported violence at this time, however the FBI asks that anyone receiving these types of calls or e-mails report the activity immediately to local authorities or the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).