Violence in Iraq, including a bombing near a mosque, killed 18 people on Tuesday, officials said, the latest in a spate of unrest that has cost more than 370 lives so far this month. The bomb near a mosque in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, killed five people and wounded at least 16, officials said. Dozens of mosques have been attacked so far this year, including two Shiite places of worship in Hilla, south of Baghdad, where bombs killed 13 people on Monday.

SEOUL, May 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korean mountaineer Kim Chang-ho climbed all 14 Himalayan peaks of more than 8,000 meters without oxygen tanks, becoming the first from his country to do so and setting a world record for completing the climbs in the shortest span of time, the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) said Monday.

Three Chinese maritime surveillance vessels sailed on Friday inside Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands, a Japanese-controlled islet group claimed by China, the Japan Coast Guard said. It was the 44th intrusion since last September, when the Japanese government purchased three of the five main islands in the group, which China calls Diaoyu, from a Japanese owner.

Fishermen from Japan's Okinawa Prefecture and Taiwan differed over operations in Japan's exclusive economic zone around the prefecture at talks Thursday and extended the discussions into Friday, Okinawa fisheries association sources said. The fishermen met to discuss how to prevent problems after an agreement between Japan and Taiwan took effect last Friday governing Taiwanese fishing operations in the Japanese zone around the prefecture, which includes the Senkaku Islands that are claimed by Taiwan and China.