South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki- moon left for Japan on Sunday to discuss issues including the nuclear problem and United Nations reforms with Japanese officials, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said.

The Sri Lankan government said Sunday that it has requested the United Nations (UN) to escort the food convoys to the northern Jaffna peninsula in the midst of a food crisis and the UN has agreed.

Six persons including two policemen were injured in two bombing blasts in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province in southern Thailand Saturday night, a source told Xinhua Sunday.

Vice President of Cuba's Council of State Carlos Lage Davila said on Saturday that developed nations are luring away large numbers of talented professionals from developing countries every year.

Iran has offered to provide cheap electricity to Pakistan that could also be extended to India like the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, local newspaper Dawn reported on Sunday.

Eight Taliban insurgents were killed and 15 others were injured by Afghan police in the southern Kandahar province, the provincial police chief told Xinhua on Sunday.

Four U.S. military newspapers will publish an editorial on Monday, asking President George W. Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Richard Perle and Kenneth Adelman, two prominent conservative figures from the camp of U.S. President George W. Bush, strongly criticized Bush's Iraq policy in interviews of the Vanity Fair in its coming January issue, U.S. media reported Saturday.

Nepali Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs K P Sharma Oli has said that taking back Bhutanese refugees by Bhutan Government is the solution to the refugee problem, according to a leading newspaper The Himalayan Times on Sunday.

Hungary's main opposition Fidesz party staged a torchlight march on Saturday, marking the 50th anniversary of the day Hungary's anti-Soviet revolt was crushed.