WASHINGTON: North Korea, Iran and Syria are among the top 10 countries deemed worst for press freedom, according to an annual ranking by a Washington-based watchdog.

SEOUL: North Korea said on Sunday it had no intention of using an American it sentenced to hard labor for 15 years as a bargaining chip in talks with the United States.

BEIJING: The Palestinian President, Mr Mahmud Abbas arrived in Beijing on Sunday for a visit, official media said, with the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu also set to meet Chinese leaders later this week.

LAHORE: Sarabjit Singh, who died on Thursday after being comatose for nearly a week following a brutal assault by fellow inmates, became the second Indian prisoner this year to die in Pakistan’s notorious Kot Lakhpat jail here.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police on Thursday arrested and interrogated beleaguered former president Pervez Musharraf over the killing of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti in a 2006 military operation, one of three high-profile cases that have dogged him since he returned to the country from self-exile.

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa suspended a senior foreign ministry official on Thursday after a charter plane carrying nearly 200 guests for the wedding of a family with close ties to the President, Mr Jacob Zuma used an Air Force base without proper military permission.

LONDON: An Indian-origin wife was said to be “in bits” after her husband’s mysterious death in a swimming pool at a luxury hotel near London.
Ms Gurpreet Kpakiwa’s husband Komba Kpakiwa was found floating face down in the pool at Down Hall Country House Hotel, in Essex, on Saturday evening with a 22-year-old student nurse Josephine Foday.

FORT CARSON, COLORADO: A court-martial got underway for the first female US Army soldier to flee to Canada to avoid a second tour of duty in the Iraq war yesterday.

BOSTON: A woman’s DNA has been found on at least one of the explosive devices used in the Boston bombings, adding a new dimension to the probe into the terror attack that killed three people and wounded over 200 others.

ISLAMABAD:  Virtually sealing his political comeback plans, a provincial High Court today banned former Pakistani military ruler Mr Pervez Musharraf from contesting elections for the rest of his life on a day another put him in judicial custody till three days after the general elections on May 11.