AP - A Hamas leader says Israel's agreement to release a notorious Lebanese militant may provide an opening to free its members convicted of killing Israelis.

AP - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader believes the pomp with which President Robert Mugabe was sworn in for a sixth term is a sign of desperation.

AP - A powerful explosion destroyed a militant compound and killed up to eight people Monday in a volatile tribal region where Pakistan security forces are waging an offensive against pro-Taliban militants, residents said.

AP - Representatives of the Dalai Lama headed to Beijing on Monday for the first formal talks with Chinese officials in a year, the Tibetan government-in-exile said, a move that comes less than four months after anti-government riots swept through Tibet.

AP - A U.S. ship carrying thousands of tons of food aid has arrived in North Korea, after the communist nation agreed to expanded international assistance for its impoverished people, the U.N. food agency said Monday.

AFP - At least six people were killed and 39 injured Sunday in two separate bomb blasts in India's insurgency-hit Assam state, police said.

AFP - Robert Mugabe was sworn in Sunday to a new term as Zimbabwe president and called for dialogue between the country's political parties after a one-man election widely denounced as illegitimate.

AFP - Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Sunday urged the European Central Bank to show "flexibility" in its interest rate policy which he said was too focused on fighting inflation.

AP - France's first lady sings in English and dreams in Italian, and the president's roots reach to Hungary and Greece. Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy could be a metaphor for a harmonious, borderless Europe.