REUTERS, SHENZHEN - China kept up a barrage of criticism against the Dalai Lama on Sunday, even as envoys of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader went into fence-mending talks with officials, the first since unrest in the mountain region.

The eruption of Tibetan riots in March and China's immediate crackdown have prompted anti-China protests that disrupted the international leg of the Olympic torch relay and led to calls for Western leaders to boycott August's Beijing Games.

REUTERS, TEGUCIGALPA - Police have quelled a riot at Honduras' main prison in which at least 18 inmates died, a Security Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

The riot at the National Penitentiary north of the capital began late on Friday and was the second such incident in the country's overcrowded prison system in a week.

REUTERS, HAGATNA, Guam - Democrat Barack Obama beat rival Hillary Clinton by just seven votes in Guam's nominating contest after record numbers of residents voted in the tiny U.S. territory's primary, officials said on Sunday.

Results after more than 12 hours of manual counting showed Obama took 2,264 votes to 2,257 for Clinton. In the last Democratic primary in 2004 only 1,500 people took part.

REUTERS, FRANKFURT - Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) denied a German media report on Saturday it had informed customers of another delay on its new 787 Dreamliner model.

"There has been no change since our announcement in April," said Yvonne Leach, a spokeswoman in Seattle, adding that, on average, delays would put deliveries about 20 months behind schedule.

REUTERS, UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. Security Council urged Myanmar's government on Friday to ensure a May 10 referendum on an army-drafted constitution is credible by allowing all political actors to participate.

The constitution is a key component of a seven-step "road map to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty elections in 2010 and end nearly five decades of military rule.

REUTERS, Islamabad - The Pakistani government has deferred the execution of an Indian man condemned to death for spying and carrying out bombings in 1990, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

Last week, the family of Sarabjit Singh visited Pakistan to campaign for his pardon. Besides meeting officials and human rights activists, they saw Singh for the first time in 18 years in a prison in eastern city of Lahore.

China prefaced expected talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama on Saturday by condemning the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader as a criminal, while cloaking the meeting itself in secrecy, reports Reuters.

China's state media has not mentioned the planned meeting, the first since unrest erupted across Tibet in March. But official newspapers continued their bitter criticism of the Dalai Lama and his supporters, suggesting that the government will not be in a mood to compromise.

AFP, LONDON - An eccentric ex-journalist from the opposition Conservatives ousted the Labour mayor of London Saturday, capping an election rout for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who faces an uphill battle to revive his government's fortunes.

Gaffe-prone lawmaker Boris Johnson beat maverick left-winger Ken Livingstone in the capital, the key prize in council elections on May 1 that the British media said became a "May Day Massacre" for Labour.

REUTERS, London - Major powers agreed on Friday to make a new offer of incentives to Iran to halt its sensitive nuclear work and a European diplomat said helping Tehran develop civil atomic power remained at the heart of the proposal.

The offer, whose details have not been made public, is based on a package of economic and political benefits laid out by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany in June 2006 but so far spurned by Iran.

REUTERS, YANGON - A tropical cyclone slammed into Myanmar's main city on Saturday, ripping off roofs, felling trees and power lines and forcing the military authorities to close the airport.

The electricity supply -- hit-and-miss at the best of times in one of Asia's poorest countries -- failed after Cyclone Nargis, packing winds of up to 120 mph, first started to lash the former capital on Friday evening.

REUTERS, Washington - The Bush administration could announce plans by the end of its term in January to close Guantanamo prison and an upcoming Supreme Court ruling might be the impetus for this, senior US officials and experts say.

The government is under international and domestic pressure to close the prison camp, which opened at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba in January 2002 to house terrorism suspects caught after the invasion of Afghanistan.

REUTERS, Harare - Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe accepted that the opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai won more votes in the presidential election and will contest a run-off in a political battle that has raised fears of bloodshed.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) cried foul after Zimbabwe's electoral body announced on Friday that he had won 47.9 percent of the vote but faces a run-off after failing to gain enough votes for an outright majority.

AFP, SANAA - At least eight pople were killed and 45 wounded in Yemen on Friday when a blast went off at the entrance of a mosque in the Saada region, site of a Shiite rebellion, police and witnesses said.

There were conflicting accounts about the cause of the explosion, and no immediate claims of responsibility. Some witnesses said a minibus parked outside the mosque

AFP, LONDON - The Middle East Quartet called Friday on Israel to stop building or extending settlements in the West Bank, while voicing deep concern over the Gaza Strip due to an Israeli blockade.

In a joint statement issued after talks between the four key powers in London, they also urged Arab states to make good on pledges to help the Palestinians.

AFP, HARARE - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has won the first round of a presidential election against Robert Mugabe with 47.9 percent of the vote, an election official said on Friday.

Mugabe won 43.2 percent of the vote and since neither candidate won more than 50 percent a second round run-off will have to be held, Lovemore Sekeramayi, chief elections officer, told reporters in Harare.

AFP, DHARAMSHALA - Two Tibetan envoys will arrive in China on Saturday to start "informal" talks with the country's leadership after bloody riots in Lhasa, a spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile said.

The meetings will be the first reported face-to-face contact between the two sides since unrest erupted in Tibet on March 10 followed by a Chinese crackdown.

AFP, LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown admitted Friday that his party had suffered a "bad" blow in key local elections, as forecasts predicted the worst results for Labour since the 1960s.

As results poured in, Labour -- with Brown leading them into elections for the first time since taking office last year -- was set to finish in third place behind the opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, the BBC said.

REUTERS, WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush on Thursday called for the United States to offer $770 million in new global food aid in an effort to stem rising food prices threatening to spread social unrest in the developing world.

Bush, who has expressed concern at the deepening global food crisis which has triggered turmoil in poor countries, said he wanted to send a clear message that the United States would lead in addressing this problem.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin steps down next week after eight years in power, he will leave behind him a strong Russia, self-confident at home and assertive abroad, reports REUTERS.

But the smack of the Soviet past can be felt distinctly in the legacy that Putin, a steely-eyed former KGB spy, will hand over to his protege Dmitry Medvedev, who will be sworn in as the new president on May 7.

REUTERS, Los Angeles- Thousands of immigrants marched through cities across the United States on Thursday, but smaller crowds suggested their cause had lost momentum in this election year.

Immigration-rights activists have retrenched to focus this year's rallies on stopping workplace raids after Washington failed last year to act on reforms that included a path to legal status for illegal immigrants. In Los Angeles, an estimated 8,000 people converged on City Hall.