Dalai Lama advised to rest, get checkup

NEW DELHI - The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, is exhausted and has canceled two foreign trips to rest and undergo medical tests, his aide said yesterday. The Nobel Peace laureate returned to Dharamsala, the north Indian town where he lives, on Sunday after a two-week visit to France. He was in France mainly to give lectures on Buddhism, but he also criticized Chinese policies in Tibet. He was scheduled to travel soon to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, but doctors advised him to rest and have a thorough checkup, the aide said. (Reuters)

SRINAGAR - Government forces ended a hostage crisis early today in Indian-controlled Kashmir when they killed the last of three rebels believed to have seized eight people, army officials said. The slaying ended a 20-hour gunbattle with rebels who were hiding inside a two-story concrete building in the outskirts of the mainly Hindu city of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, said senior army official D.L. Chowdhary. Two hostages died in the gunbattle, and the other six hostages, including four children, survived, Chowdhary said. Three soldiers and three other civilians also died in the violence yesterday. (AP)

PESHAWAR - Suspected militants bombed a van carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan today, killing at least nine people, as fighting between security forces and extremists flared across the tribal belt. The violence came just over a week after longtime US ally Pervez Musharraf resigned as president, triggering a scramble for power that collapsed Pakistan's governing coalition. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack today, though police said militants were the likely culprit. It happened as a van carrying prisoners crossed a bridge in Bannu, a town in the North West Frontier Province, police said. (AP)