Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Lima on Wednesday for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, part of a three-nation swing aimed at building clout in Latin America.

Hu arrived from Cuba after earlier visiting Costa Rica. He was met with an honor guard before holding talks with Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

Rwandan presidential aide Rose Kabuye arrived Wednesday in Paris after being extradited from Germany over an assassination that triggered the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, one of her lawyers said.

She was flown to Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris and was en route for the capital`s law courts, the lawyer said.

RIYADH, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived Saturday in the Saudi capital to join fellow leaders from OPEC oil-exporting countries for a rare summit.

The two-day gathering of heads of state from the 12-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is only the third in the cartel's 47-year history.

A smiling Ahmadinejad, who waved to television cameras as he walked from his plane, was greeted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

RIYADH, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in the Saudi capital for a summit with fellow leaders from OPEC oil-exporting countries.

The two-day summit of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is only the third in the organisation's 47-year history, bringing together 12 heads of state from the oil-rich nations.

A smiling Ahmadinejad, who waved to television cameras as he walked from his plane, was greeted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

KIEV, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates arrived in Ukraine Sunday on the first stop of a European tour that will see him discuss Turkey's threat to attack Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq and US plans for an anti-missile shield.

Gates arrived at 1:30 pm (1030 GMT) and was due to meet Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul later Sunday before holding talks with the defence ministers of Ukraine, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia.

THE HAGUE, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - A Democratic Republic of Congo militia chief accused of war crimes arrived at the detention centre of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Thursday after his transfer from Kinshasa, an ICC spokeswoman told AFP.

'He arrived around noon at the detention centre,' court spokeswoman Sonja Robla told AFP.

Germain Katanga, 29, who once led the Forces for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri (FRPI), faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity commited in the north-eastern Ituri region of the DR Congo.

KARACHI, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto arrived home in Pakistan on Thursday after eight years in self-imposed exile, an AFP correspondent travelling with her said.

The Emirates flight carrying the 54-year-old from Dubai touched down in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi amid cheers of 'Long Live Bhutto' from her supporters on the plane.

WIESBADEN, Germany, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Germany on Sunday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel after he was informed of a plot to assassinate him when he visits Tehran this week.

Putin's plane touched down at Frankfurt airport more than two hours behind schedule after it was delayed by bad weather in Moscow.

The announcement of the delay was made after the Kremlin said Putin had been told of reports of a possible attempt on his life in Iran, where he is scheduled to head to from Germany on Monday night.

MOSCOW, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Moscow on Friday for crucial talks with Russian leaders on missile defence and other disputes that have sent Cold War chills through their relations.

Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates are due to meet President Vladimir Putin and then discuss the thorny issues in a combined meeting with their respective Russian counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Anatoly Serdyukov.

MOSCOW, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks on a proposed US anti-missile defence shield in eastern Europe opposed by Moscow.

Gates will be joined by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday to discuss the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

MOSCOW, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow on Tuesday at the start of his first official visit to Russia, an AFP reporter said.

Sarkozy was due to have dinner later Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader's official residence of Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow.

He has said he aims to stake out a new 'frank' relationship with Moscow.

Sarkozy has been critical of Russia's human rights record and has accused Russia of using its vast energy reserves to bully its European neighbours.

PARIS, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - Jurors in the British coroner's inquest into the death of princess Diana arrived early Monday afternoon at the Paris Ritz Hotel, where they were to start retracing her final, ill-fated journey.

After flying into Paris on a chartered flight, 11 jurors arrived on a bus with two police motorcycle escorts at the Ritz, where Diana, 36, and her 42-year-old Egyptian boyfriend Dodi Fayed dined the night they died.

LONDON, Oct 6, 2007 (AFP) - British adventurer Jason Lewis on Saturday arrived in Greenwich, south-east London, ending a 13-year round-the-world trip using only the power of the human body.

The 40-year-old completed the final leg of his 46,000-mile (74,000-kilometre) odyssey by pedalling his 26-foot (7.9-metre) boat Moksha up the River Thames.

BASRA, Iraq, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Britain's Gordon Brown arrived Tuesday in the southern city of Basra where he was to visit British troops on the second leg of his maiden trip to Iraq as prime minister.

Brown met earlier in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and said that he hoped 1,000 British troops would be home by Christmas as he aimed to hand back control of Basra province to the Iraqis within two months.

BAGHDAD, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for meetings with Iraqi leaders and US commanders as his government mulls a drawdown of its forces from war-torn Iraq.

'He's meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, senior government officials and the United States' top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus,' a senior British government spokesman told reporters travelling with Brown.

SEOUL, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il welcomed South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun on his arrival Tuesday in Pyongyang ahead of a historic summit, live TV showed.

Kim, in an unscheduled appearance, shook hands with Roh at an official welcoming ceremony attended by hundreds of civilians and a military honour guard.

YANGON, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in military-ruled Myanmar on Saturday and headed straight to the junta's isolated capital for what he said he hoped would be 'a very fruitful visit.'

Deployed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon after this week's bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protesters, Gambari landed in the main city of Yangon and then flew to Naypyidaw, the new administrative capital, UN officials said.

YANGON, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Saturday and was headed straight to the capital, Naypyidaw, for talks with junta leaders, diplomatic sources said.

'He will go directly to Naypyidaw,' a Western diplomat told AFP, referring to the regime's new administrative capital in central Myanmar.

Gambari arrived in Myanmar's main city of Yangon from Singapore, where he spent Friday night.

LA PAZ, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived here Thursday for meetings with Bolivia's leftist president Evo Morales, ahead of a stop in Venezuela.

The meeting between Ahmadinejad and Morales takes place just months after Bolivia and Iran re-established diplomatic ties, and finds the two firebrand leaders united in their tense relations with Washington.

Morales, along with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, is among few world leaders who support Iran's nuclear program.

BEIRUT, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Dozens of Lebanese lawmakers gathered under heavy security in parliament on Tuesday for a crucial session aimed at electing a president and ending a long-running crisis that has paralysed the country.

Many MPs from the ruling Western-backed majority arrived at the legislature in central Beirut under heavy military escort from a nearby luxury hotel.

Several MPs stood outside the building briefly and held up a banner bearing the names and pictures of six fellow lawmakers killed since 2005 in attacks they have blamed on Syria.

LIMA, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori touched down in Lima Saturday after being extradited from Chile to face trial on charges of corruption and massacres by death squads during his rule.

The Peruvian police airplane carrying Fujimori arrived at a military airport south of the capital around 4:40 pm (2140 GMT), an AFP journalist at the scene said, seven years after the ex-leader fled the country amid a government corruption scandal.

TEL AVIV, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit to prepare the ground for a US-sponsored Middle East peace conference later this year.

Rice was to meet senior Israeli officials later on Wednesday before dining one-on-one with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for a working supper.

On Wednesday she heads to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad.

ROME, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir arrived in Rome on Thursday ahead of an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, airport news agency Telenews reported.

The audience late Friday morning at the pope's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo near Rome is to follow talks in the Italian capital with Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

Beshir is accompanied by a large delegation that includes figures from Sudan's sizeable Christian minority, the official Sudanese news agency SUNA reported.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif was back in Saudi Arabia on Monday after his expulsion from Pakistan, with Riyadh saying it 'welcomed' his return to his former exile home.

'Nawaz Sharif is a guest of Saudi Arabia, which welcomed his coming to live in the kingdom once again,' the official SPA news agency said.

Sharif arrived in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and was greeted by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Miqren bin Abdul Aziz, SPA said.

A Saudi official earlier told AFP that Sharif had landed at Jeddah airport.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif arrived in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah on Monday following his expulsion from Pakistan, a Saudi official told AFP.

Sharif 'landed at Jeddah airport,' the official said, requesting anonymity.

Sharif was deported from Pakistan just hours after returning from exile hoping to ignite a popular campaign to oust military ruler President Pervez Musharraf.

Security guards banned photographers from entering Jeddah airport to take pictures of Sharif, one photographer at the scene said.

ISLAMABAD, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's plane arrived in Pakistan on Monday, airport officials told AFP.

'The plane carrying Nawaz Sharif has landed,' a senior official at Islamabad airport said on condition of anonymity.

Television showed Pakistan International Airlines flight PK 786, the plane Sharif boarded in London on Sunday night, touching down and taxiing to the terminal building.

SYRTE, Libya, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Libya on Saturday for talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi on the peace process in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.

Ban told journalists on his plane en route to Libya that the goal of the visit was to ensure the success of Darfur peace negotiations set to be held in Libya on October 27.

He hoped the upcoming talks would result in a final peace solution for Darfur and that Kadhafi could play a key role in resolving the more than four-year-old conflict.

SYRTE, Libya, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Libya on Saturday for talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi about the peace process in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.

Ban told journalists on his plane en route to Libya that the goal of his visit is to ensure the success of Darfur peace negotiations set to be held in Libya on October 27.

The Ban-Kadhafi meeting was to take place in the coastal city of Syrte, about 500 kilometres (300 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.

VIENNA, 7 sept 2007 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI arrived Friday in Vienna for a three-day visit that will see him travel to the 850-year-old pilgrimage site of Mariazell and honour victims of the Holocaust.

The pope landed at around 11.10 am (0910 GMT) at Vienna's international airport and was to be greeted by Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

The welcoming ceremony, which was initially to take place in the open, had to be moved to a hangar at the last minute as heavy rain fell on the Austrian capital.

SYDNEY, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin arrived in Australia on Friday on the first ever visit by a Russian leader during which he will sign a deal to import uranium from Canberra.

Putin jetted into Sydney airport from Indonesia for a three-day visit primarily aimed at attending the Asia Pacific Economic Coooperation summit of 21 leaders that kicks off Saturday.

But Putin will first pay a one-day visit to Australia focused on the contentious agreement for Australia to export yellow cake to the Russian Federation.

JAKARTA, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Jakarta on Thursday with a large delegation of energy, banking and weapons officials for a one-day visit to boost trade and economic ties.

Putin was greeted by Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda and top ranking military and government figures.

In his first visit to the world's most populous Muslim nation, Putin will see energy and mining agreements signed, as well as a one-billion dollar credit line for Jakarta to buy Russian military hardware, officials said.

NICOSIA, Sept 5, 2007 (AFP) - Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos and rival Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat gathered in the UN-patrolled buffer zone in Nicosia on Wednesday for a rare meeting aimed at reviving efforts to reunite the island.

It is the first meeting of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders since July last year when the two agreed a twin-track process to pave the way for peace talks.

SYDNEY, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Fresh from a surprise trip to Iraq, US President George W. Bush arrived in Australia late Tuesday for an Asia-Pacific summit and a series of one-on-one meetings with world leaders.

Bush's official Air Force One airplane touched down on a rainy tarmac here at about 10:20 pm (1220 GMT) after an unannounced stop in the war-torn country's restive Anbar province to defend his handling of the conflict.

LONDON, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - A Eurostar train set a new record Tuesday for the quickest rail journey between Paris and London, completing the trip in two hours, three minutes and 39 seconds.

The journey, the first to make use of a new stretch of high-speed track in Britain, shaved more than half an hour off the previous fastest time for the trip.

BEIJING, Aug 26, 2007 (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Beijing late Sunday, state media reported, marking the start of a trip to boost trade ties and try to bring China to commit to global climate protection goals.

Merkel will be in China until Wednesday for talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The chancellor will then visit Japan where she will be greeted by Emperor Akihito and meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

NEW DELHI, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday to firm up billions of dollars of investment projects, expand trade ties and discuss India's controversial nuclear cooperation deal.

Abe, accompanied by his wife Akie and almost 200 business officials, was to head straight to an economic forum, the first event of what an aide has called a 'fully-packed' three-day schedule.

SEOUL, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Two female hostages freed by Afghanistan's Taliban arrived home in South Korea Friday almost a month after their kidnap ordeal began, Yonhap news agency said.

Kim Gi-Na, 32, and Kim Kyung-Ja, 37, were briefly reunited with family members at Seoul's Incheon airport. They then left for medical check-ups at a military hospital at Bundang on the outskirts of the city.

BISHKEK, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday at the start of a three-nation tour of ex-Soviet neighbours, Kyrgyz government spokeswoman Roza Daudova told AFP.

Hu was to meet senior officials including President Kurmanbek Bakiyev ahead of a summit on Thursday of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a six-nation security and economic group.

He was to attend military exercises in Russia on Friday with other heads of SCO states, before visiting energy-rich Kazakhstan on Saturday.

KABUL, Aug 14, 2007 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Kabul Tuesday for talks with Afghan leaders on his first visit