San Jose  - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and Chinese leader Hu Jintao agreed Monday in San Jose to launch talks towards a free-trade agreement between the two nations.

New Delhi - More than 600 exiled Tibetan leaders gathered in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala Monday to air their views and aspirations on the best course of action for the Tibetan cause.

The situation in Tibet was serious and at this "critical stage" all Tibetans had to come together to discuss their views on what future action needed to be taken, Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile said in his opening speech.

Shanghai - Novak Djokovic has become a massive danger to the 2009 fightback dreams of Roger Federer after the resurgent Serb won the Masters Cup title at the weekend.

Through his 6-1, 7-5 defeat of Nikolay Davydenko at the Qi Zhong stadium, world number three Djokovic has now climbed to within a hair-thin 10 points of the Swiss star, who was knocked out in the group stage at a year-end event for the first time in his career as he lost to Andy Murray.

Chinese President Hu Jintao is set to visit Costa Rica beginning Sunday, in the first visit by a Chinese leader travels to Central America.

A UN-sponsored congress on Saturday urged the integration of
traditional medicine into national health care plans, saying patients
would benefit from its use alongside modern medicine.

China on Saturday said it would crack down on "fake" journalists, a
category that appears to include many freelance journalists.

Hong Kong saw a year-on-year fall in tourist arrivals in October as the global economic downturn began to bite, according to a report Saturday.

DBS Group, Singapore's largest bank, announced 900 jobs cuts after it suffered a sharp drop in third quarter profit, a news report said Saturday.