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LONDON (Reuters) - Private companies could have a greater role in providing state-funded health treatment in Britain under plans to be announced on Monday after a review of the 60-year-old National Health Service.

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - Senior envoys of the Dalai Lama arrived in China on Monday to meet the government over the issue of Tibet, the Tibetan government-in-exile said, amid pressure on China to open up dialogue as the Olympics approach.

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Guards at a maximum security prison in Cameroon's port city of Douala shot dead 16 inmates during an attempted break-out, state radio said on Monday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A loud blast alarmed residents and security officials in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and nearby city of Rawalpindi on Monday but police later said it appeared it had been a sonic boom.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian court on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian businessman on charges of being an Israeli spy who targeted the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program and its military, media said.

SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Program, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea due to a food shortage, said on Monday it reached a deal with Pyongyang to rapidly expand aid, and that a U.S. ship carrying wheat had arrived.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday pressed China and African powers to back international action on Zimbabwe, while also raising hopes of fresh nuclear talks soon with North Korea.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Anwar Ibrahim, leader of Malaysia's revitalized opposition, left the Turkish embassy on Monday where he had taken refuge following sodomy accusations, the latest thunderbolt in Malaysia's political tempest.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from Khartoum airport on Monday, exploding into a fireball and killing all four crew, witnesses and officials said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - An explosion destroyed the home of a militant in Pakistan's Khyber region on Monday, killing seven people, on the third day of a government offensive against Islamists threatening the city of Peshawar.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched a nationwide campaign to defuse protest ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games, state media reported on Monday, days after a riot in the country's southwest highlighted volatile social strains.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - African leaders are expected to press President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday to negotiate with Zimbabwe's opposition but are unlikely to punish his government for holding a discredited presidential election.

ZAM ZAM CAMP, Sudan (Reuters) - Markets stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables. Shiny new gas stations. Freshly built houses. Smooth paved roads. A pizzeria.

LONDON (Reuters) - Vodka, the famous Starowka quarter and the Palace of Culture commonly draw tourists to Warsaw, but John Bentley had a more mercenary motive for holidaying there recently -- it wouldn't break the bank, despite sterling's weakness.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa was rushed to hospital in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday after a health emergency, Egyptian health sources and state media said.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict may travel to Africa next year for the first time as pontiff, a senior Vatican official said in comments published on Sunday.

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The government of Indian Kashmir said on Sunday it would revoke its decision to transfer forest land to a Hindu shrine trust, a move that could defuse mass protests by Muslims across the Himalayan region.

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Mongolians turned out in droves on Sunday to vote in a tight race that will see the election of a government charged with fighting inflation and tapping into the windswept country's huge mineral wealth.

HARGEISA, Somalia (Reuters) - The breakaway state of Somaliland hopes next year's presidential elections will lead to international recognition of the northern Somali enclave as an independent country, officials said on Sunday.

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed in a bomb blast at a crowded village market in India's troubled northeastern Assam state on Sunday, police said.