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LHASA, China (Reuters) - Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama remains a spiritual leader but is politically anathema, a senior monk in Lhasa told foreign reporters on an official visit that underscored tensions in the mountain region.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will announce on Sunday that he is withdrawing from the June 27 presidential run-off election, a source within his Movement for Democratic Change told Reuters.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A U.S. leak of an Israeli air exercise reported to be practice for possible bombing of Iran's nuclear sites was seen in Israel on Sunday as a deliberate move to increase pressure on Tehran to halt sensitive atomic work.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber blew herself up among policemen outside a restaurant north of Baghdad on Sunday, killing 15 people and wounding 35, Iraqi police said.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, making his third visit to the quake zone, spoke of a "calamity-ridden nation" on Sunday but said life in the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu should be back to normal within two months.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali gunmen have kidnapped the local head of the U.N. refugee agency in Mogadishu in the latest abduction of aid workers in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, witnesses said on Sunday.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Senior U.N. inspectors arrived in Syria on Sunday to investigate U.S. allegations that Damascus was building a clandestine nuclear reactor for military purposes before an Israel air strike destroyed it in September.

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Rockets fired from Pakistan hit a village in eastern Afghanistan killing a woman and three children, Afghan officials said on Sunday, one of three cross-border attacks around the same time overnight.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli anti-torture watchdog said in a report on Sunday Israeli soldiers routinely abuse bound Palestinian detainees and it accused the military of "absolute indifference" towards such mistreatment.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian newspaper has been banned after carrying articles critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic policies, the state Press TV satellite station said on its website.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and 30 wounded on Sunday in sectarian clashes in Lebanon's second largest city Tripoli, security sources said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej defended himself and his administration on Sunday in the face of thousands of demonstrators camped outside Government House calling for his resignation.

Born in Belgrade in 1969, Goran Tomasevic started working for Reuters as a freelance photographer in 1996 during the anti-Milosevic demonstrations. He was based in Baghdad during the Iraq conflict, in Jerusalem during tense times between the Israelis and Palestinians, and is now senior photographer in Egypt. In the following story he recalls a rare sequence of split-second shots he took of a U.S. Marine in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy flies to Israel on Sunday for a three-day visit aimed at reinforcing his image as an ally of the Jewish state and reversing a trend of difficult trips there by French leaders.

CEBU, Philippines (Reuters) - More than 800 people were missing on Monday after a Philippine ferry capsized in a typhoon that has killed scores and left a trail of destruction across the archipelago.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Armed youths blew up a Nigerian crude oil pipeline operated by U.S. major Chevron, a militant group said on Saturday, cutting more output from the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A tornado in China tore up 650 houses in just five minutes and damaged nearly 1,000, state media said on Sunday, but only one person died.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration confirmed on Saturday that U.S. beef exporters are set to resume shipments, under certain restrictions, to South Korea, a step officials hope will provide resolution to a trade impasse that has become a major headache for both nations.

MIAMI (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama on Saturday accused his rival John McCain of favoring budget policies that would leave cities unable to pay for critical projects like flood-prevention systems and highways.