News stories by Correspondents * - IPS/Al Jazeera

A leading Chinese dissident imprisoned after the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests has been found hanged in hospital.

Hundreds of Tibetans have been reportedly detained by Chinese security officers in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, after two Buddhist monks set themselves on fire in protest against China's rule over the Himalayan region last week.

Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist, has said he wants to leave for the U.S. rather than stay in China, throwing into doubt a deal used to coax him out of the U.S. embassy in Beijing and defuse an impasse that has strained China-U.S. ties.

Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, has been convicted by the country's Supreme Court of having committed contempt of court in a case that could see him expelled from office.

Ilker Basbug, Turkey's former army chief, has gone on trial on charges of leading a terrorist group accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Syrian troops have shelled the central city of Homs for a 10th day, opposition activists say, amid suggestions by the U.N.'s human rights chief that the U.N. Security Council's failure to pass a resolution condemning Syria has encouraged the government to intensify its attacks on civilians.

Tens of thousands of Syrians have reportedly taken to the streets of Homs, as Arab League monitors finished their first day of observation in the city that has been the centre of the anti-government protest movement.

Security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been responsible for the deaths of at least 24 people since President Joseph Kabila's re-election was announced on Dec. 9, Human Rights Watch says.

South Korea's opposition party has said it will resist any bid to force a sweeping free-trade agreement with the U.S. through parliament, following ratification of the deal by the U.S. congress.

Libya's governing National Transitional Council (NTC) is holding about 2,500 detainees in the capital Tripoli alone, many of whom have been beaten and subjected to other ill-treatment and not given access to lawyers or judicial proceedings, says London-based human-rights watchdog Amnesty International.