DSK strikes deal with maid

AFP, New York

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Monday agreed a financial settlement with a New York hotel maid who had accused him of sexual assault.

A judge ordered that details of the deal between Strauss-Kahn and Nafissatou Diallo, a 33-year-old illiterate migrant from Guinea, be kept confidential.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have dismissed reports that the maid would receive several million dollars, but experts said a substantial pay-

Mandela responding well

REUTERS, Johannesburg

Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is 94 and has been in hospital since Saturday for tests, has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, the government said yesterday.

The revered anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace laureate is spending his fourth day in a hospital in the South African capital Pretoria. He remains a hero to many of South Africa's 52 million people and two brief stretches in hospital in the last two years made front page news.

2 Tibetans die in self-immolations

AFP, Beijing

Two more Tibetans burned themselves to death in protest at China’s rule of the Himalayan region, a rights group said yesterday, as state media accused the Dalai Lama of turning Tibetan Buddhism into "an evil cult".

Both immolations happened on Saturday in restive Tibetan-inhabited regions of China, bringing the number of Tibetans who have set themselves ablaze since 2009 to 95, the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement from London.

Gayoom could run for president

The Hindu Online

Former Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the country for over 30 years before he was unseated by Mohamed Nasheed in the 2008 elections, has said that he may consider running for president again.

Elections are expected to be held in the Maldives by the end of August or early September 2013.

Saying that he preferred not to run, Gayoom, however, clarified: “Things change very frequently. So I am keeping my options open.”

Malala father made UN advisor

PTI, London

The father of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban for advocating girls' right to education, has been named as the Special UN Advisor on Global Education. The announcement was made by Gordon Brown, who is the United Nations' Special Envoy for Global Education. He said that once Malala gets well, she too will join the campaign.