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BEIJING (Reuters) - After nearly ending the U.S. hegemony over the Olympic medal table in Athens four years ago, China could overtake their sporting superpower rivals in the race for global supremacy in Beijing.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Rescuers have reached an Italian mountaineer who refused to succumb to frostbite and exhaustion on K2 after 11 other climbers perished on the world's second-highest mountain, a Pakistani guide said on Monday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Many developing countries that are combating AIDS are facing dire shortages of qualified doctors and nurses as healthcare workers leave for developed countries where they are paid many times more.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday that Iran has left the U.N. Security Council no choice but to increase sanctions on the Islamic Republic for ignoring demands that it halt sensitive nuclear activities.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa's ruling ANC, goes to court on Monday in an attempt to win the dismissal of a corruption case that could wreck his chances of becoming the nation's president next year.

LONDON (Reuters) - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Soviet dissident writer and Nobel literature prize winner, has died aged 89, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian officials attended the funeral on Sunday of a senior security officer whose killing has shaken the tightly controlled country.

ATHENS (Reuters) - A 31-year-old Greek beheaded his girlfriend and carried her head round the popular tourist island of Santorini before he was arrested, police said on Sunday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The two candidates favored to succeed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday they may seek to forge a government with rightists, a step that could hurt peace talks but avoid an early election.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday that Iran has left the U.N. Security Council no choice but to increase sanctions on the Islamic Republic for ignoring demands that it halt sensitive nuclear activities.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan government forces killed at least 18 Tamil Tiger rebels and lost five of their own soldiers as they bombarded guerrilla-held areas in the north of the island from land, sea and air, the military said on Sunday.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A roadside explosion in Mogadishu on Sunday killed at least 14 people, most of them women who were sweeping a street in the Somali capital, witnesses said. Nearly 50 people were wounded.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda confirmed on Sunday that Abu Khabab al-Masri, a chemical and biological weapons expert, was killed with three other militants in a suspected U.S. air strike in Pakistan's border region last week.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A global AIDS conference that opens in Mexico City on Sunday is meant for people infected with HIV, but transsexual sex worker Elma Delea cannot get inside.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Talks between Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition on ending the political crisis resumed on Sunday after adjourning early last week, South Africa's presidency said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi parliamentarians failed on Sunday to pass a law on provincial elections, putting the date of important polls in doubt and leaving unresolved a political standoff that has stoked ethnic tensions.

CHANDIGARH, India (Reuters) - At least 145 people, mostly women and children, were crushed to death under the feet of thousands of pilgrims in a stampede at a temple in northern India on Sunday, police said.

GILGIT, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least nine climbers have perished on K-2 in Pakistan in the worst day for mountaineering on the world's second-highest peak, and the toll could rise further, expedition organizers said on Sunday.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Pakistan's prime minister said there was no evidence linking his country to attacks on India, adding such accusations had hurt the peace process, a report said on Sunday.

GAZA (Reuters) - About 30 pro-Fatah Palestinians who fled to Israel after fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip were sent back to the Hamas-controlled enclave on Sunday and the Islamist group said its forces immediately detained them.