Moscow  - One of the leading human rights activists in Russia, Lev Ponomaryov, was attacked and seriously injured, a colleague said Tuesday.

The 67-year-old leader of the All-Russia movement "For Human Rights" was taken to hospital for treatment, the colleague told radio broadcaster Echo of Moscow.

He speculated that the attack was connected to Ponomaryov's human rights advocacy.

Initial investigations showed that Ponomaryov, who once served in the legislature, was seized by at least three attackers who severely beat him in front of his house.

Beirut  - A 14-year-old Lebanese student has been kidnapped in Beirut with his captors demanding ransom of 1.5 million dollars, local television networks reported Tuesday.

Amin Jihad al-Khansa was abducted when he was waiting his school bus in the morning outside his house near the Beirut International airport highway district.

Reports said Khansa's parents were not aware of the kidnapping until they received a call from an anonymous man, demanding the ransom.

New Delhi  - Activists of the right-wing Hindu Shiv Sena group attacked the house of the lawyer appointed to represent the lone Muslim militant captured during the November Mumbai attacks, media reports said Tuesday.

About 100 Shiv Sena activists shouted slogans and threw stones Monday night at the central Mumbai residence of Anjali Waghmare shortly after she was named by special judge ML Tahiliyani to defend Ajmal Amir Kasab.

Waghmare was unhurt, and police used batons to disperse the mob.

Hong Kong  - A man who strangled a woman and later told her family to pay a ransom for her safe return has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murder, a media report said Tuesday.

A judge sentenced So Kam-tong, 25, to life in prison for murdering Yau Hiu-yin, 21, after a jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict, the South China Morning Post said.

So also received a concurrent jail sentence of five years and four months after pleading guilty to blackmailing Yau's family.

The judge described the blackmail as cruel since So knew the woman was dead.

Sydney  - Canberra police stand guard as a motorcade sweeps along closed roads in a blaze of black metal and shiny chrome.

It's not a visiting head of state going by but the bullet-holed body of slain motorcycle gang leader Richard Roberts.

Australia's motorcycle gangs are at war and police in the national capital are out in the streets making sure vengeance is left to another day.

Riga - Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that it was investigating claims that it had fallen victim to a Chinese-based cyber-spying operation.

"There are threats at all times which we monitor and work to avoid," a ministry spokesman told the German press service dpa.

A co-cordinated cyber-spying operation, dubbed "GhostNet" by Canadian researchers who exposed the hi-tech spy ring, infected two computers belonging to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a new report.