Washington  - The United States expressed concern Tuesday about the health of Myanmar democratic activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who reportedly began a hunger strike last month to protest years of detention.

"The regime's continued isolation and detention under house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi makes it impossible to confirm reports such as these," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"The United States and the international community remain deeply concerned about her welfare."

Wellington  - New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters was facing the battle of his political life on Wednesday after an expatriate billionaire benefactor gave damning testimony to Parliament's powerful privileges committee.

Owen Glenn, who lives in Monaco, flew home to tell the committee on Tuesday that Peters personally asked him for money to help pay legal fees after the 2005 general election and he donated 100,000 New Zealand dollars (about 66,000 US dollars).

Beirut  - Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman has set September 16 as the date for launching a national dialogue among the country's political rivals, a government source said Tuesday.

The talks will take place in the Baabda Presidential Palace and are aimed at generating a consensus between the country's major parliamentary factions - namely the Hezbollah-led opposition and the Western-backed ruling majority - on several controversial issues.

A major sticking point is the proposed disarmament of Hezbollah by the ruling majority.

Cairo  - Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Soleiman will meet in Cairo with a delegation from the Palestine Democratic Union on Wednesday to discuss ways to end the inter-Palestinian conflict.

This meeting comes almost two weeks after Egypt's first bilateral meeting with a delegation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

"Our party values the role Egypt plays to end the state of division that took place after the Islamic movement Hamas took over the Gaza Strip," Saleh Raafat, Secretary General of the Palestine Democratic Union, told the official MENA news agency on Tuesday after he arrived in Cairo.

Los Angeles  - Cable news channel MSNBC has ousted news hosts Chris Matthews and Keith Olberman from anchoring its election coverage after a series of on-air feuds plus complaints from Republicans that the duo were too left-leaning in their coverage.

The channel said Monday that it had promoted chief White House correspondent David Gregory to anchor its election coverage, though Matthews and Olberman will remain as analysts.

Brussels  - The European Commission said Monday it was probing concerns that the planned acquisition by Dutch airline KLM of Martinair could leave passengers wishing to travel from Amsterdam to the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba with less choice.

"The commission's initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition might substantially reduce competition, and so raise serious doubts as to its compatibility with the (EU's) single market," the European Union executive said in a statement.

Officials in Brussels said they had decided to open an in-depth investigation after remedies proposed by KLM had failed to remove the EU's serious doubts" about the takeover.