Asuncion, Paraguay  - Former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo was sworn in Friday as Paraguay's president, in a historic transfer of power after 61 years of uninterrupted rule by the conservative Colorado Party.

The centre-left Lugo, 57, was inaugurated for a five-year term, at a ceremony in front of the Congress building in Asuncion attended by a slew of international dignitaries and thousands of citizens.

New York  - UN special envoy for Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari was to leave Friday for a five-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation for talks on improving democracy in the military government there.

"Mr Gambari looks forward to returning to Myanmar to continue his consultations with the government and other relevant parties in the implementation of the good offices entrusted to the Secretary General by the UN General Assembly," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Warsaw  - Poland still expects a scheduled visit from a Russian diplomat after sealing a deal on a controversial US missile defence shield to be hosted in Eastern Europe, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Poland's PAP news agency reported earlier that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had cancelled a planned trip to Poland in September after Thursday's US-Polish agreement.

Poland's Foreign Ministry has no official word that Lavrov has called off the trip, local media quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Islamic insurgents attacked the Somali president's convoy as he prepared to fly out to Ethiopia for crisis talks aimed at healing a rift with the prime minister, reports said Friday.

The BBC reported that insurgents detonated two landmines near President Abdullahi Yusuf's convoy as he travelled to the airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Ethiopian troops opened fire after the attack and killed five civilians, the BBC said.

Jersualem  - A star witness in the corruption trial of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has refused to be cross-examined in Israel, attorneys announced Thursday.

The Israeli lawyers for US businessman and fundraiser Morris Talansky refused to come back to Israel for the proceedings at the advice of his US lawyers.

The refusal was related to an investigation taking place in the United States into Talansky's activities.

Islamabad  - Pakistan on Wednesday urged the international community to press New Delhi for "restrain" in its administered part of disputed Kashmir valley, where 20 people were killed by Indian police early this week during protests.

"We are deeply concerned over the deteriorating situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir which is resulting in loss of life and property of the Kashmiri people and violation of their human rights," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq ministry told reporters in the weekly media briefing.