Johannesburg - Madagascar's deposed president, Marc Ravalomanana, has based himself in South Africa, from where he travelled to Swaziland for meetings this week over his ouster from office, a Swazi official said Wednesday.

Swazi King Mswati III currently chairs the security organ or troika of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), of which the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar is a member.

New Delhi - Unidentified gunmen shot dead the editor of a newspaper in India's north-eastern state of Assam, police said Wednesday.

Anil Majumdar, executive editor of the Assamese daily Aji, was shot seven times on his chest, outside his home in state capital Guwahati on Tuesday night.

"The attackers who came in a car fled from the spot soon after the killing. Majumdar was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead," police official GP Singh said.

Lahore, Mar. 25 : UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said that Pakistan's history has proven that maintaining links with terrorists in the hope that they could be used as an instrument was a total failure.

In an interview with a British TV station, Miliband urged Pakistani leaders to unite against the common enemy of terrorism.

He also said that Pakistan must direct its attention to the threat posed by domestic terrorism, the Daily Times reports.

Washington, Mar. 25: In quite a departure from his first press conference on February 9, President Barack Obama avoided taking questions from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or USA Today, and according to experts, this may not sit well with the already insecure newspaper industry.

Obama opened things up to a wider variety of outlets, including Spanish-language television, a military news outlet, and black-oriented media. It''s another example of the White House going over the typical Washington press corps "filter."

Karachi, Mar. 25 : Former Pakistan cricket captain Javed Miandad believes that China has the ability to compete with the best teams of the world on the cricket field.

Miandad, who returned from Beijing after a six day visit as Pakistan''''s cricket ambassador to China, expressed hope that China would become a cricket playing nation in near future.

"They definitely have potential, the interest and resources to become a respected cricket playing nation," The News qouted Miandad, as saying.

Singapore - A Singapore court on Wednesday charged a property agent with seriously hurting the eye of his Indonesian maid and 10 other counts of maid abuse, a news report said.

Lim Beng Tai, 38, is charged with several beatings of the maid, identified as Ms Jasmiati, 25, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper reported.

Lim's wife, Connie Ng Lay Har, also 38, is accused of punching the maid once and slamming the victim's right hand in a car.