San Jose, Costa Rica - Chinese President Hu Jintao is set to visit Costa Rica beginning Sunday, in the first visit by a Chinese leader travels to Central America.

"It will be a historic visit," a Costa Rican Foreign Ministry official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Central America has traditionally favoured Taiwan, but Costa Rica switched recognition to China in June 2007, after 63 years of ties with Taipei. Only 23 countries recognize Taiwan, and half of them are in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Berlin - The German government rejected Tuesday a plea from General Motors (GM), the world's biggest carmaker, for targeted aid for German car factories.

At the same time, an existing government plan to subsidize car sales came unravelled, suggesting that the final form of Berlin's aid to the industry was still in play.

With US-based GM teetering, the multinational's German arm, Opel, had earlier written to Chancellor Angela Merkel requesting she push harder for a 40-billion-euro 

Islamabad - A Pakistani provincial minister survived a suicide bombing which killed at least three people and injured more than a dozen at the gates of a packed sports stadium in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Tuesday, officials said.

The blast occurred immediately after the conclusion of three-day inter-provincial games at Qayyum Sports Stadium, District Coordination Officer Sahebzada Anees told reporters at the scene.

Vienna - The plan by Austria's postal service Post AG to close 77 per cent of its post offices in the coming years will be put on hold by decree, Austrian Infrastructure Minister Werner Faymann announced Tuesday.

As part of the restructuring plan, the state-owned Post also wants to lay off 9,000 of its 25,800 employees by 2015, according to Austrian media reports.

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez removed the Venezuelan consul in the US city of Houston, after the diplomat moved the consulate offices without authorization.

Chavez admitted late Monday that what happened was a "mistake," although he denied that Venezuelan diplomatic officials had been expelled by the United States.

Washington - The World Bank on Tuesday sharply cut its growth forecast for developing countries in light of the spreading financial crisis and said it would loan up to 
100 billion dollars over the next three years to help the countries worst affected.

The global development bank lowered its 2009 growth prediction to 4.5 per cent for developing countries, down from a forecast of 6.4 per cent made just last month, due to the ongoing credit crisis, falling exports and lower commodity prices.