Madrid - Spain is likely to reject an application for political asylum lodged by Omar bin Laden, one of the 19 children of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the daily El Pais reported Wednesday.

Omar bin Laden, 27, requested asylum at Madrid airport on Monday.

His plane made a stopover in Madrid while flying from Cairo to Casablanca in Morocco.

Bin Laden argued that he did not feel safe in Saudi Arabia, which he is a citizen of, or in Egypt, where he lives, or in any other Arab country.

Brussels  - Serbia could become a candidate for European Union membership in 2009 if it proves that it is doing its best to catch war-crimes suspects, the EU's executive said Wednesday.

Moscow  - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a radical reform to the global financial order Wednesday, saying the United States has become the affliction and could no longer provide for world markets.

Medvedev said he bring these demands before world leaders at a summit on the financial crisis in Washington on November 15 and seek support for a new international accord.

Singapore  - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long Wednesday congratulated Barak Obama on being elected the 44th president of the United States.

Citing the challenges ahead, Lee made a case to president-elect Obama for the importance of South-East Asia to the United States.

"The US has many friends and many interests in this region, which is happily not a problem region for the US," said Lee.

"We can keep it that way. An ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) with strong ties to the US will help to keep the peace in the Asia-Pacific," he said.

London  - The British Labour government and opposition parties Wednesday hailed as "inspirational" the victory of Barack Obama in the American presidential election which they hope will open a new era in the much-vaunted "special relationship" between Britain and the US.

"This is a moment that will live in history as long as history books are written," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "I have talked to Senator Obama on many occasions and I know that he is a true friend of Britain," he added.

Chennai, Nov 5 : Employees of southern film industry observed hunger strike on Wednesday to show solidarity with the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The ten-hour hunger strike has been called by the ''Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI), in which hundreds of employees participated to lend their voice against the atrocities carried out on Tamilians in Sri Lanka.