Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon on Monday for the first high level talks between the two countries under the Obama administration.

US State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters before the meeting that the two leaders would discuss the conflict in Afghanistan and other issues, including the investigation into the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 170 people.

New York  - The United Nations envoy for Afghanistan was in Tehran on Monday to discuss economic cooperation among Central Asian nations and between Iran and Afghanistan, the UN said.

Kai Eide, the top UN representative in Afghanistan, addressed a high-level meeting in Tehran of the 10-nation Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which is an inter-governmental group promoting mutual economic, technical and cultural support in Central Asia.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court on Monday adjourned the trial of three of Yemeni men charged with spying for Iran, the defendants' lawyer said.

"The court postponed the ruling session until March 23," Shadha Nasser told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. She said the court, which had been expected to deliver a verdict, gave no reasons for the delay.

The defendants, aged between 31 and 57 years old, faced charges of "illegal contact with a foreign state, and the transmission of military information to it."

Washington  - With Tibetan national and US flags rippling in heavy winds, "Free Tibet" activists rallied Monday outside the White House to pressure President Barack Obama to take up the cause of China's oppression in Tibet.

The noontime rally was timed to coincide with midnight in Tibet, which marks the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule and the flight of the Dalai Lama into exile.

Nouakchott, Mauritania  - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi arrived in Mauritania on Monday seeking a deal to end the political crisis that has gripped the county since Mauritanian military officers deposed the president six months ago.

Gaddafi, acting in his capacity as president of the African Union, became the highest-ranking official to seek an end to the political stalemate in Mauritania since a junta led by General Mohammed Ould Abdel-Aziz launched a successful coup against Sidi Mohammed Ould Sheikh Abdallahi in August.

Stockholm - China has "completely sealed off Tibet," which could be compared to a "giant prison," an envoy of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, said in Sweden on Monday.

However the spirit of the Tibetan people was "unbroken," Kelsang Gyaltsen told reporters, although they had experienced the "harshest wave of repression since the days of the Cultural Revolution."