New Delhi - Envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, were travelling to Beijing on Thursday for a new round of talks with Chinese officials, a senior Tibetan official said.

"The envoys Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen took a flight for Beijing early Thursday morning. They will be there (Beijing) for about a week," said Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.

Beijing, Oct 30 : The Chinese government is learnt to have chalked out a new schedule for holding another round of talks with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representatives “in the near future”.

The announcement of the planned talks came a day after the Dalai Lama reportedly called a special meeting of Tibetan exile communities and political organizations next month.

The five-day gathering, scheduled for mid-November, could mark a shift in the Dalai Lama''s strategy for dealing with the central government, foreign media have reported.

Taipei - Taiwan prosecutors on Thursday requested a 14-month prison term for a city councilman after charging him with inciting a mob to attack a visiting Chinese official last week.

"Through radio broadcasting, the defendant Wang Ting-yu publicly incited the public to rally at the venue where Zhang Mingqing visited and led the mob in applying violence by pushing Zhang, resulting in Zhang being shoved to the ground and injured," prosecutor Lee Ching-wen said.

"For this, we are seeking a sentence of one year and two months in prison against the defendant," she said.

Moscow/Astana, Kazakhstan - Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flew to the Kazakh capital of Astana from Moscow on Wednesday for the last leg of a tour focused on China's energy ties and the global financial crisis.

The official purpose of Wen's visit is a summit meeting on Thursday and Friday of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security grouping of central Asian states, including Russia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will also attend. The two leaders will hold talks on the sidelines.

Beijing - The Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, on Wednesday announced a cut in its benchmark interest rates by 0.27 per cent as a spur to economic growth.

Taipei - Taiwan announced Wednesday it will send former vice president Lien Chan to the November 22 leaders' summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 
(APEC) forum.

The announcement was seen as a breakthrough in the island's relations with China, which for years has opposed allowing any prominent Taiwan leader to attend the event, observers said.

"President Ma Ying-jeou has appointed Mr Lien Chan as his representative to the leaders' summit," the Presidential Office said in a statement.

Lien, honorary chairman of the ruling Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT), was vice president between 1996-2000, and the party's chairman between 2000 and 2005.