Beijing - China on Thursday released a well-known dissident after he served more than nine years of a 13-year prison sentence, a Hong Kong-based rights group said.

Veteran activist Liu Xianbin was released from the Chandong prison in the south-western province of Sichuan, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Liu, 40, had returned to his family in Sichuan's Suining city following his early release for good behaviour, the group said.

Rome  - The ongoing financial crisis could threaten many countries' agricultural sectors, undoing this year's record world cereal production, a UN agency reported Thursday.

World cereal production is expected to set a new record this year thanks to high prices and favourable weather conditions, which boosted planting, said the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the latest issue of its "Food Outlook" report.

FAO's forecast for world cereal production in 2008 now stands at 2.24 billion tons (including rice in milled terms), 5.3 per cent more than in 2007.

Washington, Nov 6: Noticing the continued decline in violence in Iraq, the US has reportedly decided to reduce its troops’ presence in the country to 14 combat brigades this month.

This reduction in US troops would be at least two months in advance as originally planned.

US Military officials said two brigades from the 101st Airborne Division will leave Iraq this month and only one will be replaced. A brigade is roughly 3500 soldiers.

Islamabad, Nov 6: US ambassador in Islamabad Anne Patterson has reportedly said that the new US President-elect Barack Obama was “deeply interested” in promoting bilateral socio-economic relations with Pakistan.

After winning the Nov 4 presidential election, Obama was in a “better position” to support the country, the Daily Times quoted her as saying.

She also called the nomination and election of a young African-American as US president “the beauty of a transparent democratic process”.

The Hague - Rotterdam is preparing to host former world leaders and opinion makers for the first Global Forum on Leadership for Shared Societies on November 12-14.

The conference, titled "Building a world safe for difference," is an initiative of the city of Rotterdam and the so-called Club of Madrid, an independent organization dedicated to strengthening global democracy.

Governments and leaders around the globe were overwhelmingly positive Wednesday to the election of Barack Obama as the next US president, but it was clear that they also had high expectations of him in repairing America's damaged standing in the world.

The president-elect - the first African-American ever to be elected to the highest office in 232 years of US constitutional history - was being offered plenty of free advice on issues ranging from foreign affairs to the environment to the economy.