Madrid - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday defended Cuba's reintegration into the Inter-American Community from which the island was excluded in 1962 because of its communist regime. "The process of Cuba's integration into the entire Inter-American Community must begin," Uribe said at an economic forum in Madrid.

The Colombian president arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a two-day working visit, during which he was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, King Juan Carlos and entrepreneurs.

Beirut - Lebanon must go on high alert in anticipation of Israel's biggest-ever military manoeuvres on May 31, Hezbollah parliamentary bloc head Mohammed Raad said Tuesday. "The country must be fully prepared for such an emergency," Raad was quoted as saying during a national dialogue session at which he distributed an extensive study on the details of targets, scenarios and steps to counter a possible threat.

Islamabad - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Pakistani counterpart on Monday put aside diplomatic tensions over the planned expulsion of 11 Pakistani students arrested in a suspected bomb plot, as they held talks on fight against terrorism. British authorities arrested 12 men, 11 of them Pakistanis, all of which were later released without charge, but the Pakistani nationals, including 10 with student visas, were now facing possible deportation.

Prague - Outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek declared Monday that the Czech Republic's presidency of the European Union would effectively end a month early when his caretaker government leaves office on May 8. The country officially holds the rotating presidency until the end of June, but has been thrown into chaos by the toppling of its own government in a no-confidence vote last month.

Bonn, Germany - Human rights issues are not adequately discussed in the European Union, former Czech president Vaclav Havel told reporters in Bonn Friday, just before he was handed a 10,000- euro (13,000-dollar) democracy prize.

Havel, 72, said public debate focussed too much on economic topics and not enough on rights and freedoms.