TOKYO - NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Il's eldest son has denied he is to succeed his father as the head of the secretive communist state, Japanese television reported on Wednesday.

PHNOM PENH - A FRENCH researcher who survived detention by the Khmer Rouge told a court on Wednesday that the regime's prison chief was not a monster, but instead was a revolutionary on a 'mission'.

Francois Bizot, who wrote the best-selling book The Gate about his experiences under the communist movement, stared at his hands as he told the tribunal about his interrogation by Duch at a jungle prison camp.

BEIJING - TWO Tibetans have been sentenced to death for their role in riots in Tibet's regional capital of Lhasa last year, China's official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.