PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - BOMBS tore through the Pakistan city of Peshawar killing ten people on Thursday, after the Taliban claimed a deadly attack in Lahore and threatened further mayhem to avenge an offensive.

Three explosions wounded more than 100 people in Peshawar, as fears grew of mounting militant revenge for a punishing, month-long military assault against Islamist extremists across three northwest districts.

NEW DELHI - RAHUL Gandhi, heir to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty and widely seen as a premier-in-waiting, said on Thursday he had no regrets about refusing a cabinet post in India's new government.

Mr Gandhi, the 38-year-old son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was widely credited in the Indian media with pulling in millions of first-time voters to secure the party's resounding election victory.

BEIJING - INSTEAD of toiling in an office cubicle as she did two years ago, Ms Ma Yanyan is spending Thursday's Dragon Boat Festival as befits tradition: rowing in sync to a thundering drum beat with 20 teammates across a lake.

The government's decision to elevate three traditional festivals to national holidays gives Chinese, especially city dwellers, a chance to return to their roots and marks an evolution in the country's leisure time.