Richard Holbrooke, a brilliant and feisty U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, died Monday, the State Department said. He was 69.

Calling Holbrooke "a true giant of American foreign policy," Obama paid homage to the veteran diplomat as "a truly unique figure who will be remembered for his tireless diplomacy, love of country, and pursuit of peace." Holbrooke deserves credit for much of the progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the president said.

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez said Sunday he wanted to leave the English Premier League high-flyers as his relationship with "certain executives and individuals" at the club "has broken down beyond repair".

But City captain Tevez, in a statement issued by his agent Kia Joorabchian, stressed he had "no personal issue" with manager Roberto Mancini despite their seemingly fractious relationship, and thanked owner Sheikh Mansour for his "understanding and support".

Michael Jackson fans will this week finally get their hands on the pop icon's first record since he died, with huge sales expected despite lukewarm reviews and questions over its authenticity.

"Michael," due out Tuesday in the United States, comprises 10 songs the King of Pop was at various stages of completing when he died last year, and includes contributions from rapper 50 Cent, Lenny Kravitz and U.S. singer Akon.

Eight people have died from swine flu in England since early September, health authorities have told AFP, with Britain seemingly at the forefront of a winter resurgence in Europe.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) insisted it was to be expected that the H1N1 strain of flu that caused the 2009 pandemic would be the most common strain this winter.

IBM is helping cities worldwide get "smarter" about using resources in ways that are good for the Earth as well as local budgets.

IBM announced that the coastal Texas town of Corpus Christi has joined cities such as London, Sydney, Stockholm, and Amsterdam in using Internet Age tools to better manage water, trash, parks and more.

Incentives to kickstart spending by Asian governments after the global downturn will help the region post retail sales almost double those of North America within four years, a report said on Monday.

The region will also post sales three times more than Western Europe, said the study by account PricewaterhouseCoopers, as it bounces back from the global downturn, which hammered demand for exports, a key economic growth driver.

Sweden on Sunday probed two bomb blasts that killed a person in central Stockholm as a "terrorist crime", as an Al-Qaeda-linked website claimed one of its militants had carried out the suicide attack.

Saturday's explosions -- a suspected suicide attack and separate blast -- targeted Christmas shoppers in a busy pedestrian quarter of the Swedish capital. Two people were also injured.

The showdown over Iran's nuclear pursuit is "still in the stage of diplomacy," and extended sanctions against the regime could help prevent it from acquiring atomic weapons, Israel's defense minister said in comments broadcast Sunday.

"I think that it's still in the stage of diplomacy," Ehud Barak told CNN in an interview.

Sunni leaders from opposite ends of Lebanon's political spectrum on Sunday urged supporters to stand firm against the Shiite group Hizbullah, at a time of high tension between the two Muslim communities.

An MP loyal to Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a radical Salafist leader jointly accused the army of serving as cover for Hizbullah, urging a gathering of 1,500 to reject an alleged military crackdown on their community.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday invited Jordan's King Abdullah II to visit Tehran, in a letter delivered by top aid Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a palace statement said.

"His majesty met Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, who delivered a letter from President Ahmadinejad about bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues," it said.