World Briefs

OTTAWA – Canada and Pakistan are working together to seek the release of a Canadian citizen kidnapped in Pakistan this week, Ottawa said on Friday.

"The government is aware of the kidnapping of a Canadian citizen and we're engaged with Pakistani authorities to seek her safe and early release," said Lisa Monette, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Monette would not confirm the person's identity but Pakistan's English-language daily The News International reported the abduction on Tuesday of a Canadian journalist named Beverly Giesbrecht, also known as Khadija Abdul Qahaar.

The woman was seized at gunpoint along with her translator and guide while traveling in Pakistan's northern tribal region to gather material for a documentary.

WASHINGTON – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday he hoped Barack Obama could help restore mutual trust soured by rows over missile defense and war in Georgia.

He made clear Russia was ready for compromise over plans to deploy elements of a U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe and promised to hold off on a possible military response to the project.

"U.S.-Russian relations lack the needed mutual trust. We pin such hopes on the arrival of the new U.S. administration," Medvedev, in Washington for a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies, told the Council on Foreign Relations in a speech.

The personal friendship between Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin, who stepped down in May, and U.S. President George W. Bush, who steps down in January, helped to ease strains in Russian-U.S. ties for nearly eight years.

DHARMSALA, India – Several hundred Tibetan exile leaders gathered in northern India on Sunday for a landmark meeting widely expected to determine the direction of the movement that has struggled for decades to win autonomy from China.

The weeklong meeting that begins Monday was called by the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, saying that new ideas were needed following repeated failure of talks with China.

On Sunday, the Dalai Lama's envoys to the last round of talks with Beijing issued a statement saying they presented China a detailed plan on how Tibetans could get autonomy within the framework of the Chinese constitution.

But China had apparently rejected the plan and recent "Chinese statements distort the position and proposal we have outlined in our paper," the statement said.

Chinese officials called the Tibetan stance "a trick" saying it lacked sincerity.