Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java unleashed hot cloud of ash and smoke again on Wednesday morning while President Susilo Banbang Yodhoyono is coming to visit the area.

Ten thousands of locals and tourists are stuck in Had Yai district in Thailand's southern Songkhla province as flash floods hit on Tuesday morning, the mayor said.

 UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki-moon (L) meets Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday met Chinese President Hu Jintao, amid calls for the secretary-general to publicly raise the case of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner.

 Eighty people were killed in clashes with NATO and Afghan forces in Paktika province, a spokesman for the province's governor said on October 30.

Rescue crews have found 135 missing people after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami and leaving hundreds dead, authorities said on October 30.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged critics of the planned merger between Singapore and Australia's stock exchanges not to seek to "disturb" current foreign investment laws.

An alleged Saudi bombmaker has emerged as the main suspect behind the two parcel bombs sent from Yemen, a US official said, as a Gulf airline source said one of the parcels travelled on a passenger plane.

The ruling Workers Party (PT)'s presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff was elected Brazi's 40th president after Sunday's runoff votes.

Mount Merapi volcano has erupted for a third time, with local people reportedly saying this was louder and stronger than the previous eruption on Tuesday.

Aid agencies in Haiti say they fear that suspected new cases of cholera might mean the epidemic is moving closer to the capital Port-au-Prince.

 The death toll from a tsunami that struck western Indonesia earlier this week rose to 394 on Friday as hopes dimmed for another 312 still listed as missing, officials said.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has confirmed he plans to call a general election before his government's term of office expires at the end of next year.

Volcano eruption in Central Java of Indonesia on Tuesday has killed 29 people and forced 40,475 others flee homes, officials said on Wednesday.