A shallow aftershock rattled the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Tuesday, cutting power, sending items crashing from shelves and closing the city's airport, officials and witnesses said.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday the DPRK was ready for resumption of the six-party talks, official news agency KCNA reported.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong is attending the first ministerial meeting on food security of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) that opened in Niigata prefecture, Japan , on Oct. 16.

Engineers have drilled through the last remaining rock to complete the world's longest tunnel, under the Swiss Alps.

The death toll from a coal mine gas leak in central China's Henan Province has risen to 26 as of Sunday morning as five more bodies were found, rescue headquarters said.

Thailand's prime minister is due in court on Monday as his Democrat Party faces a corruption case that could lead to its dissolution and cause fresh upheaval in the deeply divided kingdom.

The Arab peace initiative is the only way to end the current peace impasse, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.

Deeper reforms, especially systematical ones, will be carried out and extended to more key areas in China during the next five years to provide further momentum for the country's future development after it comes out of the economic crisis, economists and observers have said.

France sought Sunday to calm fears of petrol shortages, with the oil industry admitting it cannot hold on forever as strikes against pension reform intensified ahead of another wave of mass protests.

 Chile says it will prosecute those responsible for the mine collapse that trapped 33 miners for more than two months before being freed on Wednesday (October 13).

 Tropical Storm Paula brought winds and heavy rain to the Cuban capital on Thursday, turning some low lying streets into shallow rivers, bending palm trees and sending waves crashing against the city's famed Malecon sea wall, though there were no reports of serious damage.

Amid cheers and applause, Chilean miner Florencio Avalos, 31, on Tuesday came out of what he described as "a living hell," seemingly safe and sound.

The U.S. Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it was prepared to take further moves to jump-start the sagging U.S. economy if needed.

China temporarily raised reserve requirements for six large commercial banks, a surprise move aimed at draining cash from the economy.

France faces major disruption on Tuesday for the fourth time in a month as workers take to the streets - this time threatening open-ended strikes - to fight plans to raise the retirement age to 62.