Flights are gradually resuming from airports in southern Australia after two days of cancellations caused by an ash cloud from a Chilean volcano.

Leaders from north and south Sudan signed an agreement on Monday to demilitarize the disputed central region of Abyei and allow an Ethiopian peacekeeping force to move in, said a former South African president who is helping lead peace talks.

Nineteen civilians were killed in a NATO air strike on the home of one of Muammar Gaddafi's top officials, a day after NATO admitted killing civilians in a separate aerial attack, said the Libyan government on Monday 19.

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly will re-elect Ban Ki-moon to a second term as UN leader after he was backed by all major powers.

At least 44 people died when a Russian jetliner crashed onto a highway outside the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk late Monday, emergency management officials said.

Iraqi officials say a roadside bomb has exploded near a French embassy convoy in Baghdad, wounding seven people in one of several attacks on June 20 in the capital.

A Tunisian court has sentenced former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his wife Leila to 35 years in jail for embezzlement and misusing public funds.

The UN's nuclear watchdog is about to start a meeting aimed at improving nuclear safety as a result of the disaster at Japan's Fukushima plant.

Residents of normally bustling ski towns continue to cope with a thick blanket of ash accumulating after the eruption of a Chilean volcano.

UN refugee agency's report reveals majority of forcibly displaced people are in countries that cannot cope with the influx.