Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed more deadly heat clouds on November 3 as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited some of the 50,000 evacuees in shelters.

The US President Barack Obama on November 3 said the mid-term election results show people are frustrated at not seeing fast enough progress in economic recovery, and he takes responsibility for it.

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.

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.

At least 63 people were killed and 285 others were wounded in a series of explosions across the capital on November 2, police said.

New treaties on defence and nuclear joint working with France marked a "new chapter" in a long history of defence co-operation, David Cameron has said.

Disenchanted voters swept Democrats from power in the House of Representatives and bolstered the ranks of Senate Republicans on Tuesday in an election rout that dealt a sharp rebuke to President Barack Obama.

Fifty-two hostages and police were killed when an attempt by Iraqi security forces to free more than 100 Catholics held in a Baghdad church by al Qaeda-linked gunmen turned into a bloodbath, officials said on November 1.

Greek police intercepted a booby trap parcel addressed to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on November 1, after another package exploded at a courier company in Athens, slightly wounding an employee.

The leaders of France and Britain will sign on Tuesday a treaty for the two countries to test their nuclear arsenals in a joint facility in France, the French presidency announced.