Asian markets have rebounded after the US Federal Reserve said it will keep interest rates on hold and Wall Street had its best day in two years.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's cabinet has received royal endorsement with a surprise choice for foreign minister.

Hundreds of Cambodian troops were pulled back from the disputed border area with Thailand on August 8.

A cargo plane crashed in the Russia's East Siberia, apparently killing all eleven people on board, Russian transport officials reported on August 9.

The leader of Libya's rebel movement, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, has dismissed his entire executive committee, which functions as a cabinet.

For the first time in five years, a relief agency dedicated to refugees airlifted emergency aid into the Somali capital of Mogadishu on August 8, according to a spokesman.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pressed on with a tank onslaught against a city on August 8, but was plunged deeper into international isolation by Arab neighbors who denounced his violent crackdown and recalled their envoys from Damascus.

Fires have been burning in parts of London after a third day of violence and looting on the city's streets.

Police have condemned a wave of "copycat criminal activity" across London in a second night of looting and disorder following riots in Tottenham.

The European Central Bank (ECB) held a conference call late on August 7 ahead of the market opening, pledging the ECB will step in to buy eurozone bonds with efforts to forestall the euro zone's debt crisis from spreading.