Bogota  - Colombia's indigenous people are set to ward off a potentially catastrophic volcano eruption by establishing a "spiritual connection" with the volcano, a news report said.

A group of 20 wise men will prevent the Cerro Machin volcano, located in the central Andean state Tolima, from erupting by "establishing a spiritual connection," Feliciano Valencia, one of their leaders, was quoted as saying by the Colombian El Pais newspaper on Wednesday.

Bangkok - Laos has beefed up patrols to prevent "any untoward happenings" in Champassak province, part of the tri-border area where Laos, Cambodia and Thailand meet, state radio broadcasts said Thursday.

Champassak's military command said the increased vigilance was necessary to prevent "untoward happenings" in the increasingly sensitive border area which has been drawn in to a Thai-Cambodian dispute, Radio Laos said in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.

Phnom Penh - Thai troops have withdrawn from a disputed northern border area near a sacred ancient temple after threats of war from Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodian authorities said Tuesday.

Director-general of Cambodia's Preah Vihear National Authority Hang Soth said by telephone that Thai troops had moved their camp back from an area near the 11th century Preah Vihear temple Tuesday morning, just an hour before the midday deadline set by Hun Sen for when he would order Cambodian troops into battle

Phnom Penh  - Armed robbers committed a brazen afternoon stickup outside a bank and made off with an estimated 50,000 dollars, in one of the biggest robberies of its kind in the country's history, police said Tuesday.

A Daun Penh district police source said the thieves took the cash at gunpoint in broad daylight at around lunchtime as the customer left Acleda Bank, a major bank in the Cambodian capital.

Last year, members of an Indonesian-led ring were jailed for robbing wealthy-looking bank clients by flattening their car tyres and following them until they were forced to get out of the vehicle.

Phnom Penh - Cambodian public and private schools have been advised by Prime Minister Hun Sen to allow Muslim students to wear headscarves if they so wish in an official decree published widely in national media Thursday.

"They can wear uniform according to school's internal regulation or their traditional Muslim clothes," the directive said.

Hun Sen's directive to allow Muslim students to wear the hijab, or headscarf, was in the national interest, it said.

Cambodia's Cham Muslim minority, which is estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands, is generally well integrated into the majority-Buddhist society and Cambodia has avoided religious tensions such as those in neighbouring Thailand's restive south.

Washington, Aug 29 : Researchers from Wildlife Conser