Jakarta - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left Jakarta on Wednesday morning for Beijing to make a five-day official visit to China, where he will attend the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Yudhoyono, accompanied by his wife Ani Yudhoyono, and a number of cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, Trade Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, State Minister for Environment Rachmat Witoelar and Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

San Francisco - If anyone still questioned the power of the internet to play a key role in the general elections, the recent fundraising figures touted by Barack Obama should put all doubts to rest.

The Democratic presidential nominee raised a staggering 150 million dollars in September - most of which came from small donors who gave less than 100 dollars each through Obama's website.

The government is taking various steps to ease the liquidity situation in the country. Now, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cuts rapo rates after successive cuts in the cash reserve ratio (CRR). The apex bank slashed rapo rates by 100 basis points. This is the step against the tight monetary policy adopted by the central bank. It is the first ever reduction in the rapo rates after March 2004. Rapo rates now stands at 8 percent.

The banks also started to slash the interest rates for consumers after revision of rapo rates. The fifth-largest state-owned bank, Union Bank of India reduced interest rates on home loan by 50 basis points up to a loan Rs 30 lakh.

Kathmandu - Nepal's government has warned dozens of armed rebels groups to take up the offer of peace talks or face the consequences, media reports said Wednesday.

Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam said the government would use force to disarm the rebel groups if they do not take up the offer of peace talks, Kantipur newspaper reported.

The warning came less than a month after the government invited dozens of rebel groups in southern and eastern Nepal to start negotiations to end violence that has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two years.

The young able director Rohit Shetty is all set for the release of his upcoming film "Golmaal returns," a comedy movie, the sequel to "Golmaal".

The film cast includes Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Anjana Sukhani, Amrita Arora and Celina Jaitley.

The film revolves around the story of a housewife (played by Kareena Kapoor) who is addicted to soap opera serials.

The increasing problems for the Indian Carriers due to rising expenses, especially the rise in aviation fuel recently initiated an unwanted episode of firing of employees.

Following this, the owner of Kingfisher, Vijay Mallya approached the Parliament and Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways knocked the door of finance minister P Chidambaram with the aim to get tax relief for airlines.

“Job cuts and layoffs coupled with high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices and larger taxes can affect in the number of flights which is likely to go down,” reported Mallya.