Jakarta - Indonesia's consumer price index in December declined 0.04 per cent against the previous month, driven by lower costs of transportation and communication, a senior government official said Monday.

The 2008 annual inflation rate was 11.06 per cent, said Ali Rosidi, deputy chairman of the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Rosidi said the December deflation was due to a decrease in the price index in the group transport, communications and financial services.

Dhaka - Police on Monday cleared Bangladesh's prime minister-in-waiting Sheikh Hasina Wazed of an extortion charge brought by a businessman eight months ago, officials said.

Police said investigators found no evidence that Hasina, the head of the Awami League, extorted 440,000 dollars from businessman Tazul Islam Faruk, who lodged the case with police in April.

"We submitted a report detailing the investigation to the court for its consideration," said a police inspector of Tejgaon police station.

Bangkok - Thai shares jumped 6.39 per cent in value Monday as investors snapped up energy sector stocks, confident that oil prices will rise because of the crisis in the Middle East, brokers said.

New Delhi  - More than 6 million truckers went on an indefinite strike ac

Kabul - The fledgling Afghan national army was to grow to more than 100,000 troops by the end of this year, a spokesman said Monday.

The troops are to be trained by US-led international forces, as NATO commanders in Afghanistan demand additional soldiers to effectively combat the resurgent Taliban militants.

So far a total of 85,000 army soldiers, drawn from Afghanistan's various ethnic groups, have been trained by military officers from the US, France and Britain since the start of the program in 2002.

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday his country will lead a call to convene special session of the United Nations General Assembly to press for a halt to escalating violence in Gaza.

Abdullah said Malaysia's permanent representative to the UN will hold discussions with contact groups of the Non-Aligned Movement and the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, to get the UN to convene the special session.

"The world must firmly express itself and demand a resolution of the issue," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.