WHEN MI765 touched down at Changi Airport on Tuesday afternoon, at least 50 of the passengers cheered and clapped.

The same group also fell to their knees to give thanks once they came out into the arrival hall in Terminal 2.

The church group had been stranded in Bangkok since last Wednesday when their flight from Israel was diverted from Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok to the tiny military air strip of U-Tapao.

BANGKOK - THAI Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said on Tuesday he accepted a verdict by the country's constitutional court which barred him from politics for five years and dissolved his party.

'My duty is over. I am now an ordinary citizen,' Mr Somchai, 61, told reporters in the northern city of Chiang Mai from where he has been governing since an opposition blockade of Bangkok's airports began last week.

MUMBAI - PAKISTAN offered on Tuesday to work hand-in-hand with India to track down those responsible for the Mumbai attacks but declined to respond immediately to a demand that it hand over 20 terrorist suspects.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said his government suggested setting up a 'joint investigation mechanism' into the assaults, which left 188 dead.

BANGKOK - SUPPORTERS and opponents of Thailand's elected government reacted with anger and glee on Tuesday to the disbanding of the ruling party, suggesting the court decision will do nothing to heal deep social divisions.

'The judgement was fixed,' pro-government businesswoman Rojarek Phalaburee from the northern province of Chiang Mai said. 'We will continue to join the protest.'