BANGKOK - OUSTED Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will not appeal his conviction and two-year jail sentence for corruption, his lawyer said on Tuesday as the deadline passed for any legal action.

Thaksin, toppled in a military coup in 2006, was on Oct 21 sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for conflict of interest after helping his then-wife Pojaman buy state-owned land when he was premier.

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA is not currently subsiding petrol and may dump its subsidy scheme altogether, despite major protests earlier this year over spiralling pump prices, a minister said on Tuesday.

The government on Tuesday cut pump prices by seven per cent to 2.00 ringgit per litre as global crude prices continued to ease. The price of diesel was also reduced by 15 sen to 1.90 ringgit per litre.

BUOL (Indonesia) - THE death toll from a 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has risen to six with more than 150 people injured, officials said on Tuesday.

Two more bodies were pulled from the rubble, adding to the four people already reported dead in Monday's quake, which sent thousands of people fleeing to higher ground in the middle of the night fearing a possible tsunami.