JAKARTA, Indonesia, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Indonesia will host an international summit next week to solicit emergency assistance for those countries hit by the tsunami and discuss reconstruction.

Heads of state or special representatives from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations as well as China, Japan, South Korea, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and the United States would be invited to attend the meeting on Jan. 6, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said, according to The Australian Friday.

Representatives from the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, Asian Development Bank and the European Union would also be invited.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono plans to chair the meeting, which the government hopes will encourage commitment to concrete action for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas hit by the disaster.

New Year's Eve finds peace in East Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Negotiators in East Africa appeared close Friday to settling two of the continent's bloodiest and longest wars, the Telegraph reported.

Ugandan officials and leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army approved an indefinite ceasefire to a 19-year-old war that has left 1.6 million refugees in the north of the country and helped supply Africa's continuing slave trade.

The United Nations blames the Lord's Resistance Army for turning northern Uganda into the "world's worst neglected humanitarian emergency." Since 1985, the cult-like force has abducted at least 20,000 Ugandan children for use as soldiers, sexual playthings or slaves to be sold in Sudan.

In Kenya, leaders from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and officials from Khartoum expected to sign a permanent ceasefire Friday, with a comprehensive peace agreement set for signing next month to end the 21-year-old war.

Sudan's civil war has killed an estimated 2 million. The overall peace agreement would grant autonomy to the mainly Christian and animist blacks in the south from Muslims in the Arab-dominated north.

A coalition government would form, oil revenues would be shared and after six years the south would be allowed to vote on secession.

Argentina: Disco fire kills 175

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- At least 175 youths were killed in an overnight fire at a popular Buenos Aires nightclub, local officials said Friday.

La Nacion newspaper's online edition said 600 more were injured in a mad rush for the exits during the blaze.

Fire and smoke panicked the concertgoers, resulting in a mad stampede for emergency exits. Television news showed footage of young people lying on the streets outside the burning Republica de la Cromagnon Disco.

The cause of the fire was under investigation Friday.

There were believed to be as many as 1,500 young people inside the disco when the fire broke out.

FBI to probe laser beam attacks on planes

NEWARK, N.J., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The FBI is investigating laser beams shined into the cockpits of seven aircraft as they were about to land, the New York Times said Friday.

The latest incident occurred Wednesday when a laser beam hit the cockpit of a Cessna Citation as it approached Teterboro Airport, near Hackensack, N.J., about 12 miles from Manhattan, officials said.

"All of a sudden the pilot saw his cockpit being illuminated by a laser," said FBI spokesman Stephen Kodak. "The light was flashing on and off. It went on for about 20 seconds."

None of the incidents have resulted in crash landings, but pilots reported momentary disorientation. The FBI wants to determine if the incidents are terror-related.

Other incidents have been reported during landings at airports in Houston, Washington, Cleveland, Colorado Springs and Medford, Ore.