Southeast Asia News Archives

The bodies of victims are recovered following the massacre of at least 46 kidnap victims on Monday in Ampatuan town, on November 24, 2009 in Maguindanao Province, Philippines.

The United Nations is awarding a Dunedin police officer a hero's accolade after he saved an elderly man from drowning in East Timor.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Monday she will run for Congress next year, opting to stay a political player after her tumultuous term ends.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Human rights group Amnesty International urged authorities Monday to investigate allegations of police killings and abuses in Indonesia's restive Papua province.

LANGKAWI: Countries in the region should use air power surveillance which has proven to be effective in combating non-traditional threats, said Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

A woman wrote on a community board on Christmas Island, Australia. Times Topics: Australia The new immigration detention center.

The U.S. Geological Survey says a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 has struck south of the Indonesian island of Sumbawa.

A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no tsunami warning was issued, officials said.

The gold-coloured convertible turns heads on impoverished Cambodia's roads -- not least because of creator Nhean Phaloek's outlandish claim that it can be operated telepathically.

Several white wooden coffins - all but one shut to hide the journalists' disfigured remains - were crammed into a rundown funeral parlor in the southern Philippines, not far from where they were slaughtered with guns, machetes and a backhoe.

A Royal Malaysian Air Force personnel and two nursing students were killed in a road accident at KM9 of Jalan Kuantan-Kemaman near here on Friday.

The Thai and Cambodian militaries yesterday cemented their roles as pacifying forces amid the Bangkok-Phnom Penh diplomatic showdown, declaring readiness to use their good offices to help patch things up.

KUDAT , Sat: The number of victims reported missing in the boat capsize tragedy off here on Thursday rose to 12 from four yesterday.

Taiwanese director Leon Dai's low budget family drama on Saturday swept the Golden Horse Film Awards, considered the Chinese-language "Oscars," bagging the best picture and best director gongs.

A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 was recorded in the sea off the southeast of the Indonesian archipelago on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said.

SHARIFF AGUAK, Philippines a ' Undeterred by the deadly attack that killed 57 in a campaign convoy, Ismael Mangudadatu filed to run for governor of Maguindanao province Friday, heavily guarded by police and soldiers.

AFP/File EU special envoy for Myanmar, Piero Fassino answers questions from the press in 2008.

PHNOM PENH : The mother of a jailed Thai engineer facing a spying charge has made an emotional appeal to the Cambodian government to free her son from prison.

In this Saturday, May 31, 2008 file photo, an Indonesian police officer and tourists carry a sea turtle to release it into the ocean on Kuta beach, Bali, Indonesia.

A scion of a powerful political family detained for allegedly masterminding a gruesome massacre of 57 civilians in the southern Philippines Friday blamed Muslim separatist rebels for the carnage.

Thailand and Cambodia said on Friday a recent diplomatic row will not lead to conflict on their heavily armed common border where troops have clashed in deadly exchanges in the past year.

A 72-year-old female passenger was killed while 11 others are still missing after a fishing boat, reportedly carrying 25 passengers, capsized near Karakit in Pulau Banggi off here, Thursday evening.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Malaysia, with its background of multiculturalism and tolerance, can play an effective part in promoting deeper understanding between the Muslim world and the West and other divides as well.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army garrison troops in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have conducted their annual rotation.

Like scores of journalists, I attentively listened as Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivering his closing remarks, and for the last time answering journalists' questions.

The prison chief being tried for running a Khmer Rouge torture center apologized but said he was only following orders and couldn't stop the abuse and the thousands of killings there, as prosecutors sought a 40-year prison sentence.

Detained Thai national Sivarak Chutipong would have a chance to see his mother on Friday, first ever after two-week detention for a charge of spying, the Thai Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

INDONESIA'S chief of detectives, whose role in a corruption scandal sparked a public outcry, has been moved aside to a 'non-job', a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

Indonesia's Vice-President Boediono denied Wednesday any wrongdoing in a contentious 704-million-US-dollar bank bailout at the centre of the country's latest corruption scandal.

Police officers carry the body of a massacre victim which they recovered along a mass grave at a hillside in Datu Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, on Tuesday, Nov.

WORTHY TRIP: A group of 16 blind hikers from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan celebrate after they felt their way to the peak of Jade Mountain in Central Taiwan.

A man in Taiwan was robbed of more than $2 million in cash that he had just withdrawn from the bank, a police official said on Tuesday.

Cambodia yesterday lashed out at the Thai government over an allegation of taking control of the Thai-owned air-traffic-control company.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS In this CD cover image released by Columbia Records, Bob Dylan's "Christmas in the Heart," is shown.

INDONESIAN anti-graft activists called for protests on Tuesday over what they see as the president's ham-fisted efforts to whitewash a major corruption scandal involving top police and prosecutors.

AFP, Tanjung Balai The captain of an Indonesian ferry which sank killing 29 people rejected claims of overcrowding Monday and blamed a freak storm for the disaster, as officials launched an investigation.

A judge reserved ruling Monday on whether a former Philippine National Police officer who served prison time for receiving classified U.S. government documents will be extradited to face murder charges back home.

Gunmen ambushed a caravan of political supporters and journalists on their way to file election papers Monday, killing at least 21 people in a massacre considered shocking even for a region notorious for violence between rival clans.

"Dozens of reports are released from around the world every year to tell the story of Taiwan's fishing fleets out of control," she said.

Philippine troops have killed a senior commander of al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants wanted for kidnappings and bombings, the military says.

TAIPEI: About 60 percent of Taiwan's youth have considered suicide while more than 30 percent lack direction in life, because of a lack of public role models and weakened family support, a magazine survey found this week.

But civil lawyers representing victims argued Monday that Duch had failed to acknowledge the full extent of his guilt.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's daughter plans to hold shares in Cambodia Traffic Air Services after the Cambodian government has temporarily taken over management of the firm, a Thai senior official confirmed Saturday.

The Federal Government is sending a new ambassador to Afghanistan to observe the Karzai Government's promised crackdown on corruption.

Search operations were called off after nightfall for the unknown number of passengers still missing.

Cooperation between border regions of Vietnam and China has helped improve living conditions for inhabitants and boost the socio-economic development of both sides, said Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Saudi Arabian government is doing its best to control accommodation and transportation costs during the haj season and is constantly improving facilities for pilgrims.

A WESTCOUNTRY couple who found love amid the horrors of the Boxing Day tsunami have returned to the scene of the disaster five years on - to get married.

Nov. 21 - Taipei Beef Noodle Festival kicks off amid fears over the lifting of Taiwan's ban on U.S. beef imports.

Supporters of Taiwan in the U.S. Congress on Friday pushed for President Barack Obama to move toward selling arms to the island, a step that would likely set back warming U.S. ties with China.

INDONESIA'S legal institutions, including the police and prosecutors office, must make sweeping reforms including changes to key personnel, a team of experts appointed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday.

China's top political adviser Jia Qinglin met Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo here on Friday, pledging further efforts to bolster bilateral ties.

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo endorsed her former defence chief as her successor on Thursday although major defections hit the Philippines' largest political party ahead of presidential elections next May.

Taiwana s government will decide by the end of the year whether high-tech investments with China will be relaxed.

Cambodia conducts a search on Wednesday at Cambodia Air Traffic Services in Phnom Penh, the company where a Thai engineer arrested for allegedly spying worked, an informed source said.

When the apocalypse comes, China will save the world. Or at least that's how Chinese audiences are interpreting "2012," Hollywood's latest blockbuster disaster movie.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council and Google announced the signing of a a oeFree Try-out Plan of Googlea s Keyword Advertisements for Taiwantrade Membersa on October 28, 2009.

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SINGAPORE: A 21-year-old regular serviceman from the Republic of Singapore Air Force has died, following a road accident along a highway in North Florida, United States.

Taiwan's perceived corruption level edged up slightly in 2009 despite the island's improved world ranking, Transparency International reported Tuesday.

CAMBODIA has ordered all Thai air traffic control staff to leave work after one of them was arrested on charges of spying on fugitive Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, a company letter showed on Thursday.

Taiwanese universities aim to admit Chinese students for the first time next year, an official said Wednesday, but the plan immediately drew criticism from the independence-leaning opposition.

THE Federal Government is insisting the Sri Lankan asylum-seekers from the Oceanic Viking were given no guarantees of resettlement in Australia.

THE end to the stand-off aboard the Oceanic Viking is the realisation of the agreement between Australia and Indonesia, the Federal Government says.

TAIPEI: Chinatrust Financial Holding Co said yesterday it plans to buy a 30 per cent stake in Taiwan's Nan Shan Life Insurance Co.

Security forces killed six suspected insurgents Tuesday in a gunbattle in southern Thailand.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is now likely to visit Australia in the first half of next year Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says Opposition claims that the Indonesian President postponed a trip to Australia because of tensions surrounding a group of asylum seekers is a "massive overstatement". News of President Susilo Bambang ...

Former US president Jimmy Carter launched a campaign Monday in which thousands of volunteers will build homes for the poor in five nations along the Mekong River, a humanitarian group said.

UNB, Dhaka Further action by the UN commission concerned on Myanmar's claim on the outer-limits of the continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal has been suspended.

BANK of China and its rivals are vying to be the first lender to open a branch in Taiwan after a long-awaited memorandum of understanding between the Chinese mainland and the island was signed.

Cambodia's parliament has stripped opposition leader Sam Rainsy of his immunity from prosecution.

The memorandum of understanding on cooperation in financial supervision across the Taiwan Strait was officially signed yesterday, a move likely to enhance the development and cooperation between the financial sectors in Taiwan and China.

The impasse on board Australian customs vessel the Oceanic Viking has been resolved, with all 56 Tamil asylum seekers agreeing to leave the boat tomorrow morning.

Myanmar's opposition leader has sent a letter to the military dictatorship. In the letter, the Nobel Prize winner has said she wants to work with the government for the common good.

The acquisition by Chi Mei Optoelectronics by Innolux over the weekend will heat up the competition between Taiwanese and Korean flat panel manufacturers.

With Medvedev seeking to limit Russia's dangerously high dependence on oil exports and transform it into an innovative, high-tech economy, relations with Singapore have taken on a new importance.

Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has sent a letter to the head of the country's ruling junta seeking a meeting to discuss how she can work for the national interest.

A retired People's Liberation Army general yesterday said Taiwan could more effectively protect itself by embracing the one-China principle than by having its own army.

SINGAPORE: Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government would make Malaysia a better place to live and work in to bring back its citizens who are residing overseas as well as attract global talents to the country.

INDONESIA is planning to deport Sri Lankan asylum seekers at Merak who have spent more than a month at the Javanese port refusing to leave their vessel.

Filipinos erupted into deafening cheers in bars, gymnasiums and army camps Sunday as Manny Pacquiao - their boxing hero - relentlessly pounded Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto to win his seventh title in as many weight classes.

THOUSANDS of members of Thailand's royalist 'Yellow Shirt' protest movement are set to rally in Bangkok Sunday against a visit by fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra to neighbouring Cambodia.

Indonesian authorities opened fire on a boat crammed full of Afghan asylum seekers, wounding two, after demanding a bribe the Afghans could not afford to pay, one of the asylum seekers says.

Taiwan's biggest LCD monitor maker on Saturday agreed to buy the island's second largest LCD screen maker in a bid to compete with South Korea's market leading giants.

Indonesia says the 22 Sri Lankans now in detention in Tanjung Pinang, must be resettled within a month if they have already been recognised as refugees by the UNHCR.

Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party held a protest Saturday against Taipei's recent agreement with Washington to relax restrictions on U.S. beef imports, with key DPP figures railing against what they claimed was Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou's disregard for public health.

President Barack Obama waves as he departs for Singapore for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation at Haneda airport in Tokyo.

Thailand will not dance to Cambodia's tune by withdrawing troops from the disputed Preah Vihear temple area, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says.

New Zealand has concluded negotiations on a free trade deal with China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced on Friday.

Communist guerrillas raided and torched a logging company in the southern Philippines and killed at least 12 people in a shootout with security forces, officials said on Friday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gestures at the inauguration of a book fair during a visit to a flood-stricken high school in the town of Marikina, east of Manila yesterday US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday underscored the importance of a controversial defence agreement in America's relations with the Philippines.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will join other Asia Pacific leaders on Saturday for the 17th annual APEC leaders summit.

Communist rebels killed 12 security forces when they responded to an attack on a logging company in the southern Philippines, the military said Friday.

China, India and other Asian countries are leading the world out of the global economic crisis, business leaders said Friday, as trade and finance ministers pledged to make Asia-Pacific a cheaper, faster and easier region to do business in by 2015.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is on a two-day visit to Malaysia, was accorded a state welcome at Parliament Square here Wednesday.

UP to 20 of the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking could leave the ship and enter an Indonesian detention centre as early as today.

Thousands of mourners lit candles, sang hymns and prayed in East Timor on Thursday, honoring the victims of a massacre of pro-independence demonstrators by Indonesian troops 18 years ago.

MALAYSIA and Indonesia vowed on Thursday to overcome a series of disputes that have soured their relationship, including maid abuse and territorial conflicts.

Cambodia is turning down a request from Thailand to arrest former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is now in Cambodia to serve as an economic adviser for the government.

THE extremely generous deal being offered to the Sri Lankans on board the Oceanic Viking highlights just what a farcical political pantomime the 3A1 2- week saga has become.

Michael Sinnott, 79, who was kidnapped on 11 Octobner. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images/Hangop Kabataan Foundation An elderly Irish priest kidnapped and held captive in the Philippines has been released, it has been revealed tonight.

Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived here on Wednesday for a state visit and the Economic Leaders Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation , scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

The mainland is ready to sign a memorandum of understanding on financial supervision with Taiwan, said a government official in Beijing Wednesday.

Revelations that Taiwanese Premier Wu Den-yih traveled abroad with a former gangster have excited great interest among this island's sensation-seeking media, but left few of its 23 million people gaping in surprise.

Heavy rain in southern India triggered flash floods and landslides that killed 45 people in the last 24 hours and left about 1,000 tourists stranded, police said Tuesday.

President Barack Obama leaves on Thursday on his first Asian trip since becoming president on January 20.

The Kuomintang honorary chairman Wu Poh-hsiung Monday said the peaceful cross-Straits development was the "right path", while meeting here with Liang Baohua, secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China .

BEHIND BARS: Schapelle Corby is serving a 20-year sentence in Bali's Kerobokan Prison for smuggling 4.1kg of cannabis into Indonesia inside a bodyboard bag in October 2004.

It's been called A Place to Enjoy Coffee, and the less charitable Aging Politicians Enjoying Cocktails.

PUTRAJAYA: The ministries must take pro-active action to maximise the use of information communication technology in the delivery of public services because it can improve the quality of life of the people and the image of the government, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said today.

MYANMAR'S detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, expressed hope on Monday that US engagement with the county's military rulers could spur democratic reforms, her lawyer said.

Polls show about half the population thinks Kevin Rudd is doing a bad job managing asylum seekers.

Nothing like a little time apart to rekindle the affections that could lead to a baby panda.

Cassava farmers sort their crop at a farm in Battambang province, which borders Thailand.

MANILA, Philippines - Suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in the southern Philippines beheaded a schoolteacher after kidnapping him last month, officials said Monday.

A STRONG quake with a magnitude of 6.7 and a relatively shallow depth hit the Indonesian island of Sumbawa today, officials said, with initial reports saying some buildings were damaged.

APPLICATIONS for the 2010 Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship, the postgraduate equivalent of the President's Scholarship, are now open.

Sydney, Nov 8 : Releasing Tamils from camps and reintegrating them into Sri Lankan society would help staunch the flow of asylum seekers crossing the Indian Ocean, Australia Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Sunday.

Nothing like a little time apart to rekindle the affections that could lead to a baby panda.

President Barack Obama and other Asia-Pacific leaders, meeting at a summit this week, will push for a new global strategy to reduce the crippling imbalances in the world economy blamed for the severe financial crisis.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama speaks alongside Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Laotian Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, during a joint news conference following the Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting at Hatoyama's official ...

THE head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged Thailand and Cambodia on Saturday to show 'maximum restraint' amid tensions over Phnom Penh's job offer to a fugitive former Thai premier.

THE Philippines on Friday named five more Muslim separatist leaders from the country's restive south as suspects in the abduction of an Irish priest.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will not reveal how the government will end the Oceanic Viking asylum-seeker stand-off but is confident a solution is inevitable.

President Barack Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, in a high-level affirmation of Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

Taipei, Nov. 6 More than 190 aftershocks had been recorded as of early Friday since an earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale hit central Taiwan a day earlier, seismologists said that day.

The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a report which found both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were guilty of serious human rights violations during the 22-day conflict in the Gaza Strip over Christmas and New Year.

A plastic bottle thrown into a Taipei recycling bin could be reincarnated as a blanket to warm disaster victims in any of 20 countries, thanks to a unique project by the world's largest Buddhist charity.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gives a press conference at the Istana or Presidential Palace on Tuesday, Nov.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has told parliament that the government disagreed with the idea of establishing autonomous areas in lower South, as it was not a solution to the problem.

Philippine Muslim rebel leaders on Thursday refused a government demand to force one of their members accused of kidnapping an Irish priest to come out and personally deny the allegation.

CHRISTMAS ISLAND, Australia - Deep in the jungle on this small island lost in the Indian Ocean, Australia's new $370 million refugee detention center reaches its full power after its lights come on at dusk.

Taipei - A strong, 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit central Taiwan on Thursday, the government said, with initial reports stating that one person had suffered minor injuries.

JAKARTA: Indonesia's top detective quit Thursday after wiretap phone recordings implicated him in an alleged plot to falsely imprison anti-graft investigators, in a scandal that has appalled the nation.

Gunmen opened fire on a commuter bus in the restive southern Philippines, killing two and wounding eight passengers, authorities said on Thursday.

The death toll from Tropical Storm Mirinae rose to 99 in central Vietnam on Thursday and authorities estimated damage from the storm at $55 million.

On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno turned down an offer from the country's largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front , to send their own armed cadres to help free the Columban missionary priest.

CAMBODIA has appointed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra economic adviser to premier Hun Sen, a Cambodian government statement said on Wednesday, adding to tensions between the countries.

A mainland panda expert has vowed to lend Taiwan a helping hand after two members of the low-libido species spent nearly a year at Taipei Zoo showing no inclination to breed, local media said on Wednesday.

Longer-term issues will top the agenda when Singapore hosts the leaders' summit for the first time next week.

Activists holds pictures of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi while slogans outside the... Activists holds pictures of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi while slogans outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok September 16, 2007.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday released its latest growth forecasts for Hong Kong economy, projecting a contraction of 2 percent in 2009, followed by a growth of 5 percent in 2010.

PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong met former US President George W Bush at the Istana on Monday.

Taiwan and China will begin talks on a trade agreement in December as the island seeks to revive its economy and the government in Beijing aims for extra leverage over its counterpart in Taipei.

Tropical Storm Mirinae unleashed severe flooding in parts of central Vietnam, killing 23 people, leaving two missing and stranding families on rooftops, disaster officials said Tuesday.

Taipei's dogs are living it up at hotels, complete with VIP suites and pools, that aim to ease the problem of strays that has plagued the city for decades.

TWO senior US envoys travelling to military-ruled Myanmar this week will meet detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi but are unlikely to see the reclusive junta chief, an official said Sunday.

Balibo is up for 13 awards at this year's AFI awards, including Best Original Music Score.

Taiwan's Health Ministry announced Monday its renewal of the import of US bone-in beef, accompanied by a tight inspection system to try to head off local uproar over the government's decision.

The fourth typhoon to hit the Philippines in a month came ashore east of the capital, Manila, on Saturday morning, bringing heavy rain, flooding, and washing away shanty houses near the coast.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed acclaimed lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution to lead the fact-finding team to investigate the facts behind the arrest of two anti-corruption commission deputies by the police on Friday last week, local TV reported here on Monday.

KOTA KINABALU: Five environmental groups here have united to push for the use of green energy in the state.

David Tseng, who suffers from a genetic muscular disease, speaking at his "memorial service" in an auditorium of a medical school in the southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung.

Family First senator Steve Fielding has questioned whether 78 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, who have "hijacked" an Australian customs boat, are real refugees.

JAKARTA: Three passengers on a small speedboat carrying 11 people, believed to be Malaysians, died as the vessel drifted in the Sulawesi Sea for eight days after running out.

A tropical storm roared toward Vietnam on Sunday after battering the Philippine capital and surrounding provinces, leaving 14 people dead in a region still waterlogged from three previous, back-to-back storms.

Images of kidnapped eldery Irish Catholic priest Father Michael Sinnott released as proof of life with ransom demands.