Burma's top leader General Than Shwe will bow out of national elections next month, but his role in the country's political future remains unclear, a south-east Asian diplomat said today.

South Korea imposed heavy security today for a summit with south-east Asian leaders following North Korean nuclear and missile tests that frayed nerves across the region.

Cambodia is seeking regional intervention in its territorial dispute with Thailand after talks between the two neighbours failed to end a military stand-off around an ancient cliff-side temple.

International aid agencies mustered everything from anti-snake venom kits to plastic roofing today, warning that a second wave of deaths would follow the Burma cyclone disaster unless the military regime let in more aid quickly.

Burma’s military junta said today that it had detained nearly 3,000 protesters who took part in the pro-democracy uprising and vowed to continue the ruthless crackdown.

Thailand’s new interim prime minister devoted today to meetings with Asian, European, African and US diplomats, hoping to explain the post-coup political situation and repair the country’s damaged reputation.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice returns to the Middle East today in another attempt to forge an agreement for a multinational force aimed at bringing an end to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting.

Diplomats preparing for the inaugural East Asia Summit in Malaysia today reached a tenuous agreement on a grand plan to eventually create a cohesive economic community across the disparate region.

Malaysia and Australia will launch negotiations on a free trade agreement, their prime ministers announced.

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed from detention before October, Indonesia’s foreign minister said today.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 58th birthday today locked up in an undisclosed place by a military government that has remained defiant of demands by friends and foes to free her.

A Thai man was in a Bangkok hospital today with suspected Sars, and officials believe he may have contracted the deadly virus in London.