Thailand’s military ruler has apologised for suggesting that foreign visitors to its world-famous beaches might be unsafe wearing bikinis as the family of a British tourist who was brutally murdered at a Thai resort arrived in the country.

They were leaders of Cambodia’s infamous Khmer Rouge, the fanatical communist movement behind a 1970s reign of terror that transformed this entire Southeast Asian nation into a ruthless slave state — a place where cities were emptied of their inhabitants, religion and schools were banned, and anyone deemed a threat was executed.

The Elimination

The EU has suspended its sanctions against Burma, but will retain an embargo on arms sales.

Thailand is welcoming Twitter’s new policy to censor tweets in specific nations where the content might break laws.

ONE of Dublin’s star players from the All-Ireland final has been robbed in Thailand.

Beside a wall of white sandbags that has become a front line in Thailand's battle to prevent an epic season of monsoon floods from reaching Bangkok, needlefish swim through knee-high water inside Sawat Taengon's home.

AN investigation into how sensitive medical records were illegally accessed in the Philippines has spread to 60 more Irish hospitals and individual doctors — potentially compromising the private data of thousands of patients.

POLICE were yesterday trying to identify the body of a suspected terrorist killed in a farmhouse gun battle after discovering a plot to kill Indonesia’s president in a suicide car bombing.

Mexico is temporarily suspending all non-essential activity of the federal government as the number of confirmed swine flu cases jumped.

Hundreds of riot police and soldiers ringed a monument in central Rangoon today as officials gathered to commemorate the shooting death 61 years ago of Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s father.

Burma’s isolationist military regime gave the go-ahead for the first major airlift of international aid into the country today, while dragging its feet on urgently requested visas by foreign agencies several days after a devastating cyclone.

Human rights pressure group Amnesty International today urged the UN Security Council to ban all arms sales to Burma.

Thailand’s top graft buster said today the country’s military rulers may freeze the assets of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and members of his Cabinet if evidence is found that they tried to transfer their wealth abroad.

Thousands of people have fled from the East Timorese capital Dili for nearby mountains, fearing renewed violence between ex-soldiers and police that left four people dead last week.

Australia was set today to sign a friendship treaty with southeast Asia, formally acknowledging that its economic future is tied to the region after holding back on joining the accord for more than a decade.

Cambodia’s Health Ministry has only enough of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to treat about 100 people should the country face a flu pandemic, an official said today.

China has learned the lessons of the Sars outbreak and pledged complete openness as it fights bird flu in its multibillion domestic poultry flock.

Nations sent help today to for quake-devastated Pakistan, with China and Japan dispatching emergency teams of rescuers and relief officials while Australia pledged cash toward recovery efforts.

Parents lined up across Indonesia early today to take part in a polio vaccination drive that will target 24 million children, as health officials worried the crippling disease could spread to other Southeast Asian countries.

Cambodia’s government has said it was not being negligent in defending against terrorism, after a UN official warned the country could become a breeding ground for terrorists unless it gets international help quickly.

Burma’s secretive military junta has forced out its prime minister, the long-powerful General Khin Nyunt, and placed him under house arrest on corruption charges.

The second wave in the biggest mass defection of North Koreans to South Korea arrived today on a flight from an unidentified Southeast Asian country, bringing the total in the two-day airlift to nearly 460.

The Philippines said today that it is withdrawing its small peacekeeping contingent from Iraq early to meet the demand of kidnappers threatening to kill a captive Filipino truck driver.

The number of SARS cases in China passed 5,000 today as Taiwan recorded a record jump in infections and a hospital boss was fired for allegedly covering up an outbreak.

THE subway system in Taiwan’s capital became a new front in the war against SARS yesterday as a top Chinese Communist Party official called for “total victory” against the disease.

The subway system in the capital of Taiwan became a new front in the war against SARS today as a top Chinese Communist Party official called for “total victory” against the disease.

The alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks used to be a playboy who liked lounging in five star hotels and once flew a helicopter over the office of a woman he was trying to impress.

Disgraced popstar Gary Glitter has been permanently barred from Cambodia after his recent arrest and deportation, the government confirmed today.

Philippines police today arrested four men at a warehouse southeast of Manila as they unloaded more than 6,600lbs of ammonium nitrate without a licence.

Paul McCartney is to perform in the southern Australian city of Melbourne next month, officials said today.

President McAleese left for Dublin today after wrapping up visits to Malaysia and Thailand, the first to the Southeast Asian nations by an Irish head of state.

President McAleese has agreed with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that international conflicts should be resolved through diplomacy, officials in Kuala Lumpur said.

A British man was today charged with paedophilia in Cambodia after allegedly being caught in a brothel with a naked 12-year-old girl.

Malaysia today said the evidence is not strong enough to justify investigating claims Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe tried to move £10m (€16m) from Channel Island banks to the Southeast Asian country.