Southeast Asia News

Indonesia's raucous election season kicks off on Sunday with the promise of a fresh style of leadership in the world's third largest democracy, whose economic promise has been sapped by rampant graft, confusing policy and weak rule.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left Saturday for Sumatra, to take the lead in an operation to combat massive forest fires, which has so far proved fruitless.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and his First Officer Fariq Abdul Hamid are among the few who would have been in a position to tamper with equipment on MH370.

OVER THE STRAITS OF MALACA, MALAYSIA a?? Smoothing out his map, Captain Fareq Bin Hassan, a Royal Malaysian Air Force navigator, explained the target areas for his search and rescue flight Saturday.

All have been thoroughly screened to ensure that no one is carrying a stolen or faked passport, right? Think again.

Diplomats from the Turkish Embassy in Bangkok arrived at an immigration detention center in southern Thailand on Friday to identify 220 people who claim to be Turkish refugees and have expressed a desire to be relocated to the country Anadoly Agecny reported.

Sky's Mark Stone joins the Malaysian Air Force as they look for the missing plane from the skies with the naked eye.

Police rescued about 200 suspected Muslim Uighurs from a human smuggling camp in southern Thailand, police sources said on Friday, in the latest crackdown on a burgeoning trafficking network in Southeast Asia.

Muslim men leave a mosque after Friday prayers, just down the road of the home of Fariq Abdul Hamid, co-pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner MH370, center, Friday, March 14, 2014 in Shah Alam, Malaysia.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered national and local officials on Friday to take action to control fires in peat-rich Riau province, where heavy smoke has threatened people's health and disrupted air flights.

The Philippines has agreed to allow the United States access to its military bases under a new security deal being negotiated by the two allies, amid mounting concern over China's increasing assertiveness in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

A Buddhist teacher was fatally shot on her way to school and then set ablaze Friday in southern Thailand, becoming the 170th teacher killed by suspected Muslim insurgents in the country's decade-long insurgency, authorities said.

Cambodia's military on Friday accused Thai troops of killing 15 villagers who illegally crossed the border to log for valuable timber.

The U.S. believes that the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, two U.S. officials told ABC News.

Kuala Lumpur: The captain of a missing Malaysian jet is said to be an engineering buff who assembled his own flight simulator, while friends of the co-pilot are defending his reputation after one report portrayed him as a cockpit Casanova.

The highway that goes through Taroko Gorge in eastern Taiwan was recently named as one of the world's most dangerous roads by a United Kingdom-based website.

Malaysian authorities said on Thursday there was no evidence that a jetliner missing for almost six days flew for hours after losing contact with air traffic controllers and continued to transmit technical data.

Mahamaseng Duaramae, 45, a resident of Moo 3 in tambon Lo Jood, was attacked while walking to his rubber plantation about 3.30am, Pol Col Suthawej Areethai, chief of Waeng police station said.

The chief of the French air force was honoured by Singapore on Thursday for his role in helping to forge relations between the air forces of both countries.

Two Hong Kong men, believed to be triad members hired as hitmen, have been arrested for carrying out last month's cleaver attack on a former newspaper editor - a case that prompted fears of an assault on the city's press freedom.