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 Indonesia's Vice-President Jusuf Kalla is taking a high-profile train journey to highlight transport safety issues. Mr Kalla is travelling from the capital Jakarta to Yogyakarta in central Java, a journey of around 12 hours. Concerns over the safety of Indonesia's trains, planes and ferries have risen in recent weeks after a series of transport disasters in the country. (BBC) Thai Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula has resigned, citing media pressure and rifts in the government. Mr Pridiyathorn, who was appointed after the September 2006 coup, has been under growing pressure in recent weeks. His departure comes just a week after that of another senior economic adviser, Somkid Jatusripitak. (BBC) The Vietnamese government has announced that it is to award a prestigious prize to four poets 50 years after they were imprisoned and their works banned. Hoang Cam, Le Dat, Phung Quan and Tran Dan were part of a movement which criticised life under communism but which was crushed in the late 1950s. Of the four, two are now dead. (BBC)
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 Myanmar will allow alleged victims of forced labour to seek redress without fear of persecution, the UN has said. The International Labour Organization said Burmese authorities had acceded to its request as part of efforts to ensure abuse claims were investigated. While only a trial agreement, it will be seen by campaigners as an advance in the fight against the practice. (BBC)
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 Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has turned down calls for the remains of thousands of victims of the Khmer Rouge to be cremated. He said it was important for the skulls to stay on display as evidence that millions died during the late 1970s. (BBC)-
 Indonesia has closed its border with East Timor after rebels raided an East Timorese police post and seized a large number of automatic weapons. UN forces in East Timor say the attack was carried out by a rebel group led by a renegade army officer. Subsequently, the country's Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta asked the Indonesian government to close its border with East Timor so that government and international forces could track down the rebels. (BBC)
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- Levina I, the ferry on which a fire broke out on 22nd February sinks suddenly, with several safety investigators, police and journalists on board. Medical workers said a TV cameraman had died, two people were seriously hurt and an unknown number are missing. Earlier, the death toll from Thursday's fire rose to 41 after rescuers found 21 bodies drifting at sea. (BBC)
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta has formally announced that he will stand for president of East Timor in elections in April. Mr Ramos-Horta has been prime minister since last year, when he was appointed following widespread riots. He had previously served as East Timor's foreign minister. (BBC)
- Two Russian women have been shot dead in their deckchairs on a beach in Pattaya. The tourists from Kemerovo in Siberia were shot several times. Police have offered a 100,000-baht reward for information leading to the arrest of the killer. (BBC)
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- Indonesian engineers have lowered the first series of concrete balls into a mud volcano to try to plug an eruption which has destroyed thousands of homes. At least four of the giant, chain-linked spheres were dropped into the crater, but technical problems halted work at the East Java site. Workers plan to drop 1,500 balls, each weighing up to 250kgs (500lbs). (BBC)
- Dissidents in Vietnam say a Catholic priest who has been prominent in the country's small democracy movement has been arrested. The spokeswoman of the Vietnam Progression Party said that police took away Father Nguyen Van Ly after questioning him in his home for a week. Father Ly has spent 14 years in prison for his opposition to Communist Party rule. He was released in an amnesty in 2005. (BBC)
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- Troops in western Myanmar have captured a base used by separatists from neighbouring India after a week of fighting, a spokesman for the National Socialist Council of Nagaland has said. He said that 12 rebel fighters from India's Nagaland state had been killed. (BBC)
- Three journalists and one protester were detained by police in Burma after a rare public demonstration in Yangon. At least 15 protesters waved placards and chanted slogans calling for lower inflation, better health and education services and stable power supplies. (BBC)
- At least 15 people, including two children, have died after fire broke out on a ferry sailing from Jakarta to Bangka Island. The Levina I, with more than 200 people on board, was 80km (50 miles) from shore when the fire broke out. Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa told el-Shinta radio that 15 bodies had been recovered and that at least 275 people had been rescued. (BBC)
- A film about the 2002 Bali bombings has been banned in Bali. An official from the provincial film board said Long Road to Heaven could "reopen old wounds". It is Indonesia's first film about the atrocity and received its premiere in the capital Jakarta last month. I Gusti Ngurah Gde, head of Bali's film board, said: "We fear people who do not understand it would trigger conflict and direct hatred at a certain group." (BBC)
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- Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning after a powerful earthquake struck off the Maluku Islands in the east of the country. The earthquake, which took place under the sea, struck some 210km (130 miles) from the capital of the Moluccas, Ternate. (BBC)
- Three men have been arrested in connection with several attacks in southern Thailand since Sunday 18th February in which at least eight people died. The detained suspects were reportedly all students at Islamic schools. (BBC)
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- A commission set up by Indonesia and East Timor to promote reconciliation has begun its first hearing on Bali. The Commission of Truth and Friendship was set up to investigate the violence which surrounded East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999. Indonesia's former foreign minister, Ali Alatas, is the first person to appear in front of the panel. (BBC)
- At least nine people have been killed in landslides on Java. Several other people are also missing after the slides, which were triggered by heavy rain. In the worst incident, the side of a hill collapsed after heavy rain in the Magelang district, burying a group of people working nearby. (BBC)
- Andalas, the only Sumatran rhino bred in captivity in more than a century, is being flown from Los Angeles to join two females who live in the Way Kambas National Park on Sumatra. The Sumatran rhino is the world's most endangered rhino species with fewer than 300 thought to exist in the wild. Andalas, called after the original name for Sumatra, will join two female rhinos, Rosa and Ratu, at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in the south-east of the island. (BBC)
- In the second day of violence in southern Thailand, a Royal Thai Army major is killed by a bomb planted at the front door of his home in Yala Province. In Narathiwat Province some border patrol officers were injured by a bomb planted near a railway platform, while some army soldiers came under fire in a roadside attack by gunmen. Another bomb went off at a karaoke parlor, injuring five men and two women. In Pattani Province, a Chevrolet automobile dealership was bombed, injuring seven people. (Nation)
 Journalist Hernani Pastolero, 64, editor of the weekly Lightning Courier, is shot dead near the city of Cotabato, Mindanao. According to official figures, he is the 49th journalist to be killed since 2001. (BBC)
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- At least eight people are killed and dozens injured in a string of bombings and attacks in four southern Thailand provinces. The bombs, triggered by digital watches, exploded between 7:15 and 8 p.m. and targeted hotels, karaoke bars, power grids, commercial sites and schools, marring New Year celebrations by ethnic Chinese. (Nation) (AP) (AFP)
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  A tri-nation deal has been signed to protect 200,000 square kilometres of rainforest on the island of Borneo. Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei pledged to protect the area, known as the "Heart of Borneo". It is considered one of the most important sites of biodiversity in the world, home to thousands of species. (BBC)
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- Burma has announced a peace deal with a splinter group of the Karen rebel movement, which has been fighting Burmese rule for over half a century. Officials held a peace ceremony with the head of the group, Htain Maung. He and a few hundred followers broke from the main organisation, the Karen National Union (KNU), two weeks ago. (BBC)
- A 20-year-old woman in Indonesia who tested positive for bird flu has died, becoming the country's 64th human victim. She died on Sunday in West Java province, a day after being diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of the virus. (BBC)
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- Irwandi Yusuf is sworn in as the first directly elected governor of Aceh province in an official ceremony in the provincial capital Banda Aceh. (BBC)
- The Philippines government plans to siphon fuel from the tanker Solar I, which in August 2006 caused the country's worst oil spill, when it sank in rough seas off Guimaras. Recovery operations are planned to begin on March 8. (AFP)
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- Clean-up operations get under way in Jakarta as floodwaters recede. Fifty people are reported killed in the disaster, with several hundred thousand forced from their homes. (AFP)
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- The Thai government's executive Cabinet decides to reopen Don Mueang International Airport as a second airport for Bangkok to handle both international and domestic flights in order to take pressure off the troubled new Suvarnabhumi Airport. The policy is a reversal for the government, which had previously wanted to reopen the older Don Mueang airport for domestic flights only. (Nation)
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- Floods in Jakarta cause at least 25 deaths and force over 300,000 people to leave their homes. Three days of torrential rain have caused rivers to burst their banks, sending muddy water up to 3m (10ft) deep into homes and businesses. Officials fear an outbreak of disease could take hold. (BBC) (BBC)
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- Malaysia is threatening to end free trade talks with the United States if it is asked to break an energy development deal with Iran. A US legislator has raised concerns about Malaysia's $16bn (£8bn) deal to develop Iranian gas fields and build liquefied natural gas plants there. Malaysia's prime minister says he will not bow to pressure from Washington. (BBC)
- At least 22 people are killed when a tanker exploded on a highway in Tigbao, Mindanao. The truck was carrying liquefied petroleum gas, and exploded soon after crashing while going down a steep hill. (BBC)
- Suspected Muslim rebels have stormed a jail in the southern Philippines, freeing 47 prisoners. About 25 attackers, armed with guns and grenade launchers, attacked the jail in Kidapawan city, on the island of Mindanao. (BBC)
- Chotisak Asapaviriya, the head of Thailand's airport authority has resigned from his job, amid mounting pressure over the failings of Bangkok's new airport, Suvarnabhumi. (BBC)
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- New rules come into effect in Jakarta, banning people from keeping domestic birds. The regulations are the latest attempt to stem the bird flu virus, which is endemic in the poultry population. (BBC)
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[edit] Recently concluded
[edit] Ongoing
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Holidays
and observances |
[edit] January
[edit] February
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Brunei
Cambodia
East Timor
Indonesia
Laos
Malaysia
Myanmar
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Vietnam
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India)
Christmas Island (Australia)
Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)
