Malaysia

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday he wanted to use a four-day trade mission to southeast Asia to spur lucrative business deals and to forge new political alliances to counter Islamist extremism. 

Thailand on July 24 said it would indict 72 people including a senior army officer over human trafficking after the grim trade in migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh rocked the Southeast Asian region.

Malaysia is heralding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Turkey, which is due to come into effect next month, four months after it was inked between the two countries.

A popular Muslim televangelist in Turkey has opposed a recent statement by a colleague, who had declared "advanced oral sex" to be forbidden by Islam.

"Do not invent a lie on behalf of Allah," said Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü, popularly known as "Cübbeli Ahmet Hoca" (Robed Ahmet Hoca) among his followers, during his latest televised sermon.

Myanmar's navy has discovered over a hundred migrants stranded for weeks on a southern island, state media said on July 14, in the wake of a regional boat crisis earlier this year.

Turkey, the sixth most visited tourism destination in the world, has also become one of the most popular medical tourism destinations with more than half a million medical tourists visiting the country last year, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency from the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), the Health Ministry and private hospital figures. 

A branch of the Big Chefs restaurant chain built on a 4,000-square-meter piece of land in Diyarbak?r with a $1.5 million investment has been closed by management, after locals protested the restaurant for being constructed on municipality-owned land. 

Russia said on July 9 it will oppose a draft UN resolution circulated by Malaysia on establishing an international tribunal to prosecute those behind the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Deputy UN Ambassador Petr Iliichev confirmed Moscow's hostility to the plan, telling reporters: "It's not a good time and it's counterproductive."  

Russian veto on British resolution on Srebrenica

The British draft resolution on Srebrenica has not been adopted by the United Nations Security Council, because Russia vetoed it.

Earlier in the day, Russia suggested that the document should not be put up for a vote at all.

The Philippines argued at a closed hearing on July 7 that an international court should intervene in its dispute with China over the right to exploit natural resources and fish in the South China Sea.