Indonesia's blend of Islam and democratic values is the key to its future, the country's president says.
Defence contends that Umar Patek was not part of the Bali terror plot, although he admits to manufacturing the explosives used.
The "godfather" of terror attacks in Indonesia has managed to avoid the heavy penalties borne by his disciples. With Monday's ruling, however, he faces 15 years behind bars.
Malaysia's volunteer programmes are giving regular citizens a chance to help police and improve the country.
Ethnic Malay Muslims in insurgent-hit areas of southern Thailand welcome an offer from the Malaysian prime minister to help bring about a peaceful solution.
Indonesia has caught the Facebook bug and is now number three in the world in terms of using this social media platform.
In the days before attempting to carry out bomb attacks in Thailand's capital, three of the suspects allegedly partied with sex workers in the resort town of Pattaya.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razik rejects insurgents' demands for a separate state and says his country is ready to assist in finding a peaceful solution.
Prosecutors hope Umar Patek will provide valuable information on Jemaaah Islamiyah and other terrorist networks active in Southeast Asia.
A Malaysian think tank is rated 16th best in Asia.
The late al-Qaeda leader's wishes for his children were in stark contrast to his ideology of violent extremism.
Jakarta's residents hit the streets to protest violent tactics used by Islamic Defenders Front.
Botched bombings in Thailand appear to point back to Iran, though Tehran denies any role.
By Grace Chen for Khabar Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur
With a succession of key figures killed in recent days, the terror network is losing cohesion.
Male-female interactions are strictly limited under Shariah law, applied in the western province since 2003.
Death is at stake as social media users defend and denounce a Saudi journalist who tweeted about the Prophet Muhammad.
Ladang Bukit Jalil Tamil School has a new building and more students despite a lack of funding and the social challenges its student body faces.
As 10 extremists are sentenced in the country's first mosque bombing, a think tank warns of the links between vigilantism and violent jihadism.
Drug smuggling and substance abuse continue to plague Indonesia despite stiff sentences levied against offenders.
The number of international visitors continues to burgeon across both South Asia and Southeast Asia.
Don't allow homecoming extremists to import their brand of jihad from Syria, cleric warns.
![Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono answers reporters' questions at a news conference in Jakarta. At a time when extremists claim to speak for Islam, the teachings of Islam in its truest form -- as a religion of peace -- must be protected, the president said in a recent address to the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/29/120301-ROB_SBY_ID-150_100.jpg)
![Accused bomb maker Umar Patek is shown being escorted to court at the start of his trial in West Jakarta, February 13th. His defense team argues that he was not part of the plot to unleash mass murder in Bali. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/28/120229-FANI_PATEK_ID-150_100.jpg)
![Jemaah Islamiyah co-founder Abu Bakar Bashir, shown June 16th, 2011 in a South Jakarta jail, was ordered Monday (February 27th) to serve a 15-year prison term for terrorist acts. Indonesia's Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision that had reduced his sentence to nine years. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/27/120228-ROB_BASHIR2_ID-150_100.jpg)
![Paridah Abdul Rashid (second from left), Chandram Ramasamy (fourth from left) and Tan Soek Peng (third from right) are among the 99 volunteers of the MCA RELA platoon. [Grace Chen]](/shared/images/2012/02/24/120225_GRACE_MY_VOLUNTEERS-150_100.jpg)
![Thai security personnel inspect the site of a truck bomb explosion in Pattani province in southern Thailand on February 9th, 2012. A retired teacher was killed and 13 villagers wounded when the bomb exploded. On Monday (February 20th), Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged his government's assistance to help Thailand quell separatist violence in its restive south. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/23/120224-ROB_THAIMUSLIMS_TH-150_100.jpg)
![A potential buyer raises his hand while waiting to buy cheap mobile phones at a Jakarta mall in 2009. Over 500 people waited more than three hours to purchase a 99,000 rupiah ($11) phone with features including access to Facebook and chatting. In the last three years, Facebook has become the most popular social media site in the country. With the world's third largest user base, the most populous Muslim country trails only the US and India in Facebook members. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/22/120223_PRADIPTA_ID_FB2-150_100.jpg)
![Thai police officers escort Iranian suspect Mohammad Kharzei, 42, to a Wednesday (February 22nd) hearing to extend his detention at Bangkok's South Criminal Court. Police said three Thai sex workers identified Kharzei and accomplices Masoud Sedaghatzadeh and Saied Moradi as the men with whom they partied in the resort town of Pattaya, prior to the February 14th bomb attacks. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/22/120223-ROB_BOMBERSEX_TH-150_100.jpg)
![Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, shake hands after a joint news conference in Putrajaya near Kuala Lumpur on February 20th, 2012. Najib pledged that Malaysia would help Thailand resolve violence in its restive southern provinces. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/21/120222_LAUREN_MYTH_YINGRAZ-150_100.jpg)
![Umar Patek arrives in court February 13th. Patek, a militant Islamist captured in the same Pakistan town where US forces killed Osama bin Laden, is on trial on charges of making bombs that exploded at Bali nightclubs in 2002, killing 202 people. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/21/120222-YUDHISTRA_PATEK_ID-150_100.jpg)
![Students sit for their examinations at a school in Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur in 2010. The Centre for Public Policy Studies, recently ranked 16th best think tank in Asia, deals extensively with issues surrounding education. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/20/120221-GRACE_MY_CPPS-150_100.jpg)
![Former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is shown watching himself on television, with US President Barack Obama also on screen, in this video frame grab released by the Pentagon May 7, 2011. Despite waging jihad against western interests using terrorist acts, Bin Laden told his children to live in peace and obtain the best educations in western countries. Bin Laden was killed in 2011 by US forces in Pakistan. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/17/120218-ROB_BINLADEN1-150_100.jpg)
![Protesters rally in Jakarta against the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on Tuesday (February 14th). People in the Indonesian capital spoke out against violent tactics used by the group after Kalimantan residents moved to block establishment of an FPI branch in their province. [Photo by Pradipta Lakshmi]](/shared/images/2012/02/16/120217_PRADIPTA_ID_FPI-150_100.jpg)
![Cleaners sweep around phone booths in Bangkok Tuesday (February 14th) as police and forensic experts investigate the site where a bomb carried by Iranian national Saied Moradi exploded, seriously wounding him. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/16/120217-KHABAR_BOMB1_TH-150_100.jpg)
![Graffiti by multiple artists adorns the wall running under the Pasar Seni LRT station in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The 2012 KUL Sign competition, a chance for local graffiti artists to show off their styles, will be kicked off in this area on February 25th. [Photo by Grace Chen]](/shared/images/2012/02/15/120216_GRACE_MY_GRAFFITI-150_100.jpg)
![Major General Fred Mugisha, Force commander of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) shows IEDs found on Mogadishu streets and defused in November 2011. On the defensive after its latest leader, Bilal al-Berjawi (Abu Hafsa) was killed in a January 23rd airstrike, Al-Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab now resorts to planting roadside bombs. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/14/120215_ANTIALQAEDA_SM-150_100.jpg)
![A policewoman hands a motorist a rose to mark Valentine's Day in Jakarta, February 14th, 2012. The holiday is considered haram or forbidden in Indonesia's Aceh province. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/14/120215_PRADIPTA_IN_VALENTINES-150_100.jpg)
![A screenshot taken on Friday, February 10th, shows Twitter reaction to the arrest of Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari by Malaysian authorities. On Sunday (February 12th) Malaysia sent Kashgari back to Saudi Arabia, where he faces a possible death penalty for apostasy. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/13/120214_LAUREN_MY_TWEET_LM-150_100.jpg)
![Ladang Bukit Jalil school headmistress Sitha Thangavaloo, pictured here with students that attend the Tamil school in Malaysia, which is thriving despite many challenges. [Photo by Grace Chen]](/shared/images/2012/02/09/120210_GRACE_MY_SCHOOLS-150_100.jpg)
![A suspect in the bombing of a police mosque in Cirebon, 200 km (124 miles) southeast of Jakarta, is escorted by authorities on May 19th, 2011 The attack illustrates a wider trend of vigilantism leading to terrorism, the International Crisis Group said. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/06/120206_YUDHISTIRA_ID_ICG-150_100.jpg)
![Indonesian officials burn heroin seized in a 2005 case in which nine Australians were convicted of trying to smuggle 6.1kg (13lbs) of heroin to Australia from Bali, and given sentences ranging from life in prison to death. Despite such consequences, drug smuggling, production, and abuse are on the rise. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/03/120204-PRADIPTA_ID_DRUGS-150_100.jpg)
![Tourists from South Asia take photos from the dam that runs across the Singapore River's mouth at Marina Bay. International tourist arrivals in Asia have skyrocketed in recent years, with South and Southeast Asia leading the way. [Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/02/02/120203_UDAYAN_ALL_TRAVEL-150_100.jpg)
![Iranians sit on a boat at Denspar's Benoa port on May 12th, 2013. They were among 95 asylum seekers from Iran arrested by Indonesian marine police while sailing through nearby Badung strait. [Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP]](/shared/images/2014/02/15/140215_ANDHIKA_SAMUEL_IRANIAN_VISA_VG1-100_67.jpg)
![Indonesia's Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) opens a Jakarta forum involving religious leaders January 22nd. [Yenny Herawati/Khabar]](/shared/images/2014/02/14/140214_YENNY_MUSLIM_VOTING_VG1-100_67.jpg)
![Imlek Festival goers in Solo celebrate the Chinese New Year. The festival went from January 23rd through January 29th. [Yenny Herawati/Khabar]](/shared/images/2014/02/13/140205_YENNY_ID_IMLEX_VG1-100_67.jpg)
![Opposition forces prepare to storm the headquarters of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters in Aleppo, Syria on January 7th. Indonesian jihadists are among 8,000 foreigners fighting in the Syrian civil war. [Medo Halab/AFP]](/shared/images/2014/02/12/140203_ISMIRA_OKKY_ID_SYRIAN_JIHADIST_RETURNED_VG1-100_67.jpg)
![Typhoon Haiyan survivors prepare to board Australian and US C-130 aircraft departing storm-ravaged Tacloban on November 18th. [Photo courtesy of US Marines]](/shared/images/2013/11/26/131126-FORUM_TYPHOON2PE1_PP-270_180.jpg)