KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA said on Wednesday it had released suspected terrorist Yazid Sufaat, detained since 2001 after being connected with the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, as he is now 'safe'.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Yazid, a member of regional militant group Jemaah Islamiyah who was freed from a detention camp in northern Malaysia on Nov 24, was now safe to be released into society.

JAKARTA - HUNDREDS of troops were deployed to a tense Indonesian province in the Maluku islands after sectarian violence left two churches and 50 other buildings in flames, police said on Wednesday. At least six people were injured.

The region was the scene of fierce clashes between Muslims and Christians in 1999-2001 that left 9,000 dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. Authorities - fearful of a repeat - were quick to restore order this week.

BANGKOK - THAI police said on Wednesday they had found a man's body wrapped in plastic at Bangkok's domestic airport, a week after anti-government demonstrators lifted a blockade of the facility.

The man, aged about 30, was dressed in the uniform worn by volunteer guards of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which occupied Don Mueang airport between Nov 26 and Dec 3, they said.