KUALA LUMPUR - INDONESIA said Monday on that its ban on sending maids to Malaysia, triggered by the latest abuse case, could be lifted within weeks if discussions are successful.

The ban was imposed last month after a 43-year-old Malaysian woman was charged with causing grievous bodily harm after beating her Indonesian maid and scalding her with boiling water.

JAKARTA - INDONESIA will launch a new system of independent certification for all timber exports to combat widespread illegal logging, the forestry minister said on Monday.

From September all timber leaving the country must be certified by an independent body of business and NGO representatives, Mr Malam Sambat Kaban told reporters.

MAE SOT (Thailand) - AS THE 50,000th Myanmar refugee to be resettled abroad recently left Thailand for the United States, thousands of others fled their military-ruled homeland to seek shelter under tarps and in temples along the Thai-Myanmar border.

'We would be happier if we were back home as this is not our land, but we will stay here because that side is not safe,' said a 30-year-old medic treating a child for malaria, pointing across an open field to Myanmar.