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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ 23-member regional forum is set to discuss later this week a draft document calling for increased efforts to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, according to Agence France-Presse (see GSN, March 17).

Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has been ordered to stop sales of a new book she authored that suggests the United States and the World Health Organization might be developing biological weapons from bird flu samples collected in developing nations, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 28, 2005).

Staff members at the Indonesian Embassy in Australia were released from quarantine today after a letter containing a potentially dangerous powder was delivered to the embassy compound yesterday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported (see GSN, Feb. 14).

Australia and Indonesia have scheduled a February regional workshop in Melbourne on the Biological Weapons Convention and strategies to lessen the chances of a bioterror attack in Southeast Asia, according to News.com.au (see GSN, Dec. 13).

Canada agreed yesterday to provide Indonesia with equipment to respond to a terrorist WMD attack, the Indonesian Antara news service reported (see GSN, May 5, 2004).

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) is in Southeast Asia this week where he intends to make the case for regional participation in his signature Senate achievement -- the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, which aims to stop the global spread of weapons of mass destruction, according to a release from his office.

Indonesia plans to create an agency that will monitor the use of chemical, biological and nuclear materials and examine ways of dealing with WMD attacks, Research and Technology Minister Hatta Rajasa said today, (see GSN, April 14).

Australian authorities said the substance delivered to the Indonesian embassy Wednesday was most likely not dangerous, the Australian Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 1).

The United States and a number of East Asian nations on Tuesday began a massive collaborative exercise in Thailand that is set to include anti-WMD maneuvers, the Philippines News Agency reported.

The militaries of Malaysia and Indonesia last week wrapped up their first-ever combined military drill that focused on responding to a simulated biological or nuclear attack, the Malaysian newspaper Berita Harian reported (see GSN, April 6).