The Sultan of Brunei announced that a controversial new penal code featuring tough Islamic criminal punishments that has been criticized by UN human rights officials would be phased in from Thursday.

"Today... I place my faith in and am grateful to Allah the almighty to announce that tomorrow, Thursday May 1, 2014, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases," Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said in a speech.

Brunei has postponed its implementation of harsh Islamic punishments, due to begin Tuesday, that have earned condemnation from the United Nations and sparked rare criticism at home.

No confirmed new date was given for the start of the punishments -- which will eventually include flogging, the severing of limbs and death by stoning -- but an official told the Brunei Times they would begin "in the very near future".

The U.N. human rights office on Friday criticized Brunei's planned introduction of the death penalty for a raft of new offenses, as part of a shift to harsh Islamic punishments in the oil-rich sultanate.

"We are deeply concerned about the revised penal code in Brunei Darussalam, due to come into force later this month, which stipulates the death penalty for numerous offenses," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Brunei authorities have detained an Indonesian national with links to Southeast Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) for alleged "terrorist-related activities" in the oil-rich sultanate, a media report said Thursday.

The suspect, identified as "Daniel, alias Awaluddin Sitorus", was detained on February 21 and is believed to be a member of Indonesia-based JI, the Brunei Times said.

Asia-Pacific leaders have staged their second summit fashion parade in just days following the recent revival of the tradition on the international diplomatic scene.

Leaders from the Asia-Pacific as well as the U.S. and Russia posed for the cameras late Wednesday in shimmering shirts made from hand-woven fabric "meticulously designed" by the office of the Sultan of Brunei, the host of this year's East Asia Summit.

Barack Obama will pay the first visit by a U.S. president to Malaysia in a half-century on a four-nation Asia tour next month, the White House said Friday.

Obama will attend summits in Indonesia and Brunei and also visit longtime U.S. ally the Philippines during the October 6-12 trip.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday urged progress on a code of conduct to govern the hotly disputed South China Sea, after ally the Philippines warned of a Chinese military build-up in the strategically vital waters.

"We very much hope to see progress on a substantive code of conduct to help ensure stability in this vital region," Kerry told foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations at a meeting in Brunei.

Glittering jewels and the echoes of a 17-gun salute marked the climax of wedding celebrations for the daughter of one of the world's wealthiest men, the Sultan of Brunei.

Princess Hajah Hafizah Sururul Bolkiah, 32, and Pengiran Haji Muhammad Ruzaini, 29, were presented to the royal court in a lavish traditional ceremony at the sultan's 1,700-room palace on Sunday.

Taiwanese coastguards said Sunday they will next month stage a live-fire exercise in disputed South China Sea islands with new, longer-range artillery and mortars, in a move that risks fresh tensions.

The potentially resource-rich sea, home to important trade routes, is an increasingly dangerous flashpoint and there have been a string of recent diplomatic rows between countries with overlapping territorial claims.

Tensions over competing claims in the South China Sea could escalate into conflict, with an arms build-up among rival nations raising the temperature, an international think tank warned Tuesday.

Prospects of solving the disputes "seem to be diminishing" after a recent failure by the 10-nation ASEAN grouping to hammer out a "code of conduct" that would govern actions in the sea, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said.