Today Around Southeast Asia
PHUKETWAN recognises the importance of Asean with the Economic Community approaching and marks what's happening around the region with a new column, Asean Today.
Indonesia
bbc.com Brazil says it is ''outraged'' by the execution of one its citizens in Indonesia for drug trafficking. Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, was the first Brazilian national to be executed abroad. Five other convicts, from Indonesia, Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam and the Netherlands, were executed on Sunday.
afp They were the first executions to be carried out under the new government of President Joko Widodo, who took office in October.
abc.net.au A woman who is being tried in Indonesia for murdering her mother has been given access to her alleged victim's estate to pay the bills for her legal defence.
Cambodia
cambodiadaily.com Germany's ambassador to Cambodia slammed National Military Police Commander for holding up the tactics of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler as an example of how to maintain social order, saying that ''nobody in his right mind would ever want to refer to Hitler as a role model.''
NNT Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to increase mutual cooperation, upgrade the border crossings, and tackle illegal deforestation in border areas, said a Thai government official.
Malaysia
inquisitr.com Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is still missing after 10 months, and investigators are looking into the very real possibility of sabotage. According to the Wall Street Journal, Malaysian officials believe that someone deliberately turned off the plane's navigation system, and that someone in the cockpit shut off the transponder system, removing it from radar.
ibtimes.com Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which has been missing since March 8, is ''very likely'' in the current search area in the Indian Ocean, according to Martin Dolan, the chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Dolan, who heads the search operation being conducted from Australia, also told AFP that the plane could probably be in good condition despite being underwater for more than 10 months.
Philippines
cnn.com Pope Francis cut his trip to Tacloban short as an approaching typhoon with blistering winds threatened the city in the Philippines. The Pope donned a slicker to conduct an outdoor Mass for hundreds of thousands who gathered despite stormy weather.
Laos
bangkokpost.com Senior anti-drugs officials from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand carried out inspections to observe anti-drug trafficking efforts in action along the Mekong River where up to 300 million methamphetamine pills are transported yearly.
Burma
''We expressed a concern that the use of religion in particular to divide people - whether it is done for political or for any other purposes - is incredibly dangerous, particularly in an election year,'' Tom Malinowski, a senior US State Department human rights envoy, told reporters after a six day mission to Burma (Myanmar).
Vietnam
skift.com More than one hundred Vietnam Airlines pilots called in sick during the New Year holiday amid growing discontent over salaries, an unusual mass protest by white collar workers in the Communist nation. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said air safety was at risk after 117 pilots for the national carrier failed to turn up for work during the holiday, the Saigon Times reported.
Brunei
Last month, 12 Indonesians, including five children, were arrested in Selangor. The group was about to fly from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Turkey and then to Syria when its members were arrested by the police. With Malaysia cutting the transit route, The Star reported that militants may switch to alternative transit points like Brunei, Hong Kong, China, and some European countries to reach Turkey and then Syria.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop sent her Indonesian counterparts a letter appealing on behalf of the criminals and Prime Minister Tony Abbott has expressed his own personal desire to see their lives spared.
## Pity Bishop and Abbott don't send a similar letter to the Thai authorities about an Australian reporter being prosecuted with stupid libel laws.
These drug traffickers knew the laws in Indonesia, 8kg of heroin could have potentially killed many people. They took the risk for a big pay off so I feel no sympathy for them.
Posted by Arun Muruga on January 18, 2015 11:23