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.



reuters Malaysia's highest court will deliver a decision on Tuesday on an appeal against a sodomy conviction by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, with a ruling against him likely meaning a five-year prison term that would stymie his political ambitions.

freemalaysiatoday.com Tomorrow, said Klang MP Charles Santiago, the independence of the judiciary will be on trial. ''If Anwar is found guilty despite the trail of weak evidence, it would only spell more doom for the country''.

pti Malaysia is looking at an over 20 percent rise in arrival of Indian visitors for the current year, as it woos them with an intense sales pitch promoting newer destinations.



huffingtonpost.com Happy birthday, 1965! How, though, do you commemorate the Vietnam War, the era's signature catastrophe? You leave out every troubling memory of the war and simply say: ''Let's honor all our military veterans for their service and sacrifice.''

thenation.com Instead of confronting the truth, we scrubbed the record clean - and we're still paying for it in Afghanistan and Iraq today.



wausaudailyherald.com The duties for the Hmong soldiers were ''very risky'' things to do, said Xiong, a job development specialist at the Hmong American Center in Wausau. ''But we thought the US was a superpower. We thought the US would take over (Vietnam and Laos), and we were willing to help them. ''In the end,'' Xiong said. ''We had no place to go.''



afp The mothers of two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia tearfully begged authorities on Monday to ''spare our sons' lives,'' as their lawyer revealed plans for a last-gasp legal bid. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, ringleaders of the so-called ''Bali Nine'' drug smuggling gang, were arrested in 2005 and sentenced to death the following year after being caught trying to traffic heroin out of Indonesia.



cambodiadaily.com Two American sisters were deported from Cambodia on Saturday after the pair was literally caught with their pants down on Friday by guards at Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap City, who found them taking photos of each other's bare buttocks at an Angkorian temple, officials said Sunday.



worldmag.com According to Christian Aid Mission, the upper house of Burma's Parliament recently passed a bill that would require anyone wishing to convert from one religion to another to go before a registration board, supply personal information, and wait 90 days for government permission.

bnionline.net A campaign by the Burma Campaign UK is trying to highlight ongoing human rights abuses in Burma. To make its point, Burma Campaign has delivered more than 2000 rose-tinted glasses, and issued photo petitions to the British Foreign Office to put pressure on the British government to a ''return to putting human rights as their top priority in Burma,'' the group said.



huffingtonpost.com Any deal that forces women and human rights to take a backseat to profit and trade should be a non-starter. But right now, the US is negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement with 11 nations including Brunei, a country that recently adopted a vicious new penal code threatening the rights and lives of women, lesbians, and gay men.



straitstimes.com More teenagers are becoming sexually active - with an increasing number thinking that it is normal for them to have sex, social workers say. Figures from the State Courts show a steady growth in the number of cases of sex with a minor - that is, sex with a girl under 16, which is a crime even if she gives her consent.



thenational.ae Emirates Airline has criticised a decision by the Philippines not to extend rights to operate a third daily flight from Dubai to Manila.