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.



abc.net.au Two Islamic parties in Indonesia have proposed legislation that would ban all consumption of alcoholic drinks and bring jail terms of up to two years for offenders.

reuters The proposed legislation banning all alcohol consumption would exempt some locations to protect tourism such as five-star hotels and the resort island of Bali.

aap Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg has reportedly asked Indonesia's President Joko Widodo to halt the executions of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.



gawker.com A question on a quiz for teenage mathletes proved so tricky for Singapore newscaster Kenneth Kong that he posted it to Facebook to find a definitive answer. Now the problem has driven the entire country mad, and it's spreading to the rest of the world.
http://gawker.com/can-you-solve-the-math-problem-that-has-torn-singapore-1697828833

nytimes.com People around the world have been trying to figure out Cheryl's birthday, or at least wondering why she couldn't just save everyone a lot of trouble and be more direct with Albert and Bernard?

bbc.com Author and mathematician Alex Bellos demonstrates how to solve the puzzle.

afp Singaporean Yang Kaiheng, 26, and Japanese-Australian Ai Takagi, 22, each face seven counts of sedition for articles published on a website called The Real Singapore and its Facebook page between October 2013 and February this year, court documents showed.



newhistorian.com Pol Pot's regime is accused with causing the deaths of over two million people, either directly through execution and torture, or as a result of disease and starvation caused by the radical attempts at reshaping society. His prolonged house arrest by the Khmer Rouge meant he was never extradited to stand trial for crimes against humanity.



freemalaysiatoday.com The ''elephant in the room'' on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, according to Australian website Crikey, is that ''Malaysia lied from the beginning about what it knows on the missing flight''.



sloughexpress.co.uk Andrew Ferguson, of High Street, had been living and working in Laos when he was discovered dead in his room on the fifth floor of his hotel room on November 11. The inquest, held at Reading Town Hall, heard a bag of white powder, later found to be heroin, was discovered near to his body.



wsj.com The leader of a hard-line separatist group with links to Islamic State died Tuesday, according to people familiar with the group - just weeks after the military tried but failed to capture him and other militant leaders in a broad offensive on the southern island of Mindanao. Ameril Umbra Kato, 68 years old, was the most-wanted man in the Philippines for years.