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.



independent.co.uk British woman Lindsay Sandiford, 57, due to be executed by firing squad for drug smuggling in Indonesia, has written to the Foreign Secretary asking for financial assistance to pursue a final legal appeal.

therakyatpost.com Indonesia's score on a worldwide ranking for English language was 52.74, making it the third-highest performer in the Southeast Asian region, below Malaysia and Singapore, The Jakarta Post reported. In terms of proficiency, Indonesia scored higher than Thailand and Vietnam, and was also placed one position above France.

afp Indonesian rescuers on Sunday resumed their search for 86 victims still missing from the AirAsia plane that crashed on Dec 28 with 162 people on board, an official said.



pbs.org Government and aviation industry officials from dozens of countries are meeting in Montreal this week to try to find consensus on how to keep from losing airliners like the one that vanished without a trace in Asia and another shot down in Eastern Europe.



ft.com The strange tale of Prince Norodom Ranariddh, prime minister for four years in the 1990s, is a sign of the underlying tensions in this manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia where a protracted power struggle is taking place in the distant but lingering shadow of the Khmer Rouge's 1970s atrocities.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0135a5fa-a52f-11e4-bf11-00144feab7de.html#axzz3QXIw38G3



heraldsun.com.au Australia's ambassador for women and girls Natasha Stott Despoja will visit the once-reclusive state this week, where she'll talk to government officials, Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other women leaders about the country's reform agenda and issues like gender violence.



todayonline.com The focus of this year's Budget will be about building Singapore's future, said Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in terms of securing assurance in retirement for today's and tomorrow's seniors, as well as preparing Singaporeans for fulfilling careers.


foxnews.com In Than Hoa, local residents beat to death two dog thieves and seriously injured two others, while in Nin Binh, police were able to arrive in time to prevent another mob from lynching two other thieves. Canine thefts are frequent occurrences in Vietnam because of the popularity of dog meat but many other citizens own dogs as pets in both rural and urban areas.