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.



thehill.com The government of Myanmar has hired lobbyists in Washington for the first time in more than a decade, signing a contract worth $840,000 with the Podesta Group. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has had a tumultuous history. The contract comes ahead of crucial elections in the country later this year, which could go a long way toward determining whether the country's rapprochement with the US continues.



thestar.com.my Uganda's High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has rescued three Ugandan sex slaves in Malaysia. Sources in Kuala Lumpur said the three girls reported that about 20 more Ugandan women sex slaves were hiding in Kuala Lumpur, fearing arrest by authorities or being hunted by their recruiters.



theguardian.com Friday marks 40 years since the Khmer Rouge first marched into Phnom Penh. Over the following 44 months in the region of 2 million people from a population of just over 8 million died - killed, starved or struck down by disease - as Pol Pot's brutal regime attempted to style Cambodia into a classless, agrarian society.



dailymail.co.uk Pet cats are being snatched off the streets and killed in their ten of thousands across Asia - to feed the booming appetite for their meat in Vietnam. The meat is so popular domestic cats are being stolen to order from the street and homes across Vietnam and smuggled across the border in tightly-packed trucks from neighboring China and Laos.



mashable.com Bintang-drinking, bikini-wearing Australians are no doubt freaking out their holiday destination of choice - Bali, Indonesia - may no longer support their boozing habits. On Thursday, a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of above 5pc was implemented in minimarts across Indonesia, according to the Jakarta Post. A few days before the new conditions came into place, two Islamic parties also put a bill to Indonesian parliament calling for a blanket ban on beverages with more than 1pc alcohol.



reuters The Philippines will file criminal cases against 90 Muslim rebels for the death of 35 police commandos during a deadly January clash in the south, the justice minister said, to assuage a public outcry for justice.



thediplomat.com Speaking at a counterterrorism meeting, Singapore's deputy prime minister, Teo Chee Hean, argued that the terrorism threat has only worsened following the 9/11 attacks particularly with the rise and spread of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Teo expressed concern about the return of radicalized ISIS fighters to their home countries and the rise of ''lone-wolf terrorist attacks'' conducted by individuals influenced by ideology through social media.



economist.com Vietnamese officials have ''stopped seeing social media as evil,'' argues Dang Hoang Giang at the Centre for Community Support Development Studies, a consulting firm in Hanoi. But he doubts that recent responses to mass online criticism mark the dawn of a more open politics.



xinhua The polluting red tide has spread and is now affecting waters off Jerudong, Berakas and boundary waters between Brunei and Labuan of Malaysia, the state- run Radio Television Brunei (RTB) said.