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.

nst.com.my Countless meetings over more than a dozen years have produced an Asean treaty on transboundary haze pollution. Have these meetings involved so many different hands and minds groping in a haze of different sections of an elephant and in the end missing a pretty straight-forward and simple solution all these years?



nst.com.my This writer has been critical over the seeming indifference of the ruling elite in newly democratic Indonesia to the everyday cares and concerns of ordinary Indonesians, best exemplified by the fact that some of these hapless Indonesians in central Kalimantan are choking in shockingly unbreathable air momentarily exceeding 2000 in the Air Pollutant Index.

ucsusa.org Much of western Indonesia is currently undergoing massive fires, producing enormous amounts of smoke-haze, and disrupting large parts of society in the region. This is unlikely to be 'normal' seasonal burning; it could rank among the worst fire seasons on record in Indonesia, with frequent and larger fires this year than in previous years. The burning will likely last for at least another month.



reuters Thailand expects a record seven million visitors from China in 2015 compared with 4.63 million last year, the tourism minister said on Friday. Tourism is one of the few bright spots in an economy that has been stubbornly underperforming more than a year after the military seized power in a May 2014 coup.



nzherald.co.nz Disgruntled passengers booked on a Malaysia Airlines flight from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur experienced more than 24 hours of delays due to a ''technical issues'' with their jet. Ramesh Koney, whose family were affected, claimed security staff stood guard at the Malaysia Airlines counter at the airport threatening people with a trespass order if they approached to ask for information.



smh.com.au A potential deal to resettle Manus Island refugees in the Philippines would be better than Australia's trouble-plagued deal with Cambodia and may offer solace to detainees who are ''losing their minds,'' refugee advocates say.



cnbc.com According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) annual liveability index, Hong Kong fell 15 places to 46th position globally on the back of weakening social stability. This allowed arch regional rival Singapore to come close to closing the liveability gap, with the gleaming city-state of skyscrapers moving up two spots to 49th, the report said.



reuters China said on Friday it would not stand for violations of its territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation, as the United States considers sailing warships close to China's artificial islands in the South China Sea. Brunei is a South China Sea claimant.



channelnewsasia.com Despite serious health concerns, authorities say Vietnam's 'black gold' - its burgeoning coal mining industry - is the only solution for the developing country's growing need for energy.



abc.net.au Tourism and elephants: The Elephant Village's marketing manager, Harry Bloom, told the ABC: ''Logging for 12 or more hours a day, every day, after being injured and trained in the brutal crush [the industry term for the elephants' breaking-in] is worse than walking around for about three hours a day at a leisurely pace without the use of force, being medicated when ill, and being fed a healthy diet.''



myanmartimes.com Yangon will need around 75,000 new apartments to be built each year to accommodate the city's growing population, but contractors are struggling to come anywhere close to this target.



asiaone.com The total population of Cambodia is 15.18 million, up from 13.72 million in the previous survey in 2009, and among them, 7.43 million are men and 7.74 million are women.