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.



channelnewsasia.com Air quality took a turn for the worse in Singapore on Friday, hitting the Unhealthy range across all regions from 3pm. The three-hour Pollutant Standards Index reading breached the 200-mark at 5pm.

straitstimes.com Ferry services between Batam Centre and Singapore have resumed after a temporary halt due to the haze on Friday.



bbc.com Haze from Indonesian forest fires has spread to the Philippines, disrupting air traffic and prompting warnings for residents to wear face masks, authorities say. The southern Philippine island of Mindanao is more than 1,200 kilometres from the nearest fires but the haze has become a worsening problem across the island over the past week, aviation authorities said.



abc.net.au Two more refugees are due to resettle in Cambodia as part of a deal with Australia, bringing the total number of people resettled under the $55 million arrangement to five.



bbc.com The Love and Sex with Robots conference due to be held in Malaysia has been cancelled by police for being ''illegal''.



thediplomat.com With global attention focused on Myanmar's horrendous mistreatment of Rohingya, Thailand's own human rights violations against them - though occasionally surfacing in public - have persisted as a secret sideshow. That sideshow has perpetuated a brutal system of human trafficking and prevented the Rohingya - currently Southeast Asia's most brutalised ethnic minority - from reaching political asylum abroad.



bbc.com Strict laws against homosexuality have come into effect in the conservative Indonesian province of Aceh. Gay sex between Muslim men or women, both locals and foreigners, can now be punished with 100 strokes of the cane.

amnesty.org Authorities in the Indonesian region of Aceh must immediately repeal a controversial new bylaw which imposes harsh flogging sentences for consensual sex in some instances and could make it easier for rapists to escape justice, said Amnesty International

smh.com.au Indonesian officials have threatened to shut down Bali's prestigious international writers festival, compelling organisers to cancel sessions discussing the bloody massacre of alleged communists in 1965. The political censorship of this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is unprecedented in the 12-year history of the popular event.



reuters Relations between the Chinese and US navies are their ''best in history'' and exchanges between the two will become more systematic in the future, China's military cited the country's naval chief as telling visiting US officers.



reuters The US will not turn a blind eye to shortcomings in Myanmar's election next month and US help to the future government and any more easing of sanctions will depend on the overall process, the most senior US diplomat for Asia has declared.



AP Vietnam's defense minister says his country wants good and friendly relations with both the United States and China, and will not favor one over the other.



straitstimes.com Almost every day,Laos newspapers report about the apprehension of drug traffickers, while every so often they report the murder of innocent people such as women and children as a result of drug use, particularly amphetamines.