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.



bbc.com Malaysia has passed a controversial anti-terrorism bill, which the government says is needed to tackle the threat from Islamic extremists. The bill reintroduces indefinite detention without trial - something the prime minister had repealed in 2012. Human Rights Watch called the move ''a giant step backwards for human rights''.



gmanetwork.com Filipino nurse Ed Mundsel Bello Ello,sacked for posting anti-Singaporean comments on Facebook, has been charged with sedition and giving false information to the police, according to a report in The Straits Times. If convicted, Ello, 28, may be fined $5000 and jailed for up to three years for sedition and jailed for a year with the same amount of fine for lying to the police.



AP Lawyers representing an American couple on trial in Indonesia argued that there is no evidence of premeditated murder in her mother's death and sought light sentences if they are convicted. Prosecutors want jail sentences of 18 years for Tommy Schaefer and 15 years for Heather Mack.



reuters Myanmar's most powerful ethnic minority militia, the United Wa State Army, has made a rare invitation to insurgent groups negotiating peace with the government to meet at its headquarters, a member of the team negotiating with the government said.



reuters About 11,500 US and Philippine troops will take part in annual military exercises this month near disputed waters in the South China Sea, the Philippine military said, while denying the drills were a show of force to China.



wsj.com On a fence-mending visit to Beijing this week, Vietnam's top Communist official will face a dilemma that has dogged his country's leaders for much of the past millennium: how to show deference to China without appearing meek back home.



bernama.com The first bridge linking Myanmar and Laos is expected to officially open next month, Xinhua news agency reports citing local media.



globaltimes.cn Cambodia sent 461 military personnel, including 29 females, to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the conflict-torn West African nations of Mali and South Sudan.