PHUKETWAN recognises the importance of Asean with the Economic Community approaching and marks what's happening around the region with a column, Asean Today, that will cease when Phuketwan closes on December 31.

reuters A United States B-52 strategic bomber flew over artificial Chinese islands in the South China Sea recently and was contacted by Chinese ground controllers but continued its mission undeterred, a Pentagon spokesman said overnight.



wsj.com The runaway election lead for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy is recalibrating the four-way scramble for influence in the strategically located Southeast Asian country among China, India, Japan and the US.



voanews.com Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has sharply criticised the opposition for comparing Cambodia's democracy with that in Myanmar. In a public speech and Facebook posts, he called Sam Rainsy, head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a ''traitor's son,'' saying the opposition leader often takes advantage of world history to attack the ruling Cambodian People's Party.



nationalpost.com Fourteen orangutans that were smuggled out of Indonesia and believed to have been put to work at tourist attractions in Thailand were sent home. Indonesia's air force sent a C-130 plane. Most of the orangutans were rescued six years ago on the resort island of Phuket.



channelnewsasia.com Authorities in Singapore made the highest number of requests for user information on Facebook since data about such requests was first collated, the social media giant announced as part of their Global Government Requests Report. The Singapore Government made a total of 198 requests for data in the first six months of 2015, an 11.9 percent increase over July to December 2014.



reuters Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday he will give a statement to the anti-graft agency soon over funds worth 2.6 billion ringgit ($595.58 million) that were transferred into his bank accounts. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that investigators looking into debt-laden state investor 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) found that funds were moved into Najib's accounts, sparking a political crisis for Najib and his government.



nytimes.com The new Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, made a half-day visit to Indonesia to hold talks with President Joko Widodo, a meeting intended to help mend diplomatic relations that plummeted this year over issues including human smuggling, refugee boats and the executions of Australian drug offenders.



nzherald.co.nz Air New Zealand has confirmed it will fly to Vietnam three times a week from next winter. The airline will launch seasonal services to the country next June, catering to outbound Kiwi holiday makers.



csmonitor.com When the Philippine coastal town of Subic Bay rid itself two decades ago of a giant US naval base, it wanted to shake off a colonial past and reject the ''ugly Americans.'' Yet today the town is once again welcoming American military personnel and viewing the US as a vanguard against an increasingly pushy China.



themalaysmailonline.com Malaysia's police have not acted maliciously to entrap drivers from Brunei and instead enforces the law against all traffic offenders, the police force's traffic chief said. He was responding to circulated claims that local traffic police had hidden cameras to entrap vehicles from Brunei to boost the police force coffers.



news.vice.com ''Chinese come to Laos partly because they no longer have enough land at home,'' Kalia Sompavong, a Laotian guide, told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps. ''Also because they've been destroying their land by flooding it with pesticides for the past 30 years. Now, they want to do the same here.''