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.



reuters The rural heartland of Thailand's deposed leader Yingluck Shinawatra and her exiled billionaire brother Thaksin is hurting as a result of the military government's economic policies, stirring discontent and the threat of protests.



reuters Myanmar's historic elections next month are likely to worsen the plight of the country's oppressed Rohingya Muslim community, with a new, hardline Buddhist party on the brink of becoming a formidable force. Rohingya make up about one-third of Rakhine's population and many are virtual prisoners in camps or in segregated villages, subject to restrictions on travel and, in some areas, access to healthcare and education.



ft.com Corporate Japan longs to build infrastructure for Asia but the country's officials are despondent this week after China gatecrashed Tokyo's long-nurtured plan to export the Shinkansen high-speed railway to Indonesia.



ft.com Since September 2014 the ringgit has plunged once again, tumbling to its lowest level against the dollar since the 1997 financial crisis.



straitstimes.com Hazy conditions are expected to continue on Friday, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) set to be between the high end of the unhealthy range and the middle of the very unhealthy range.



hrw.org Cambodian authorities should end the prosecution of an opposition senator who has been wrongfully charged with forgery and incitement for posting online an inaccurate version of a 1979 Cambodia-Vietnam treaty, Human Rights Watch said. The next hearing in the case against Senator Hong Sok Hour is scheduled for October 2.



channelnewsasia.com Vietnamese journalist Ha Huy Hoang has been found guilty of spying for China and sentenced to a six-year jail term by a Hanoi court after a three-hour trial, his lawyer said.



theglobeandmail.com A group of globetrotting sailors has launched an online petition demanding that Candian PM Stephen Harper intervene in the case of four people abducted in the Philippines, two of them Canadian.



ttrweekly.com Lao News Agency reported the authorities of Salavan, Champassak, Xekong and Attapeu met at the 8th meeting in Salavan province, late last week, to discuss a joint plan to develop tourist sites in the southern provinces of Laos and link tourist sites via practical routes that travel companies could adopt for their clients.