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.



bangkokpost.com Police detained more than 430 illegal street racers, known as Vanz Boys, and seized more than 200 motorcycles in Bangkok on Saturday night.



news.asiaone.com Malaysia plans to erect walls in the northern part of the peninsula to cut off routes used by people smugglers at the porous border it shares with Thailand, after the discovery of mass graves and suspected human-trafficking detention camps in the area.

straitstimes.com Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the construction of the walls would probably be more effective in securing the border areas, as the security forces were incapable of monitoring over 100 ''rat trails'' along the 700km-long border, state media Bernama reported.

themalaymailonline.com Human trafficking is integral to Malaysia's economy, the Huffington Post has said in criticising the participation of Malaysia, which it accused of relying on slave labor, in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). The US paper said in a news report that the lack of consequences over Malaysia's dismal ranking in the US State Department's annual people-trafficking reports for the past seven years also explains Putrajaya's ''apathetic'' response to the current migrant crisis.

channelnewsasia.com Fuel prices in Malaysia will get a 10 Malaysian cent hike across the board at 12.01am on Monday, the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry website announced.



itv.com The waters around Burma are now marked territory. They've become a breeding ground for human traffickers so are the Burmese Navy's prime target, as they grapple with a humanitarian crisis and their international reputation. Asia's migrant crisis with its mass graves, human trafficking camps and malnourished and starving men, women and children adrift in the regions' seas continue to horrify.

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aa.com.tr Non-profit humanitarian aid organisation AusRelief handed over donations to some of the 1039 Rohingya housed in Aceh. AusRelief Director Fuad Bahrum called on [Prime Minister] Abbott to accept asylum seekers, underling that Australians themselves are mostly migrants. ''Only the Government has no feelings to help them [Rohingya],'' he said, claiming that 95 percent of Australians had shown support.



washingtonpost.com US Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said that he will urge Vietnam to give up its reclamation projects in the South China Sea, making a direct plea after earlier calling for all countries in the Asia-Pacific region to halt the construction of artificial islands.



inquirer.net The Philippines and the US are putting up a defensive line meant to prevent China from punching through to the Pacific and threatening American military real estate in Guam, analysts say. The US will be able to use at least eight military bases in the Philippines where it can rotate its troops, planes and ships, under a 10-year defense pact signed in April last year.



en.apa.az Cambodia's Foreign Ministry has joined forces with Indonesian officials to rescue 199 fishermen, bringing to more than 300 the number of Cambodians freed from slave-like conditions on Thai fishing boats in the archipelago, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.



news.sky.com An international security summit was put on lockdown in Singapore after police shot dead a man who crashed his car through the barriers at a checkpoint. Both passengers were arrested after police found what they believe to be controlled drugs and a ''drug-making utensil'' in the car.

straitstimes.com A Scoot flight from Australia's Gold Coast to Singapore was delayed by six hours on Sunday due to a technical issue.



fanatix.com Faiq Jefri Bolkiah, one of the rising stars on Chelsea's youth squad, is actually the nephew of the Sultan of Brunei. The 17-year-old Bolkiah, nephew of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is a first-year academy player with the Chelsea Blues U-18s, according to Mail Online.