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.



independent.ie Thousands of tourists are stranded on three Indonesian islands after ash from an erupting volcano forced the closure of airports and blanketed villages and farmland.

jakartaglobe.com Indonesia closed Bali airport, one of the country's busiest international terminals, until Thursday due to volcanic eruptions on Mount Rinjani on a nearby island, meteorological agency said. Ngurah Rai airport in Bali and Selaparang airport in West Nusa Tenggara will be closed until Thursday and the situation will be re-evaluated before reopening, Indonesia's meteorological agency said.



thestar.com Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen have demanded more than $60 million for two Canadians and a Norwegian they are holding in the jungles of the southern Philippines, the largest ransom the Muslim militants have sought for hostages in years. Army Brig. Gen. Alan Arrojado said the Philippine government maintains a no-ransom policy.



President Barack Obama will become the first US president to visit Laos when he visits the Southeast Asian nation next year. White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes says Obama will attend an Asean conference. Obama has made it a point to attend that summit every year as part of his campaign to refocus US foreign policy on the Asia-Pacific region.



todayonline.com A campaign to enshrine Buddhism as Thailand's state religion has been galvanised by a radical Buddhist movement in neighboring Myanmar, which is accused of stoking religious tension, the leader of the Thai bid said. Experts say the campaign could appeal to Thailand's military junta, which is struggling for popularity 18 months after staging a coup, and tap into growing anti-Muslim sentiment in a country that prides itself on religious tolerance.



channelnewsasia.com Myanmar's heading towards its first competitive general elections in five decades and though the army transferred power to a nominally civilian government in 2011, analysts say military rule in Myanmar is not over yet.



cambodiadaily.com Immigration department director Sok Phal said that Cambodia will be taking in only one of the two refugees who volunteered to resettle here during a delegation's visit to Australia's refugee center on the South Pacific island of Nauru in late September, but did not explain why.



channelnewsasia.com Malaysia raised cigarette taxes by more than 40 percent, a move which British American Tobacco Malaysia (BAT Malaysia) described as an ''unprecedented massive increase in cigarette excise''.

AP The Malaysian government on Thursday planned to return to US custody human remains recovered from the crash of a US military transport plane in 1945. The aircraft crashed on a mountain slope while flying from Singapore to an airfield in Penang, Malaysia on Nov. 27, 1945, just months after the conclusion of World War II.



straitstimes.com Singapore was requested by both the Chinese and the Taiwanese to facilitate the meeting between their respective top leaders, President Xi Jinping and President Ma Ying-jeou, the Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.



stevenspointjournal.com Almost 450,000 US visitors explored Vietnam in 2014, a 3 percent increase from 2013. Of the 7.8 million total tourists, more are from China, Korea and Japan. They come for the sacred pagodas and temples, the shopping for silks and tailored suits, the scenic beauty and the many stories, which include reminders of wartime.



PTI India Vice President Hamid Ansari's departure from Indonesia to Brunei was delayed by a day after spewing of ash from a rumbling volcano forced closure of the airport in Bali.