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.



aap Indonesian authorities warn a terror attack over the Christmas-New Year period is ''possible,'' with police in Bali tightening security, particularly at Denpasar airport. Intelligence and counter-terror chiefs, communications minister, and heads of police, military and religious groups met for a briefing in Jakarta.

abc.net.au The 40th anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor was marked with a small commemoration at the headquarters of the nation's Kopassus special forces. The special forces soldiers saw the worst of the fighting in the months following the landings in Dili on December 7, 1975.



xinhua At least three Cambodian villagers have died and 31 others have been hospitalised in eastern Kratie province after consuming the cooked flesh of a big dog that was toxic, a local police chief confirmed.

aljazeera.com A leading rights group in Cambodia, LICADHO, said it was forced to cancel its annual International Human Rights Day events in the country's prisons for the first time in 20 years because of prohibitive conditions imposed by the government. The group said it called off entertainment, speeches and the distribution of food packages planned in 18 of the country's 28 prisons to mark International Human Rights Day (IHRD) on Thursday.



bbc.com A man alleged to have helped run the notorious Silk Road drug marketplace has been arrested in Thailand. Canadian Roger Thomas Clark is said to have been a key adviser for Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. The US Department of Justice alleged that Mr Clark advised Ulbricht about the best way to run the site and how to evade the police.



channelnewsasia.com Malaysia's anti-graft agency has interviewed the donor behind deposits of 2.6 billion ringgit (US$614.94 million) that were placed in Prime Minister Najib Razak's bank account, the New Straits Times reported, citing an agency official.



mb.com.ph The reintroduction of protectionist policies by some Asean countries is threatening the region's economic integration, which will fully take effect in January next year. Economist Bernie Villegas, founder and director of the University of Asia and the Pacific, said that while the Asean Economic Community (AEC) is now becoming a force to reckon with in the tri-polar 21st global economy along with China and India, Asean is also facing an unfavorable tide as some countries have turned inward looking.

freebeacon.com President Barack Obama's trip to the Philippines last month totaled $1.1 million in hotel costs alone.



reuters The United States has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the US P8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.



frontiermyanmar.net China's first Myanmar-language newspaper was launched on December 4, targeting Myanmar nationals working in Yunnan province, the state-owned Xinhua reported.



thedailybeast.com A Vietnam vet and owner of a Wisconsin motorcycle shop was killed after fleeing a hostage situation, only to be gunned down by police. Now his longtime business partner says officers ''shot the wrong guy.'' Steven ''Mad'' Erato had strong words about the police response.

livescience.com Scientists have found another rare primate that settles down for a seasonal snooze: the pygmy slow loris, native to Vietnam. Researchers conducted the first-ever study of hibernation in pygmy slow lorises (Nycticebus pygmaeus), working with six adult animals at Vietnam's Endangered Primate Rescue Center.



kbs.co.kr A bus crash in Laos has left two people, including a South Korean, dead and some 20 injured. The accident is said to have occurred while the bus, which was heading to Vientiane from the southern city of Pakse, crashed into a median strip.