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.



AP Rescuers pulled out 39 survivors and three dead from a passenger boat that sank in central Indonesia after being buffeted by high waves, and battled bad weather to try to reach scores of others. The search for the 80 people still missing was called off at nightfall Sunday and will resume Monday morning.



elevenmyanmar.com The biggest challenge for Myanmar's democracy and development is political corruption. It is the use of government powers for illegitimate private gain. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties. Forms of corruption vary but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, influence peddling, graft and embezzlement.



stripes.com For a handful of American Vietnam veterans who left a little piece of themselves behind during the ferocious jungle war and say they were vilified when they went back to the states, Phnom Penh has become home: ''I like the lack of rules. There's more personal freedoms here than anywhere else. It's inexpensive. The people are very nice.''



aa.com.tr Malaysia has warned the European Union (EU) to not meddle in the country's internal affairs after the European Parliament passed a non-legislative resolution condemning the government???s for suppressing human rights.



metro.co.uk A British woman has died after falling out of the back of a tuk-tuk following a night out in Phuket, Thailand. [Ed: Photographs of three-wheeled tuk-tuks accompanied this article. All Phuket tukt-tuks are four-wheeled vehicles.]



pulse.com.gh The penalty for celebrating Christmas in Brunei is punishable with a jail term of up to 5 years. The ban was declared on the internationally celebrated Christian holiday because the religious affairs ministry said that publicly marking non-Islamic rituals or festivities could be seen as propagations of religions other than Islam.



mindanaoexaminer.com Military forces have seized a huge Abu Sayyaf camp in the Muslim province of Basilan in southern Philippines as troops continue to hunt down militants and Malaysian jihadists hiding out in the hinterlands, regional governor Mujiv Hataman said.

afp The death toll from two storms which battered the Philippines rose to 45 as several towns remained under water and rain kept falling in northern regions, disaster monitoring officials said.



thestar.com.my Three Malaysian men, who were heading to Singapore through the Johor Baru Customs near Tuas, had to be escorted back on Saturday. Preliminary investigations showed that they had wanted to avoid the congestion at the Malaysian Customs, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.



khmertimeskh.com As requested by the head of state, the Cambodian Royal King will spend official three days visiting the Lao People's Democratic Republic, starting from Monday.



thanhniennews.com The French National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee Elisabeth Guigou has confirmed that French President Francois Hollande will visit Vietnam in the soonest time next year.