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.



thediplomat.com Censorship in Vietnam is a common topic for the foreign press and rights organisations like Human Rights Watch or the Committee to Protect Journalists. Though both have done good and painstaking work, what gets out to the public is often a macro look at censorship: the locking up of bloggers or blocking of various websites. The quotidian nature of much censorship within Vietnam is bypassed for broader brushstrokes.
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/nipped-and-tucked-from-translation-censorship-in-vietnam/

tuoitrenews.com The US has transferred five fast patrol vessels to Vietnam as part of a plan to assist the Southeast Asian country's maritime forces.



rfa.org China's voracious demand for luxury furniture is driving a multimillion-dollar illegal trade in rosewood in Cambodia, supported by tycoon Okhna Try Pheap who controls an illegal logging network that exports the timber, according to a report by an environmental advocacy group.



wsj.com A Malaysian company whose advertisement for a robotic vacuum cleaner caused a stir by advising potential buyers to ''Fire your Indonesian maid now!,'' had its website hacked and left with a warning to be ''nice'' to their Indonesian sisters.



AP Malaysia's struggling national carmaker Proton inked an agreement Friday to help Indonesia study the possibility of developing and manufacturing its own national car.



newstatesman.com Don't feel too guilty if you don't know much about the Rohingya humanitarian crisis; coverage in the mainstream western media has been gradually tailing off since 2012. What you should be made aware of, though, is the fact that the Rohingya were previously recognised as the most persecuted people in the world. Just let that sink in. It has actually been possible to identify one ethnic group as the world's most persecuted people.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/rohingya-crisis-burma-has-become-protracted-squalid-stateless-status-quo



ibtimes.com A restaurant chain in Singapore has demonstrated flying helicopter drones being used to deliver food and drinks from the kitchen, right to customers' tables. Timbre, a live music bar and restaurant chain that was the first restaurant in Singapore to roll out iPads at every table to speed up ordering, will now deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in order to free up its staff to be able to interact with customers and improve overall service.



ttrqweekly.com Direct charter flights between Russia and Laos are among proposals to strengthen tourism between the two countries, but the economic crisis in Russia could discourage private companies. Tourists would use Laos as the gateway for visiting Cambodia and Vietnam.



cnn.com Up for two Grammys and his first Oscar, John Legend has joined the widespread boycott against the Beverly Hills Hotel launched by Hollywood last spring and declined an invitation to be a guest of honor. The protest is in response to Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, owner of the hotel chain, unveiling Sharia law in Brunei.



nytimes.com President Benigno S. Aquino III accepted the resignation of thePhilippines' national police chief on Friday, two weeks after a disastrous raid left 44 police commandos dead and put the country's peace agreement with rebels in jeopardy.