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.



skynews.com.au Malaysia has pressed Myanmar to engage in talks on Southeast Asia's boat-people influx, warning it may otherwise call an emergency meeting on the unfolding humanitarian crisis. Foreign Minister Anifah Aman will host a meeting on Wednesday with his Indonesian and Thai counterparts.

reuters Malaysia urged Burma (Myanmar) to halt the exodus from its shores as concern grew for uncounted migrants adrift in rickety boats around the Andaman Sea. The United Nations has called on Southeast Asian nations not to push back the boatloads of Rohingya Muslims from Burma and Bangladeshis - men, women and children who fled persecution and poverty at home, and now face sickness and starvation at sea.



AP Burma has directed the blame for a spiraling migrant crisis on its neighbors, and cast doubts on whether it will attend a meeting to be hosted by Thailand later this month aimed at easing the humanitarian emergency. Thousands are believed to be adrift in boats at sea.



abc.net.au Local Indonesian authorities have warned they will soon run out of the funds to care for hundreds of rescued migrants, saying they have less than two weeks' worth of food and medical supplies to support them. At least 1350 asylum seekers have come ashore in Indonesia's Aceh province in the past two weeks.



interaksyon.com Four decades ago the Vietnamese fled persecution and ethnic tension in search of political and economic freedom. Fortunately for them, the West, at the time, came to their rescue by resettling most of them, my father included. Unfortunately for the stateless Rohingya, no such solution seems to be in sight.



rappler.com That the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plays a game of pass the ball using actual human beings is a reflection of the region's weak commitment to peace. Good governance begins with realizing the true value of human life. Every nation has a legal and moral responsibility to protect vulnerable populations from atrocities like this.



kyodo News Cambodian authorities deported a Russian tycoon back to his country on Sunday, two days after he was arrested on charges of overstaying his visa in the Southeast Asian country, a Cambodian police official told Kyodo News. Sergei Polonsky, 43, was deported at 7:20am and bound for Moscow via Vietnam.

afp ''He is a naughty man,'' Uk Heisela, chief of the investigations unit at the Cambodian interior ministry's immigration department, told AFP. Polonsky, who deniesa $174 million fraud, said at a news conference in Phnom Penh in 2014 that it was a ''big case'' involving ''a lot of bad men''.



Japantimes.co.jp Laos was once referred to as ''the land of a million elephants.'' The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates the wild elephant population size in Cambodia to be between 250 to 600; Indonesia 2400 to 3400; Laos 500 to 1,000; Malaysia 2100 to 3100; Myanmar 4000 to 5000; Thailand 2500 to 3200; and Vietnam 70 to 150. In Thailand, there are by some estimates nearly three times as many elephants in domesticity as in the wild.
Full story here http://goo.gl/HNJIYs



straitstimes.com More vending machines are popping up around Singapore offering local dishes like hor fun, curry chicken and fried rice at the touch of a button. At least eight food manufacturing companies are expanding their vending machine business or planning to jump into the fray.