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.



reuters Thailand's military government has scrapped a plan to create a single Internet gateway, a deputy prime minister said on Thursday, putting paid to a system aimed at allowing authorities to monitor content.



reuters Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP fired its top dealmaker in Indonesia, Vincent Rajiv Louis, after the banker was fined by Singapore's financial regulator in an insider trading case, a source with direct knowledge of the decision told Reuters.



huffingtonpost.com It's believed that the third and final phase of Brunei's new legal system has yet to be put in place, though activists say it's possible that it's already happened. Once the third phase is rolled out, activists are worried that the country will crack down on the LGBT community. This final phase, which was slated to be implemented later this year or in early 2016, will reportedly involve the introduction of executions for ''offenses'' like homosexuality and adultery.



bbc.com Imported vehicles clutter the streets of colonial era downtown, driving beneath a mass of billboards, advertising luxury products and high-end real estate projects, bustling western-style restaurants and shops. Entrepreneurs, both local and foreign, are taking advantage of the new opportunities.



washingtonpost.com Experts say that along with dramatic global coral bleaching, thousands of fires across Indonesia represents the next sign of an intensifying global El Nino event. And the consequences, in this case, could affect the entire globe's atmosphere.



thediplomat.com Dutch investigators have confirmed what much of the world already believed: that a Russian-made missile was used from rebel territory controlled by pro-Moscow forces in Ukraine to shoot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 298 people on board. Equally predictable was the Kremlin's reaction to the tragedy and ensuing investigations which found a Russian-made Buk rocket system was deployed on July 17, 2014, even though it is impossible to say who did it.



vice.com Vancouver, a city known for its borderline self-righteous waste disposal policies, is being called out by the Philippines for essentially using the island nation as an enormous trash bin. In 2013, the Ontario-based company Chronic Inc. sent 50 shipping containers, or 2500 tons, of ''plastic for recycling'' to the Philippines, but closer inspection by that country's Bureau of Customs revealed the bins were filled with regular old trash, including rotting food and adult diapers.



AP Vietnam said that a Chinese vessel rammed into and sank one of its fishing boats near disputed islands in the South China Sea in an incident that could further raise tensions between the countries. The 10 fishermen on board were rescued by another Vietnamese fishing boat.



abc.net.au One of four refugees transferred to Cambodia as part of an arrangement costing the Australian Government at least $55 million has returned to Myanmar, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed.