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 As Asean prepares to forge a more cohesive community by the end of 2015, Thai officials are warning that an integrated region could also exacerbate the problem of transnational organised crime and undermine efforts to tackle it. Within Asean, Thailand remains a major source, transit point, and destination for regional and subregional transnational organised crime activities. In June, the US State Department named Thailand as one of the world's worst centers for human trafficking.
http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/a-surge-in-southeast-asian-transnational-crime/



himalayantimes.com A Malaysia Airlines aircraft overshot the runway at Tribhuvan International Airport yesterday night after one of the flaps in the wing did not open while trying to land. The pilots later managed to land the Boeing 737-8 at the TIA safely as the flap started working while trying to divert the aircraft to India. There were 144 passengers and eight crew members on board.

bloomberg Floods that hurt palm oil production across Malaysia will exacerbate a seasonal decline in output and help to cut inventories, according to CIMB Investment Bank Bhd, which said that it expected prices to remain firm. The inundation affected about 184,000 hectares, or about 3.5 percent of the country's total planted area.



ft.com A tattoo-clad chain-smoker, the 49-year-old high-school dropout has shaken up Indonesia's fusty, patriarchal bureaucracy with her uncompromising style and has become wildly popular because of her hardline stance on illegal foreign fishing.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/03bc26c0-897b-11e4-ad5b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Nhnbgm7a



cambodiandaily.com The Thai side of the An Ses border checkpoint in Preah Vihear province remained closed Thursday after Thailand deployed more soldiers to the border in response to Cambodia's development of what Thailand says is disputed territory.



straitstimes.com A piece of AirAsia QZ8501, likely to be a window panel, was found by the Republic of Singapore Navy on Friday morning, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said.



dvb.no The Rangoon Division Justice Department has filed a report with police requesting them to investigate and take action against whoever hoisted the State of Burma flag on top of the Divisional High Court building in Rangoon city centre on New Year's Day. Tourists may have been confused by the sight of the flag - yellow, green and red stripes, the same as the current flag, but with a dancing peacock symbol instead of the Myanmar star - which represented Burmese independence aspirations in the early 1940s under Japanese occupation.

irrawaddy.com Business is booming in the tourism sector, President Thein Sein said in his monthly radio address on Thursday, announcing that Burma received more than three million visitors and raked in US$3 billion last year.

dvb.no Political inclusiveness in the lead-up to Burma's 2015 general elections will help the country's democratic transition, Burmese President Thein Sein said in his New Year's Day speech to the nation.



indiatimes.com China today said the proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), for which India and 22 other Asian countries have signed up, is expected to start operations by the end of this year. Japan, South Korea and Australia did not join the bank amid concerns expressed by the US stating that AIIB lacked transparency.



AP A huge blaze believed to have been ignited by firecrackers razed nearly a thousand shanties and killed three people in a slum near the capital, Manila, one of more than a dozen fires across the country linked to raucous New Year's celebrations.

rappler.com Only a few more days until Pope Francis makes his first trip to the Philippines, and the largely Catholic nation is preparing for it in full force



thanhniennews.comCruise operators in Bach Dang Wharf in Ho Chi Minh City have launched a frantic appeal to keep their doors open in 2015 following an abrupt announcement of its closure. The city's transport department met with several cruise operators to inform that they will close the waterfront in the city downtown to tourism in the new year, news website Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon (Saigon Times) reported.