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.



channelnewsasia.com An eight-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a toilet at a notorious Philippine prison, officials said, fuelling a national uproar over revelations that its inmates were ''living like kings'' with stripper bars and jacuzzis.



theguardian.com The US embassy in Indonesia issued a security alert on Saturday for its citizens in the country's second-biggest city, Surabaya. ''The US embassy has been made aware of a potential threat against US-associated hotels and banks in Surabaya, Indonesia,'' the embassy said in a statement on its website.



inquisitr.com The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight
MH370 is reaching a critical phase, with the next five months reportedly determining if the missing plane will be found or lost on the ocean floor forever.



AP A Norwegian ship owner says one if its cargo vessels has sunk off Vietnam. Bergen-based Gearbulk says only one of the 19 Filipino crew members was known to have survived. A Vietnamese rescue official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, says two bodies have been recovered.



independent.ie The grieving family of Tomas Beecher, the young Ballynoe man who was tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident in Cambodia, said he would be fondly remembered for his ''enthusiasm for life''. Mr Beecher died after being struck by a vehicle in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh as he was walking his bicycle across the busy Monivong Boulevard.



pti Singapore said that it had approved the Surabaya-Singapore route for AirAsia flights on Sundays after the low-cost carrier's permit was frozen by Indonesia for allegedly flying on an unauthorised schedule when it crashed last weekend over Java sea.

reuters An oil tanker and a bulk carrier collided off Singapore on Friday, causing a crude oil spill, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said. The Libyan-registered oil tanker Alyarmouk collided with the Singapore-registered bulk carrier Sinar Kapuas about 11 nautical miles north-east of Pedra Branca, east of Singapore.



chiangraitimes.com Officials of Myanmar's Central Body for Suppression of Human Trafficking reported that it is renewing its efforts in cracking down human trafficking and mulling revising the Anti-Human Trafficking in Persons Law, enacted 10 years ago, in a bid to bust more human trafficking cases nationwide. The law will be re-drafted in cooperation with local and foreign experts and the Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons will offer technical assistance in the move.