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.



theguardian.com A campaign to portray Aung San Suu Kyi as pro-Muslim, and to label her National League for Democracy the ''Muslim party'' is under way. Its public face is thePatriotic Association of Myanmar, or Ma Ba Tha, a powerful organisation of the Buddhist clergy that earlier this month staged a huge rally in Yangon to celebrate the recent passage of laws ostensibly regulating marriage and contraception for all citizens but in fact intended to stop Muslims having large families, marrying more than one wife, or marrying Buddhist women.

channelnewsasia.com Myanmar police arrested the leader of a student movement crushed in March after he spent more than six months in hiding, a human rights monitoring group said, amid increasing signs of a crackdown on dissent ahead of a November 8 election. Kyaw Ko Ko, 34, head of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), organised a march on the country's biggest city, Yangon, in February and March.



smh.com.au A booming surrogacy industry chased out of Thailand and Nepal has turned to Cambodia, where many Australians are ignoring warnings from their own government not to seek surrogacy services. Up to 20 Australian couples have entered into surrogacy arrangements shrouded in secrecy in Cambodia, and many more have been considering the move, according to sources in Phnom Penh and Australia.



economist.com The annual haze that blankets swathes of South-East Asia usually begins to recede in October. This year however the smoggy conditions - caused by fires set to clear farmland in rural Indonesia - only got worse. The word ''haze'' hardly does justice to the poisonous clouds that have been billowing across the region since August.

nytimes.com Thanks to heavy rainfall, Indonesia may have turned the corner in battling mass forest fires that have blanketed much of Southeast Asia in toxic haze, but more rain will be needed in the coming days to get the blazes under control, a senior government minister said.



bbc.com Philippine legislators have called for an investigation into an alleged scam against passengers at Manila airport. The ''bullet scam'' allegedly sees bullets dropped into the luggage of passengers as they go through security at the country's main airport. Passengers are then required to pay a fine or face being charged with illegal possession of ammunition.



airport-world.com Singapore Changi Airport handled 4.42 million passengers in September 2015, an increase of four percent year-on-year. Aircraft landings and takeoffs also grew by 5.3 percent to 28,460 on the corresponding month a year ago.



ibtimes.com After more than a year of searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, Australia has called on China to become more involved as funding for the search effort begins to dry up, local media reported. Australia's Deputy Minister for Transport Warren Truss said he was ''disappointed'' that the airplane had not been found after such an extended time period of searching.



thedailybeast.com Figures from the beginning of this year showed a 40 percent decrease in visitors from China, and over half a million room-nights were lost in 2014. Those numbers didn't recover, and the National Administration of Tourism has indicated a further 18 percent dip in accrued visitors from China up to September, compared to a year before, leaving Vietnamese cities like Da Nang quieter than they have been in years.



abc.net.au A ''caravan'' of elephants is travelling 500 kilometres through northern Laos over the next two months as part of a campaign to save the Asian elephant from extinction in the small landlocked country. Twelve elephants and their mahouts (keepers) will travel through the provinces of Xayaboury and Luang Prabang, raising awareness of the elephant's plight.