PHUKETWAN recognises the importance of Asean with the Economic Community approaching and marks what's happening around the region with a column, Asean Today, that will cease when Phuketwan closes on December 31.



straitstimes.com Singapore consumer prices fell on an annual basis for the 13th straight month in November, as food and services inflation eased, government figures showed.



AP The Indonesian navy will dispatch warships to join the search for 70 people still missing after a passenger boat sank in central Indonesia, officials said.



bnionline.net The World Health Organisation has issued an alert that two cases of polio have been found in Rakhine State, according to a press release on December 21. National vaccination coverage is fair-to-poor in Myanmar, with an estimated 76 percent of the population covered, with certain areas of the country at particular risk.



theguardian.com Thailand's military junta, which took power in a coup last year and has smothered public criticism of its rule, has conducted a poll that found more than 99 percent of Thais are happy with its performance. The National Statistics Office released the results of the poll, which questioned 2700 people nationwide, one day before the government was due to present its one-year performance review.



toofab.com Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were spotted in Vietnam earlier this week, spending some quality time together without their six kids -Shiloh, Maddox, Vivienne, Zahara, Pax and Knox. The couple flashed big grins as they took a private boat ride through Halong Bay. They also were snapped kayaking into caves together to get a closer look at the stunning scenery.



reuters Inaugurating a $540 million, 246-megawatt hydropower dam in Koh Kong province, Prime Minister Hun Sen acknowledged some of the concerns, like flooding of forested land, but said Cambodia had no choice. Cambodia plans to build 14 hydro dams to be operational by 2020.



themalaysianinsider.com Two military aircraft, one each from Malaysia and Thailand, flew in with the remains of the 13 Malaysians killed in a tour bus accident in Thailand on Sunday as well as one of the nine injured passengers and 12 next-of-kin.



sbs.com.au Ex-Soviet country Tajikistan and conservative Islamic nation Brunei have both banned Christmas in most of its festive forms.



reuters Successive storms across the Philippines, including Typhoon Melor, have temporarily uprooted 1.7 million, aid workers said, as President Benigno Aquino distributed food in areas hardest hit by the disaster.



cihan.com.tr Total foreign arrivals recorded in Laos are expected to reach 4.33 million for the year, compared to a total of 4.15 million the previous year, according to new statistics. Tourist arrivals to Laos from China jumped 72 percent from 245,033 the previous year to 422,440 in 2014.