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.



bbc.com The sparkling seas and warm beaches of Phuket are a magnet for sun-seeking holiday-makers and, increasingly, for foreigners seeking a comfortable and cost-efficient retirement. More than 100,000 foreigners have settled on the island - though some now bitterly regret it. British expat Ian Rance and Irishman Colin Vard are now living almost penniless with their children on the outskirts of Bangkok as they struggle against overwhelming odds to recover properties they bought on Phuket. Both men lost all their investments through frauds that neither of them imagined were possible.

bangkokpost.com Both police and the lawyer for Erawan bombing suspect Adem Karadag denied published reports that he confessed to being the yellow-shirted bomber.



cnbc.com The sell-off in the Malaysian ringgit, already among the world's worst performing currencies, may run further amid a toxic mix of shaky economic fundamentals and the spreading of what is being called the country's worst-ever political crisis.



aljazeera.com Air quality deteriorated to officially ''hazardous'' levels Thursday in Singapore - a key Southeast Asian business and transit hub - as choking smog blew in from Indonesia's neighboring island of Sumatra, where forests and brush are being illegally burned to clear land for oil palm plantations and other farming. The Singapore government's three-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 319, its highest level so far this year, around midnight local time.



AP A Chicago man was arrested on charges that he advised his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend about how to kill the woman's wealthy mother at a resort in Indonesia. The criminal complaint described how the man used text messages from the US to suggest the most effective methods to kill.

nydailynews.com Robert Ryan Justin Bibbs, 24, was taken into custody after federal authorities in Chicago say he advised Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack on how to kill Mack's mom, whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase outside an Indonesian resort in 2014.



As world leaders prepare for a major summit on climate change in Paris this December, Cambodian officials say industrialized nations should provide support to lesser developed countries, to offset their contributions to global warming. Like other countries, Cambodia is preparing its own plan to contribute to the fight against climate change, under UN protocols called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDC.

Burma

AP Myanmar has defended a decision barring 800,000 ethnic minority people from voting in November elections by saying that green card holders can't vote in US elections either. Foreign Minister Wanna Maung Lwin drew awkward laughter in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations when he likened the situation of foreign citizens permitted to live and work in the US with Myanmar's so-called ''white card'' holders, many of them stateless Rohingya Muslims.

Vietnam

ft.com In a potent symbol of spreading deflation, zero price rises have now washed up in Vietnam for the first time since records began. The Southeast Asian nation joins an illustrious, and none too exclusive, club hovering on the brink of deflation: other members include old hand Japan and the UK.

Philippines

inquirer.net Operatives of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group were in Bangkok, Thailand, to get custody of former Palawan governor Joel Reyes and his brother, Coron town ex-mayor Mario Reyes, the alleged masterminds in the killing of broadcaster Gerry Ortega, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said. The wanted pair were arrested this week after living on Phuket for three years.

Brunei

asiaone.com Thirty Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) personnel arrived home safely yesterday after a 13-month deployment to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).