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.

voanews.com Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a declaration establishing a formal economic, political, security and socio-cultural community ''Our Asean way has guided us and will continue to be our compass as we seek to realise a politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible and a truly people-oriented, people-centered rules-based Asean,'' said summit host, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, at the signing ceremony, witnessed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

bloomberg Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations unveiled with fanfare another road map to a common community for the next decade even as the bloc missed targets for economic integration this year. Asean will now attempt to complete measures unfinished in an eight-year plan by the end of 2016 after missing the end-2015 goal.

dpa Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on Sunday put forward a five-point proposal to ease rising tensions in the South China Sea, even as Beijing admitted to building military facilities in the area.



rte.ie Nearly 100 bodies have been pulled from a landslide near a jade mine in Myanmar's northern Kachin State and hopes are dwindling that any of an estimated 100 people still missing will be found alive: ''We just don't know how many people exactly were buried since we don't have any data on people living there.''



thanhniennews.com The number of Russians visiting Vietnam rose by more than half in October after months of declines due to the ruble's fall. Roughly 24,000 Russian visitors arrived in Vietnam last month, a 60 percent year-on-year increase, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.



reuter Singapore Airlines said there was a bomb threat to one of its flights which originated from San Francisco and landed safely at Singapore's Changi Airport on Sunday.

channelnewsasia.com Capsule hotels, which typically feature single beds housed in tiny pods stacked on top of one another, are growing more popular around the world. In Singapore, new capsule hotels are set to open in Orchard Road and at the airport.



usatoday.com As the summit of Southeast Asian nations ended, much of the focus was not on the leaders' discussions with President Obama but on a corruption scandal dogging the summit's host and his government's crackdown on civil liberties. Prime Minister Najib Razak, who told Obama that he is ''committed to reforms,'' stands accused of shifting nearly $700 million from a government-owned development fund into private bank accounts.

afr.com Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said two-thirds of Australia's trade passed through the South China Sea and, therefore, it has a direct and substantial national interest in maintaining peace and stability in the region.

themalaysianinsider.com Malaysia and Australia, enjoying a long-standing relationship that goes back 60 years, have agreed to elevate their ties to a strategic partnership.

nzherald.co.nz New Zealand is boosting its development funding to the Asean region, Prime Minister John Key said today at a special NZ-Asean Summit in Kuala Lumpur.



philstar.com Two days before the oral hearing on the merits of the Philippines's arbitration case against China, a spokesperson said it is optimistic that it will be able to present a ''very good case'' before the international court.



reuters Indonesia is considering offering a small island to process refugees captured en route to Australia, its security ministry said, in what would make it the third country this year to offer help with Australia's tough immigration policy.



cihan.com.tr Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Cambodia on Sunday for a three-day visit, the state-run Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP) reported. Medvedev will visit Angkor Wat Temple in Siem Reap on Monday before flying to Phnom Penh.



themalaysianinsider.com Malaysia symbolically handed over the chairmanship of Asean to Laos as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak marked the occasion by handing a gavel to his counterpart from Laos, Thongsing Thammavong. This took place at the closing ceremony of the 27th Asean Summit and Related Summit hosted by Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur as the Asean chair.