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.



mirror.co.uk Hope is fading for survivors of a plane crash after the flight crashed in mountains in Indonesia with 54 people on board. Villagers near the Tangok mountain in Papua, found the remains of the 27-year-old plane, which came down in bad weather on an internal flight. The airline, Trigana, has been on the EU's list of banned carriers since 2007.

bbc.com Indonesia's transport minister said the aircraft had been found in the Bintang highlands region, not far from its intended landing site at Oksibil airport. The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew. Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

thelocal.it Four foreign tourists, including three Italians, were missing after leaving for a scuba diving trip in the waters off Indonesia's island of Borneo, an official said. The group of six, identified as five Italians and a Belgian, had headed out to Sangalaki island, a popular dive spot in the Derewan Islands chain in East Kalimantan province. Two Italians who went snorkelling were safe.



rappler.com An overseas Filipino worker working as a domestic helper in Singapore says she's innocent of stealing a lottery ticket that has won SG$2.3 million. The Straits Times reported that a Filipino domestic worker identified only as Len, 44, won the large Singapore lottery prize last June, but in July has been accused of stealing the winning ticket.



karennews.org The case of a Burma Army soldier raping and murdering a 28-year-old woman in Shan State throws government promises of an end to sexual violence in doubt, the Shan Human Rights Foundation said. The murder happened in Ho Pong Township in the State's south on June 6: ''Villagers are wondering why only one culprit has been arrested, when several soldiers committed the crime, and fear that one or more culprits remain free.''



aa.com.tr Cambodia has banned movie theaters from screening 'No Escape,' a Hollywood action movie starring Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, due to concerns over the movie's impact on local culture. No Escape is a fictitious story centered around a US businessman, played by Owen Wilson, who moves to an unidentified Asian country with his family, gets caught up in a violent coup and tries to escape.



americanthinker.com A coalition of national and international organisations in Asia has charged both Vietnam and Malaysia with ''Modern Day Slavery'' - Vietnam for its ''blood cashews'' and Malaysia for its oil palm industry; both are engaged in state-sponsored human-trafficking and indentured servitude. However, they are being rewarded by the US State Department that pretends these countries have ''demonstrated sufficient progress on human rights'' despite the fact that both have repeatedly ''come under fire for paltry efforts'' to reduce human rights abuses.



AP Malaysia's prime minister has a problem: He can't explain away a $700 million bank account to a skeptical public.His response? A crackdown on critics and the press that has kept him in power but doesn't address a deep reservoir of dissatisfaction with his leadership.



nationmultimedia.com Salaries in Thailand are expected to go up by 5.9 percent in 2015, according to global consulting firm Mercer in its recently released annual labor market research. This is despite the poor economic outlook in the country, with some economists foreseeing the growth rate below three percent.



Passengers were forced to hurl themselves into the sea to escape a ferocious blaze that engulfed a packed ferry in the central Philippines just as it pulled into port at Ormoc.



eastasiaforum.org Regional institutions can help to secure the long-term economic trajectory of middle-income countries by pre-committing countries to liberalising reform. It is for this reason that we are optimistic about the poorer countries in Asean such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.