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.



channelnewsasia.com A Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Singapore was diverted to Darwin on Monday afternoon, a Jetstar spokesperson told Channel NewsAsia. After a brief period of turbulence, the captain of flight JQ7 ''identified a technical fault with one of the instruments on the flight deck and opted to divert to Darwin as a precaution,'' the spokesperson said.



ft.com Indonesian authorities said they have foiled a terrorist bombing planned for the Christmas and New Year's Eve period, as the world's largest Muslim-majority country ramps up efforts to counter terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks.

bbc.com More than 50 Indonesian companies will have their licenses revoked for their role in causing the haze that blanketed South East Asia earlier this year, the government has said. It is the first time the laws banning such practices are being enforced.



mmtimes.com Asean has called on member countries to reduce road deaths by half over the next five years, and the Myanmar Organisation for Road Safety (MORS), which was formed on December 19 at the Myanmar Engineers Society in Yangon, intends to try and make that goal.



afp A horrific bus crash that killed 14 in Thailand left four members of the same family dead, it was reported. The four victims spanned three generations, including an 85-year-old grandmother and her 39-year-old granddaughter, according to the The Star newspaper in Malaysia.



More than 9000 lives are lost on the road every year in Vietnam. That is about 25 a day. Authorities want to nearly halve the toll to 5000 a year by 2020.



reuters Police in Cambodia made dozens of arrests and used water cannon to break up a strike by garment workers protesting over low pay. Thousands of workers at two factories have halted work since December 16 at several industrial zones to demand $8 on top of a new minimum wage of $140 a month.



themalaysianinsider.com Malaysia aims to be placed at Tier One in the US Department of State Annual Report on Human Trafficking by 2020, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Zahid, who is also the Home Minister, said that at present Malaysia was at Tier Two of the watchlist after improving from its Tier 3 position in 2014.



heavy.com A new video purportedly released by the Islamic State shows Filipino jihadists training in military exercises in the jungles of Mindanao. The video was released on December 20, 2015 and is titled simply ''Training Camp.''



revealnews.org In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, water from the street vendors cost 100 times more than water from the tap, according to the report. ''When the supply systems are deficient, the poor are the first to suffer,'' the UN report says.