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.



theguardian.com Forty-seven Burmese soldiers have been killed this week in fighting with ethnic minority insurgents near the border with China, the military has said. The fighting and heavy casualties are a setback for government efforts to forge a nationwide ceasefire and end insurgencies that have bedevilled the country since shortly after its independence in 1948.

AP Burma state media says the government has informed China after a flare up in fighting between troops and ethnic Kokang rebels near border that left 47 government soldiers dead and 73 wounded.

washingtonpost.com Ye Myint Aung, the Burmese envoy in Hong Kong, hoped to dissuade others from feeling sympathy for the Rohingya. His method for doing this was by revealing his shocking racism. The Rohingya, he said, ''are as ugly as ogres,'' and do not share the ''fair and soft'' skin of other Burmese ethnic groups.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/02/13/why-does-this-buddhist-majority-nation-hate-these-muslims-so-much/



rfa.org Lao immigration officials will work with their Thai counterparts to prevent underage girls from entering Thailand in a bid to prevent them from being lured into the sex industry by human traffickers. At a checkpoint at the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge which spans the two nations' Mekong River border, more than 100 Lao teenagers have been turned away this month as officials from both countries focus on unaccompanied females who appear under the age of 18.



rfa.org A group of opposition lawmakers in Cambodia have urged Thailand to end ''extrajudicial killings'' of Cambodians by Thai state agents along the countries' shared border, likening Bangkok's failure to punish those responsible to ''encouragement'' of attacks that human rights groups say have killed 124 people since 2008.

telegraph.co.uk A family have just received their Christmas presents after French postal workers sent it to Cambodia instead of Cambridge. The Cary family received the battered cardboard box last Saturday - 50 days after it was posted by their friends in Paris



straitstimes.com A strong burning smell detected in eastern Singapore on Thursday evening was likely caused by unusual industrial activity or the burning of rubbish, a research scientist told The Straits Times.



inquisitr.com Will the killers of 298 people on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 ever be brought to justice? Dutch leaders and families of the victims now fear that the pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine who, it is widely believed, shot down the commercial airliner last year, killing all of the passengers and crew, may have just been granted amnesty for their alleged crime - before investigators even have a chance to identify the culprits.



wtop.com The National Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the organisation behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall on the National Mall, is reaching out to families across the nation to collect photos of their lost loved ones. The group is seeking high-resolution photographs of the fallen, in uniform.



skynews.com.au Indonesia has been warned not to underestimate the resentment Australians feel toward the imminent execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, as Jakarta cautioned its citizens about potential fallout.

smh.com.au Death row inmates are routinely whisked into the dense forest at midnight, blindfolded, asked to stand, sit or kneel, and simultaneously fired at by 12 executioners aiming for their chests. The firing squad is drawn from Indonesia's paramilitary forces and if the prisoner is still breathing, the commander will shoot him or her point-blank in the head.



thediplomat.com Brunei has imposed strict restrictions on Chinese New Year performances as part of an incremental crackdown against non-Muslim cultural and religious events in the country, Brunei news media outlets confirmed earlier this week.
http://thediplomat.com/2015/02/brunei-cracks-down-on-chinese-new-year/



wsj.com Some of the South Korean men involved in a major dog fighting ring in the Philippines are on their way back home. After spending nearly three years behind bars after convictions for animal cruelty, two of the eight men were deported this week and another four will be in the near future.