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.



Canadian Press A Kelowna woman says tracking down her biological father was always on her mind until a three-day social media campaign helped identify him as an Elvis impersonator working in Thailand. Melonie Dodaro, 46, said she'd longed to know more about her father and had made many fruitless attempts to find him in the past.



abc.net.au Thousands of people have been evacuated on the Indonesian island of Sumatra after authorities upgraded the threat posed by a volcano to the highest level, officials say. The alert status of Mount Sinabung was raised late on Tuesday after a ''sharp rise'' in volcanic activity, national disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.



firstpost.com Vietnam is offering scores of patriotic citizens the holiday of a lifetime with a cruise to some of Asia's most hotly contested islands, in a move likely to stoke its simmering dispute with Beijing over South China Sea sovereignty. In a special $800 promotion offer, 180 Vietnamese will get to see parts of the disputed Spratly archipelago later this month and take part in night fishing, visit a lighthouse and enjoy local seafood.



theguardian.com Four refugees who had been held at the Australian-run detention centre on Nauru finally landed in Cambodia on Thursday morning, nine months after a $40m deal was forged with Australia to resettle refugees there.



time.com Of all the world's desperate migrants, the Rohingya deserve special sympathy. A Muslim ethnic minority that lives in the west of Burma, known officially as Myanmar, the Rohingya are not simply poor and persecuted by members of the country's Buddhist majority. They also lack the most fundamental measure of identity: citizenship.

AP Burma says thousands of people who fled the country were seeking better jobs elsewhere, not trying to escape persecution. The UN says about half of the migrants who have come ashore in Southeast Asia in recent weeks are Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Burma.



express.co.uk The Malaysian government has assured desperate families that the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 WILL continue - despite contradicting claims from Australian officials.



bbc.com A 74-year-old British man wanted by police in Bristol in connection with child sex abuse allegations has been detained in the Philippines. Douglas Slade was arrested at the request of the UK authorities, said Elaine Tan from the Immigration Commission.



channelnewsasia.com Seventy-one percent of Singaporean respondents said they have taken items from their rooms, putting Singapore in second place in a survey on a list of nationalities most likely to steal from hotels. In first place was Argentina, with 73 percent.