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.



reuters Malaysian former strongman Mahathir Mohamad launched the fiercest yet in a series of attacks on the country's prime minister, demanding he account for the disappearance of billions of dollars borrowed by state fund 1MDB, or resign.

freemalaysiatoday.com An investigator, Andre Milne, has launched a crowd sourcing fund asove.net to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the Bay of Bengal where he and his team believe it's lying. He added that eyewitness accounts from Maldives islanders had already been obtained.

AP Three Mexican brothers and two other people lost their final appeals against death sentences for drug trafficking in Malaysia, their lawyer said.



abc.net.au The Indonesian government has ordered that preparations be made for the executions of Australian drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran as well as eight others on death row.

nationmultimedia.com French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that the sentencing to death of a Frenchman in Indonesia was the result of ''serious dysfunctions'' in the country's legal system. Fabius said Serge Atlaoui, 51, had been the victim of a hasty trial and was sentenced ''in a ruling containing erroneous statements'' in a letter to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.



rappler.com The Philippines denounced China for resorting to ''name-calling'' after a Chinese state-owned tabloid called Manila a ''cute little submissive'' of the United States.



theaustralian.com.au Cambodian officials on Nauru have so far identified just one Rohingya refugee who qualifies for relocation. But he and any others among the 480-odd refugees on Nauru who agree to relocate won't be travelling to Cambodia for several weeks at least, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said.

businessinsider.com.au While Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton is sending video messages to refugees on Nauru telling them to head for Cambodia or face another decade on the island, a study into 170 Burmese refugees who went to live in a Victorian regional town found they've added $40 million to the local economy.



telegram.com Matthew Smith, who directs Thailand-based Fortify Rights, a nongovernment group, testified that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims are displaced after widespread attacks in Myanmar and are at grave risk of being trafficked. And he said Myanmar women and girls are often subject to sexual and domestic servitude.



bbc.com The body of a woman who died in a boat incident in south east Asia is due to be flown back to Britain. BBC Wales picture editor Johanna Powell, 37, died in Laos on 11 April.



13wmaz.com An Army sergeant killed during the Vietnam War will be laid to rest this weekend in central Missouri, nearly 45 years to the day he died. Sgt. Robert Griffin was killed May 2, 1970 in Cambodia.



rappler.com The Philippines denounced China for resorting to ''name-calling'' after a Chinese state-owned tabloid called Manila a ''cute little submissive'' of the United States.



channelnewsasia.com Singapore experienced deflation for the fifth consecutive month in March as the consumer price index (CPI) stayed in negative territory, according to figures released by the Department of Statistics.