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.



newstalkzb.co.nz A Malaysia Airlines flight from Auckland is the subject of a safety probe after the pilot radioed air traffic control to ask why the flight was tracking on a route he didn't expect. Passengers on the Christmas Day flight were unaware of the confusion.



nationmultimedia.com Thailand and other nations in and around the Indian Ocean held memorial services on the 11th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed about 230,000 people. Krabi governor Pinit Boonler hosted the ceremonies for three faiths on Koh Phi Phi, during which divers also went underwater to lay wreaths at the undersea memorial at Ao Ton Sai.



cihan.com.tr The 2004 undersea megathrust earthquake was caused when the Indian Plate was subducted by the Burma Plate and triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people in 14 countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 metres high It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the hardest-hit country, followed by Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

jakartaglobe.com With Indonesian terror groups threatening to target the country's top police leadership, the chief of National Police and his deputy are now being escorted by heavily armed officers on motorcycles. Each 1,215cc Triumph Tiger Explorer XC motorcycle carries a driver and a passenger - carrying Glock handguns plus Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns.



nytimes.com Dozens of people were feared dead in northern Myanmar after a landslide hit a jade mining region, workers at a mining company said, the second such episode in just over a month: ''We heard about 50 people were buried in the collapsed dump and four or five bodies were found this morning.''



AP Christmas attacks by Muslim rebels in Christian villages in the southern Philippines left at least 14 people dead and may have been partly influenced by the notoriety of the Islamic State group, officials said.



straitstimes.com Downtown Line 2 (DTL2) was described by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as a key step in Singapore's journey towards becoming a car-lite city. Already, two million people take the bus or train at least twice a day to get to the office or school and then back home again.



Vietnam's economic growth this year accelerated to its highest pace since 2010, supported by robust export-oriented manufacturing and foreign investment. The country's gross domestic product grew 6.68 percent in 2015, faster than an expansion of 5.98 percent last year, the government's General Statistics Office said.

Cambodia

phnompenhpost.com In the wake of Prime Minister Hun Sen's state visit to Thailand last weekend, the first in 12 years, much media coverage focused on the neighbors' ambitious economic agreements, apparent goodwill and the political pragmatism implicit in the visit. But less talked about was the two leaders' talk on transnational crime, which has long been an issue along the Thai-Cambodian border.

Brunei

themalaymailonline.com Brunei has suffered injustice and damage due to unsubstantiated news reports claiming it had imposed a blanket ban on Christmas celebrations, Malaysia's federal minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said. The Brunei Times reported that Christians in Brunei celebrated Christmas without a hitch, as there were no new changes to existing regulations for the country's religious minority to keep their religious celebration within their churches and private residences.