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.



aa.com.tr Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has started a three-day visit to Malaysia, during which he attended the opening of the 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Foreign Ministers Meeting, with the plight of Uighur and Rohingya in the region among topics, according to sources.

wsj.com Malaysia's anticorruption agency said that 2.6 billion ringgit (about $700 million) was deposited into Prime Minister Najib Razak's personal account and that the money was from a ''donor contribution,'' not from 1Malaysia Development Bhd, a state investment fund also known as 1MDB. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission didn't say, however, who the donor was, nor the purpose of the contribution.

themalaysmailonline.com Prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan urged Malaysia's graftbusters to reveal the source of the RM2.6 billion that they claimed had been deposited by ''donors'' into Datuk Seri Najib Razak's personal bank accounts: ''Whoever donated such large sums would have an agenda. What is that agenda?''



thelocal.de When 22-year-old Trong Hieu from Hanover travelled to Vietnam, he simply planned to take a holiday in the country where his parents grew up, reports Norddeutscher Rundfunk. However, Hieu was about to make a name for himself as the country's favorite ''Hot Boy from Germany'' by winning television's Vietnam Idol competition.



afp Beijing could be preparing to build a second 3000-metre airstrip on an artificial island in the disputed South China Sea, a Washington-based think-tank said. China's island-building and construction activities are expected to come under scrutiny during high-level Asian security meetings hosted by Asean from Tuesday.



bnionline.net Though most of the important townships of Rakhine (Arakan) State have suffered severe flooding because of non stop rain in the last seven days no aid has yet been sent to the area.

nytimes.com Hundreds of young Rohingya women from Burma (Myanmar) are being sold into marriage to Rohingya men already in Malaysia as the price of escaping violence and poverty in their homeland. Many are tricked or coerced.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/03/world/asia/rohingya-women-flee-violence-only-to-be-sold-into-marriage.html

onislam.net Escaping violence and persecution in their homeland, thousands of Rohingya Muslim women face exploitation in forced marriages in Thailand and Malaysia after enduring distressful boat journeys.



huffingtonpost.com Many may not realise it, but Bloomberg predicts that the Philippines will be the second fastest growing economy in the world in 2015 - a stunning achievement for a country that has for many years been considered an under performer. Since 2010, GDP growth under President Benigno S. Aquino III has been an average of 6.2 percent.

gulfnews.com Index crimes such as homicide, rape and car theft went up during the first six months of 2015, figures from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed.



afp Welcome to the Kings Romans, a sprawling casino complex topped by a giant golden crown that bursts into view from a sleepy river bank on the Laos side of the Mekong River. The Chinese-owned casino in Ton Pheung district, Bokeo, is the centerpiece of a 10,000-square meter ''Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone'' set up by communist-ruled Laos with investment from its giant neighbor.




thestar.com The move to ban trans fat is causing demand for palm oil to surge. The problem? Clear cutting for palm plantations. The tougher story to get across has been the link between palm oil and greenhouse gas emissions.



xinhua China has overtaken South Korea to become the largest tourist source to Cambodia's Angkor world heritage site, Cambodia's state-run Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP) reported, citing a senior tourism official.



bloomberg Next Sunday, Singapore celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence. Any criticism of Singapore's democratic deficit should begin by acknowledging that there's hardly any resemblance between the original idea of democracy and its current incarnations in India, Europe and the US.

standard.co.uk Compare the city-state to other parts of South-east Asia, such as Malaysia and Thailand, and it has often been seen as too sterile, officious or bereft of things to do. Now Singapore is fighting back.