smh.com.au In addition to deploying counter terrorist measures, which in some countries like Indonesia have been reasonably effective over the years, it is also incumbent on Asean leaders to place the threat to religious and ethnic harmony high on its list of policy priorities.


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.

POPE FRANCIS set off on Monday for a six-day trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines, where his open-air masses are expected to draw millions.



bangkokpost.com Army officials are denying a published report that Thai soldiers admitted to burning alive two Cambodian men illegally trying to smuggle a motorbike across the border in Sa Kaeo.

cambodiadaily.com Two badly burned bodies found on the Thai side of the border near Battambang province could be the work of local gangs, a border official said. Locals found the bodies on a cassava farm in Thailand's Sa Kaeo province's Klong Hat district, which borders Battambang's Sampov Loun district, but so far Cambodian officials have been denied access to the remains.

bangkokpost.com Police arrested former Pheu Thai MP for Ratchaburi Chavarin Latthasaksiri for allegedly cheating a Cambodian company out of almost 11.5 million baht. Police apprehended the outspoken 68-year-old politician at Suvarnabhumi Airport at noon as he waited to travel to Japan.

AP Cambodia's biggest hydropower dam began operating Monday as Prime Minister Hun Sen inaugurated the Chinese-built project to help supply electricity for underserved villages and factories. He was joined by the Chinese ambassador at the official opening of the 338-megawatt Russei Chrum Krom hydropower project, which took almost five years to build at a cost of about $500 million.



afp Police in mainly Muslim Malaysia arrested 29 people including two auxiliary police officers in a raid on an birthday party which they said had turned into a drug-fuelled orgy.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/456300/29-malaysians-arrested-over-orgy

themalaysianinsider.com Federal Territory Islamic Religious Department (Jawi) will haul up the event organiser of the mini-concert featuring South Korean pop band B1A4, following the band's inappropriate behavior during the event. A religious authority warned that the entertainment culture from Korea or K-Pop was dangerous to Muslims as it was a tool to spread Christianity and liberalism.



amnesty.org An inquiry into police torture in the Philippine Senate this week is a welcome opportunity to put a stop to torture by members of the national police and to end the pervasive culture of impunity that reinforces it, Amnesty International said.



theguardian.com A DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Indonesia's Trigana Air crashed on landing at Enarotali Airport in Paniai, Papua. Strong winds caused the aircraft to roll over, domestic news website Detik.com reported, with no injuries to the three crew members on board. The plane was not carrying any passengers.

smh.com.au Indonesian national carrier Garuda Indonesia is quitting the hotly contested Brisbane-Bali route from February 1, in a move that will be welcomed by rival carriers Jetstar and Virgin Australia.

theguardian.com A rescued orangutan whose sight was restored after a ground-breaking operation has been released into the wild with her twin offspring in an Indonesia forest. The formerly blind Gober gave birth to twins after mating with a blind male in captivity at a rescue centre near Medan in North Sumatra.



asiacorrespondent.com In 2014 Burma (Myanmar) received about 1.5 million more tourists than in 2013, while Thailand received 2 million less tourists in 2014 compared to the previous year. But, because Burma receives far fewer tourists this represented an increase of over 50 percent over the previous year, whilst for Thailand it represented a drop of only 6.6 percent.

dvb.no A new US$18 million project agreement has been signed between the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Bangladeshi government to support refugees from Burma, the vast majority of whom are Rohingya Muslims. The project will provide humanitarian assistance to Undocumented Myanmar [Burma] Nationals (UMNs) and vulnerable host communities in two districts of Cox's Bazaar, a city in the southeastern corner of Bangladesh, close to the border with Burma.



todayonline.com International visitor arrivals in Singapore fell 3.6 per cent to 1.14 million in November last year from a year ago, hurt by a 8.1 percent drop in the number of visitors from Indonesia, latest data by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) showed. Arrivals from China rose by 9.9 percent.

todayonline.com With a ''year-long birthday party'' set to take place here in celebration of Singapore's Golden Jubilee, the New York Times has ranked the Republic as the sixth top travel destination globally, and the top in Asia.



reuters Some of Vietnam's lenders may merge with each other this year as part of efforts to help to clean up the country's fragmented banking sector, which is weighed down with bad loans after a decade of rapid expansion.