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.



asiaone.com Malaysia said it would investigate corruption allegations against government officials in a multi-million dollar property deal in Australia, the latest in a series of scandals plaguing Prime Minister Najib Razak's government.

bloomberg Australian police raided properties across Melbourne on Thursday as part of an investigation into foreign bribery that local media said involved Malaysian officials laundering money through a property deal.



afp Lawmakers in Vietnam voted to build a controversial new $16 billion airport near Ho Chi Minh City, as the country vies to become one of the world's busiest aviation hubs. Many question why the present airport could not be expanded but the government has opted to save a large golf course, owned by Vietnam's powerful military, next to the existing airport.



scmp.com China has decided against a much-hyped plan to build a high-speed railway running through Thailand, and instead opted for a medium-speed alternative.



independent.co.uk After the vote, Aung San Suu Kyi put the best spin she could on it. The Burmese parliament's rejection of attempts to amend the constitution was ''not a defeat,'' she insisted, because ''people knew the result they would get''.

saudigazette.com.sa With each fresh humiliation, with her refusal to speak out on crucial issues, not the least of which is the appalling treatment of the Rohingya Muslims, Aung San Suu Kyi is losing her reputation and her power.

nationmultimedia.com A Moken sea gypsy man named Gamat from Myanmar told Human Rights Watch that Burmese navy officials ''point their guns at us so we just jump into the water. If we show them that we have money, then sometimes they stop bothering us and don't take anything else. If we decide to stay on an island, or fish around it, then we have to pay the island head - and these are also [Myanmar] soldiers.''



afp Philippine airlines will no longer be banned from flying into Europe, aviation authorities said, after the European Union removed all remaining Philippine carriers from its safety blacklist.

businessinsider.com China's military accused the Philippines of trying to ''rope in'' other countries to the dispute over ownership of the South China Sea and stir regional tension after Japan joined a military drill with the Philippines.



theguardian.com Indonesia has set up a new team to reduce noise from mosques, an official said, as places of worship go into overdrive during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. There are about 800,000 mosques in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, but residents living nearby have long complained that their speakers are too loud.

nationmultimedia.com Indonesians married to foreign nationals may one day be able to own a property without a prenuptial agreement, as a group of mixed-nationality couples are fighting for a change to the existing law that disallows them from doing so.



thephnompenhpost.com In a bid to further expand its strategic relationships with the countries of Southeast Asia, India has sent a group of warships to Cambodia and Thailand, the country's ambassador to the Kingdom confirmed



cnbc.com While the Singapore dollar has lost value against the US dollar, it's gained ground against a steadily weakening Malaysian ringgit, bringing down the costs of food imported from the city-state's northern neighbor.



xinhua Brunei's first Micra leadless pacemakers, the world's smallest and wireless pacemakers, have been successfully implanted on two heart disease patients in the Gleneagles Jerudong Park Medical Center, the state-run Radio Television Brunei reported.