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.



albawaba.com The son of the Sultan of Brunei, one of the world's richest men, has wed bride Dayangku Raabi'atul 'Adawiyyah Pengiran Haji Bolkiah in a spectacular ceremony at the monarch's 1788-room palace in Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. Prince Abdul Malik, 31, exchanged vows with Dayangku Raabi'atul 'Adawiyyah Pengiran Haji Bolkiah, 22, in front of crowds of friends and family, nobility and foreign dignitaries amid mind-boggling splendor.



bbc.com Johanna Powell, 37, who works as a picture editor at BBC Wales, was reported missing. The Foreign Office said it was working with local authorities after an incident involving a cruise boat on the Mekong River, near Pak Beng.



themalaysianinsider.com A reward of 200,000 Indian rupees (RM7,350) has been offered by the Malaysian government for information leading to the finding of missing trekker Dennis Lee Thian Poh. The reward was announced by the Malaysian embassy in exchange for information on Lee, 47, who is missing since April 5 in the area of Ghorepani in the Khopra Danda trek in Nepal.



afp Ten female Cambodian land activists jailed over protests last year have been pardoned and released from prison, a rights group said, following an outcry over their arrests.



afp A crewman on a Chinese vessel in Philippine waters has killed two of his colleagues with a knife, a coast guard official said. The suspect is believed to still be hiding aboard the massive transport ship, which is docked at the southern port city of Zamboanga.



nbcnews.com While Vietnam's communist party chief was greeted with full honors as he visited neighboring China this week, the pomp barely papered over tensions between the countries over Hanoi's warming ties with Beijing's archrival: the United States.



straitstimes.com The family of a national serviceman who died in 2012 after an allergic reaction to smoke grenades is suing the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) for allegedly failing to provide a safe training environment.



ft.com Heineken and Diageo are braced for sales of beer in Indonesia to go flat when a government clampdown comes into force on Thursday that could affect half the country's beer sales. Diageo, the world's biggest spirits company, has called on the government of the world???s fourth-most populous country to postpone the controversial ban on sales of drinks with less than 5 percent alcohol volume - mainly beer - in convenience and other small stores.



telegraph.co.uk Politically, Burma may be troubled but to the visitor it is a place of calm. Buddhist calm, you might say, because the evidence of Burma's principal religion is all around - although they hedge their bets by also propitiating the forest and house spirits called Nats.