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.



npr.org Malaysia said Tuesday it would turn back any further boatloads of migrants who seek refuge in the country. The decision comes a day after more than 1000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis landed in the waters of Malaysia'\s Langkawi island, and after Indonesia said it would also turn back the migrants.

news.sky.com The news comes ahead of a one-day summit at the end of the month to discuss what to do about people making dangerous sea journeys to try to get to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The UN believes about 7,000 people are still adrift in boats in the Bay of Bengal.

bangkokpost.com Thai police asked Malaysian authorities to arrest a former Satun provincial chief suspected in the large-scale smuggling of illegal migrants and hiding out on Langkawi. Former Satun provincial administration organisation president Pajjuban Angchotiphan and his accomplices had escaped to the Malaysian resort island.



bbc.com Indonesia has turned away a boat carrying hundreds of migrants believed to be from Myanmar and Bangladesh. Indonesia's navy said it provided the vessel with food and water before sending it back out to sea. It said that it did so because the migrants wanted to reach Malaysia, but an international migration agency said the decision was "shocking".

cnn.com A boatload of migrants spotted off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia on were refused permission to dock, according to an Indonesian military spokesman. Spokesman Fuad Basya said the boat had run out of fuel but that ''permission was not given to that boat to land.'' He said he had no information about its current location.

theguardian.com Australia's aid to Indonesia will be reduced by 40 percent, the budget has revealed, but the government says it is not because of the executions last month of two Australian drug smugglers.



theguardian.com One of the concerns is what to do with the Rohingya if a rescue is launched. The Rohingya minority group is denied citizenship in Burma, and other countries have long worried that opening their doors to a few would result in an unstoppable flow of poor, uneducated migrants.



nytimes.com A teenager who posted a video criticizing Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore, was convicted on charges of obscenity and insulting religious feelings by a court in the city-state.

smh.com.au Phil Robertson, deputy director in Asia for Human Rights Watch, said Singapore's actions to criminalise Yee's statements run contrary to international human rights standards and are a dangerous affront to freedom of expression. Yee will be sentenced on June 2.



voanews.com A Vietnamese dissident known for leading anti-Chinese and environmental protests says he was attacked by a group of unidentified men allegedly linked to the authorities. Anh Chi told VOA's Vietnamese Service he was hit with a metal pipe without provocation near his home in Hanoi.



bbc.com The Philippines will develop a disputed island it claims in the South China Sea as a tourist destination, the military chief has said. Gen Gregorio Catapang made the announcement on a trip to Pagasa, one of the nine islands claimed by Manila in the Spratly archipelago.



bbc.com A coroner's hearing into the death of a British woman on holiday in south-east Asia has been opened and adjourned. BBC Wales picture editor Johanna Powell, 37, of Cardiff, died in Laos on 11 April. No details were given about Ms Powell's death, except that she was involved in a boating accident.



channel4.com A Cambodian TV channel faces a social media backlash after it tricked a 13-year-old girl into thinking she would be reunited with her mother, but met a man in drag instead. The channel has subsequently apologised for the joke, which social media followers labelled as ''brainless''.



reuters Brunei's financial regulator plans to launch a securities exchange as early as 2017, a must-have if the Sultanate is to diversify its economy away from oil and catch up to more mature capital markets in Southeast Asia.