PHUKETWAN recognises the importance of Asean with the Economic Community approaching and marks what's happening around the region with a column, Asean Today, that will cease when Phuketwan closes on December 31.



forbes.com Amnesty International has condemned the Thai authorities' ''shameful'' decision to return refugees and dissidents to China, including a Swedish publisher. The group highlighted several cases, including Swedish national Gui Minhai who went missing in Thailand on October 17 and might have been removed to China, according to media reports and activists.

turkishweekly.net Thailand's military government has attempted to dampen an international outcry over the deportation of two Chinese pro-democracy activists to China by claiming United Nations agencies were unaware that the duo was involved in human trafficking.



AP After being tricked into selling her Singapore home and traveling to China to invest the proceeds, Mary Seow eventually found herself homeless in Hong Kong, having lost touch with her family. Nearly five years after she was reported missing, and after her story was told this month in an Associated Press article about people who sleep at 24-hour McDonald's outlets in Hong Kong, she has been reunited with her son and was on her way back to Singapore on Saturday.



AP President Barack Obama promised that Islamic extremists would find no safe haven anywhere, while the leader of Muslim-majority Malaysia branded the Islamic State group as a ''new evil'' that has blasphemed the religion, and urged world leaders to confront it forcefully.



Three days after saying Republicans were ''scared of widows and orphans'' seeking refuge in the US, President Barack Obama visited a refugee center in Malaysia to drive home his call for more compassion in response to a global migrant crisis. Malaysia, where Obama is on the final stop of a nine-day trip to Asia, has taken in thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar.



philstar.com President Aquino said the Philippines is ready for the full integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which is set to sign a declaration to remove trade barriers. Asean leaders are expected to sign today the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the Asean Community and the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Asean (Vision) 2025.



ft.com Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has called on nations to step up intelligence sharing following last week's terrorist attack in Paris.



cambodiadaily.com A US State Department official told the country's Senate that recent political events in Cambodia, including the beatings of lawmakers outside the National Assembly and the removal of opposition officials from their seats and positions in parliament, were a cause for ''grave concern.''



thanhniennews.com Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan will provide an additional US$1.4 billion of loans, which will raise its total pledges to Vietnam in the fiscal year to $2.5 billion.



rfa The international football federation has banned the Laos football association chief from all soccer-related activities for two years and fined him nearly US$20,000 for bribery. Viphet Sihachakr, president of the Lao Football Federation since September 2010, solicited and accepted a payment from another football official, said the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).