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.



cnn.com In the end, it played out like a movie. A tense, heartbreaking story, and then a surprise twist at the end.

nytimes.com A last-ditch effort by the Philippines, involving a human trafficking case and frantic personal phone calls by the president, led to a dramatic deal with Indonesia that plucked a Philippine woman from a firing squad moments before she was to join eight other prisoners at a mass execution.

time.com Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso was walking toward the execution ground when she was told she was granted a temporary reprieve. Eight other prisoners reportedly sang the Christian hymn 'Amazing Grace' until the executioners' bullets were fired, killing them.

afp The last-minute reprieve for a Filipina drug convict facing execution in Indonesia sparked an outpouring of euphoria and disbelief, with crowds weeping with joy. Several Philippine newspapers were caught out by the last-minute execution reprieve, running front-page headlines bidding her farewell and accusing the government of failing to save her.



afp France said it was mobilising all diplomatic options in a bid to save Frenchman Serge Atlaoui from death row in Indonesia on drug charges following the execution of seven foreigners.

smh.com.au Editorial: The process by which Mr Joko has exercised his duties as a national leader has been haphazard and inconsistent. He has shown himself incapable of the most basic human responses: mercy and compassion.



standard.co.uk Malaysia's money-spinning fixtures against English Premier League sides Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are nothing more than circus matches, according to a local supporters' group who have called on fans to boycott the games. A Malaysian XI will play Spurs on May 24 and Liverpool on July 24.



todayonline.com Myanmar's landmark elections have pulled in scores of political parties, complicating the battle for control of an ex-dictatorship whose resources and markets are much coveted by world powers. More than 70 national and regional groups so far have met an April 30 deadline to register for a long-awaited vote in which the ruling military-linked party could implode - yet still provide a President.



rfa.org Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that he would seek a fifth term as prime minister of Cambodia and threatened to end the current culture of dialogue with the opposition if a politician from the party continued to publicly criticise the ruling party.

voanews.com Cambodian officials said that they were reviewing the applications of four refugees who had agreed to a controversial Australian resettlement plan.



reuters Vietnamese diesel imports from Singapore jumped almost four-fold in the January to April period, compared with the corresponding period of 2014, as a new trade deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) redraws oil flows.



smh.com.au Companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have all admitted as part of the Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance that they are under audit for their use of Singapore ''marketing'' and ''service'' hubs, where they route hundreds of millions of dollars of income.