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.



channelnewsasia.com The first Bangkok bombing suspect arrested by the Thai authorities has denied any involvement in last month's attack, saying he only arrived in Thailand four days after the Erawan Shrine blast, albeit as a client of human traffickers.



channelnewsasia.com Malaysia wants to work with China to create an Asean car, Malaysia's Second Minister for Trade and Industry Ong Ka Chuan revealed in Nanning, China, on the sidelines of the 12th China-Asean Expo, the second largest trade show in the country.



vice.com Indonesian authorities are cracking down on companies believed to be responsible for massive fires that have left a choking haze over much of the country and some of its Southeast Asian neighbors. Fires are burning in six provinces, shrouding the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan in acrid smog and blowing northward into Malaysia and Singapore.



nasdaq.com Singapore's key non-oil exports fell in August due to a steep decline in shipments of both non-electronics and electronics goods. Exports of goods made in Singapore fell 8.4 percent in August compared with a year earlier.



afp Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has backed Hollywood star Angelina Jolie's upcoming film about the murderous Khmer Rouge regime after the pair met in Phnom Penh. The actress-turned-director is adapting 'First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers,' a memoir by Cambodian rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the communist regime.



independent.co.uk Illegal logging in Burma's forests is a burgeoning trade worth hundreds of millions of pounds as demand for precious wood grows in China, a new report claims. Systemic corruption contributes to the trade being one of the single largest overland flows of illegal timber in the world, according to the report, by the Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA).



gospelherald.com A pastor in northern Laos who disregarded officials' orders to stop preaching Christ has been stabbed to death, sources said.



indiatimes.com India-Vietnam are pushing to broadbase their relations to encompass all possible areas of cooperation and deepen their strategic partnership building on exceptionally close ties since their foundations were laid more than 50 years ago.



xinhua Brunei's demand for Filipino domestic workers has been declined due to a memo issued in February by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office that no job order or contract will be verified unless salaries meet the minimum wage, set at 400 US dollars for domestic helpers, the Brunei Times reported.



christianpost.com As traffic jams continue to impede the economic growth of the Philippine islands, a recent report states that the traffic is costing the country's economy at least $64 million a day.