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.

The Asean Economic Community (AEC) 2015 is still a work in progress and Asean member states are targeting to complete 95 percent of the integration measures by the end of 2015, bernama reports.



cambodiadaily.com Thai soldiers shot and killed three Cambodian loggers and seriously injured a fourth last week after the group illegally crossed into Thailand from Preah Vihear province in search of valuable timber, officials said.

washingtonpost.com Cambodia's unique confluence of factors - an already high rate of rape as well as a bad translation that implies one is supposed to take the virginity of one's songsar - has turned Valentine's Day into a day of rape, government officials say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/12/the-country-where-valentines-day-is-the-most-dangerous-day-of-the-year/



channelnewsasia.com Flagship carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) said that it will reduce its fuel surcharge for tickets issued on or after Feb 26, 2015. The reduced fuel surcharges of $5-$83 per sector will apply to Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights, SIA said in a news release.

straitstimes.com The watchdog group Reporters Without Borders in its annual evaluation ranked Singapore at No. 153, a drop of three places from last year's ranking of 150.



afp Chinese relatives of those on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 protested outside the carrier's office, demanding Malaysia withdraw a statement declaring all the passengers dead. The Chinese families have also demanded for more regular details on search operations.

bloomberg US lawmakers called on the Obama administration to give more weight to the fight against human trafficking in talks to normalise ties with Cuba and in trade negotiations with Malaysia. The State Department identified Malaysia in its 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report as a destination, source and transit country for men subjected to forced labor, and women and children forced into sex work.



economist.com Pictures of pets adorn the facades and menus of restaurants in Nam Dinh, a city in a part of northern Vietnam where cats and dogs are commonly consumed. ''Delicious,'' says Vu Van Thu, a taxi driver, as he downs a plate of sauteed feline in one eatery.
http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21643231-mans-best-friends-are-under-fire-pet-soup



bangkokpost.com More tourists from China visited Laos last year as the country saw its number of visitors exceed four million for the first time. The total number of foreign tourists visiting Laos in 2014 was 4.15 million, a 10 percent increase from the 3.75 million in 2013, the Vientiane Times reported on Thursday, citing figures from the Lao Information, Culture and Tourism Ministry.



independent.co.uk Indonesia has said it will execute two Australian men ''as soon as possible'' after transferring them from Bali to a penal island known as 'Indonesia's Alcatraz'.

nytimes.com Instead of winning praise for the country's popular anticorruption campaign, the three cases have instead raised fears that it has run off the rails, with unchecked prosecutors going after innocent men to burnish their careers and judges going along to avoid being labeled soft on graft.



BNA Burmese PM Thein Sein decided to revoke the right of Rohingya Muslims to vote in the country's upcoming plebiscite after hundreds of anti-Muslim protestors recently took to the streets. More than a million Muslims live in Burma aka Myanmar but the government does not think they are fully entitled to vote.



wsj.com Domestic tourism is thriving in Vigan, but this gem of the Philippines - a Unesco World Heritage site recently picked in an online poll as one of the ''New Seven Wonders of the World'' - isn't attracting anywhere near the number of big-spending foreign tourists that local officials would like. Neighbors Malaysia and Thailand each attract five times as many foreign tourists.