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.



deccanherald.com India has warned its nationals holidaying in Thailand to be cautious while renting jet skis in the popular beach resort of Pattaya and other scenic locations due to continuing extortion scams and threats of violence. In an advisory, the Indian Embassy said it has received recurring complaints by Indian tourists of being ''duped by unscrupulous elements'' involving jet ski rentals ''particularly in Pattaya''.



channelnewsasia.com Indonesia's government is looking to take over control of the airspace above the Riau Islands from Singapore, the Jakarta Globe reported. Singapore's Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said any such move would have implications to the Republic's position as an aviation hub: ''Tens of thousands of jobs are dependent on our position as an aviation hub.'' Singapore has been in control of airspace above Riau Islands since 1946.



ft.com A corruption scandal that is engulfing Malaysia's government and prime minister has pulled in a high-profile Abu Dhabi investment fund over more than a billion dollars that appears to have vanished. The Gulf emirate's International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) is trying to get to the bottom of an apparent $1.4bn mismatch in its dealings with 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

freemalaysiatoday.com A new report released by the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), a Swiss-based NGO. has alleged that Taib Mahmud's four children and his late wife Laila invested $30 million of unexplained wealth in the Adelaide Hilton Hotel.

abc.net.au While most of the report's evidence is circumstantial, Jenny Weber from the Bob Brown Foundation said Australian assets linked to Mr Mahmud should be frozen until the allegations were investigated. ''The people of Adelaide, we must ask, would they support the practices of Taib Mahmud in Sarawak and know that the Adelaide Hilton is funded by unexplained wealth?'' she said.



phnompenhpost.com Cambodia is ''ready to accept more refugees,'' a minister attached to Prime Minister Hun Sen said after a meeting between the premier and Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton in Phnom Penh. The talks came only days after it was revealed that a Rohingya refugee who moved to Cambodia under the agreement said he wanted to return to Myanmar and media reports circulated that the controversial refugee settlement deal was on shaky ground.

globalconstructionreview.com India's plan to build a replica of the Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex has been halted after the Cambodian government objected to the scheme.



theage.com.au An 11-year-old Melbourne schoolgirl stranded in Vietnam will finally be able to return home this week after the federal government fast-tracked her bid to secure a new passport. Kate Vo has been stuck in Saigon for two weeks after her father allegedly took off with the family's passports then claimed they had been stolen at gunpoint.



reuters Almost $20 billion in dirty money linked to corruption, crime and tax evasion has left Burma (Myanmar) in the past five decades, slashing government revenue and driving a thriving underground economy, a money-laundering watchdog, Global Financial Integrity, said in a report.



channelnewsasia.com Internet television network Netflix will launch in Singapore in early 2016, it said in a statement. Once launched, internet users in Singapore will be able to subscribe to Netflix and instantly watch a curated selection of popular TV shows and movies on nearly any internet-connected screen.



voanews.com The Philippines ongoing territorial tensions with China have led it to try to modernize its military, which for years had one of the smallest budgets in Asia. The country is spending more on more advanced ships and planes, but it is also trying to entice arms manufacturers to set up shop locally.



khmertimeskh.com When the Lao national assembly last week approved a potentially destructive dam project just two kilometers from the border with Cambodia, the surprise announcement was yet another blow to the regional framework designed to protect the Mekong River. It was not supposed to be this way after Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos signed the 1995 Mekong Agreement, a treaty designed to coordinate development along the river and to mitigate its impacts on neighboring countries.



thestar.com Richard Harbord of Norfolk, England, who met the Queen on a state visit to Brunei Darussalam, swears he heard her say to the sultan: ''Well toodle-pip! If you are in London, do drop in.''