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.



straitstimes.com Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's surgery for his prostate cancer went successfully and Mr Lee is now recovering, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in a statement.



todayonline.com The Malaysian police are investigating a video released online by a group of men threatening to ''set off fireworks'' at the country's courthouses tomorrow.

freemalaysiatoday.com In a video decrying the failed state of democracy in Malaysia, four men dressed in black wearing full-face black masks, threatened to light firecrackers in front of the courthouse in a symbolic show of their dissatisfaction.



AP Eight convicted drug smugglers, including seven foreigners, will be transferred to an Indonesian prison island this week for imminent execution despite international appeals for clemency, an official said.

theconversation.com There are reports that all 58 drugs offenders now awaiting execution could be dead by the end of the year if Jokowi has his way.



irrawaddy.org Two Spanish freelance photographers were forced to leave Burma over the weekend after documenting student protests without journalist visas, the Ministry of Information has confirmed.

theepochtimes.com Australia is funding a three-year, $Australian 2.3 million project that will aid snakebite victims in Burma by upgrading care facilities and the quality and availability of antivenom.



cambodiadaily.com About 300 tuk-tuk and moto-taxi drivers protested outside the Phnom Penh offices of the Angkor Thom newspaper on Sunday morning, demanding that it correct an article about a traffic accident involving one of the drivers, according to a union official and the newspaper's publisher. The newspaper's publisher acknowledged it made a mistake, and said it would republish an accurate report of the crash.



pinknews.com Prime Minister David Cameron is on Tuesday meeting with the Sultan of Brunei - who recently enacted a law calling for homosexuals to be stoned to death.



thediplomat.com In plantation communities, about 22.5 percent of households have child workers. In mining towns, child labor incidence was 14 percent. The group noted that the youngest worker interviewed in the study was five years old, although the common age of child workers was 12. The group learned that 76 percent of child laborers have stopped attending school. Most child laborers were working for 10 hours a day, or 13 to 16 hours a day in some extreme cases.



consortiumnews.com Throughout Vietnam today, this band of brothers in peace, travel and work tirelessly to help these victims of a war long past. The group includes a poet, a psychiatric social worker, a former aide to a United States senator, a former cop and a long ago gang member who found peace and purpose back here, in Vietnam.



eturbonews.com The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Lao People's Democratic Republic have launched a tourism infrastructure project which will also help establish provincial and national-level Destination Management Organisations (DMOs).