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.



theage.com,au Journalist Julien Delarue, who works for local paper Journal de L'le de la Reunion, reported on Twitter that what appears to be a suitcase has been found on the Indian Ocean island, less than a day after islanders discovered a two-metre long piece of debris.

smh.com.au Malaysia is ''almost certain'' that plane debris found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean is from a Boeing 777, the deputy transport minister said, heightening the possibility it could be wreckage from missing Flight MH370.

bbc.com Debris found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion is to be transported to France to find out whether it is from the missing flight MH370, Malaysia's prime minister has said.



huffingtonpost.com In the notorious village of Svay Pak, very young girls were peddled openly for sex in large numbers. Of all the dark corners of the earth I've been to, and all of the atrocities I've seen in my line of work as a human rights lawyer, Svay Pak in Cambodia was one of the worst.


nytimes.com Flooding in northern Vietnam has killed at least 17 people, with the continuing rain prompting concerns of landslides and of pollution from inundated coal mines reaching one of the country's most famous sites of natural beauty.

kyodo news Japanese retailer Seven and i Holdings Co said it aims to open Vietnam's first 7-Eleven store in Ho Chi Minh City in the year from April 2017, and expand the number of 7-Eleven stores in the country to 100 in three years and to 1000 in 10 years.



bernama The Indonesian delegates would raise the issue of membership of Timor Leste in Asean during the 48th Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Kuala Lumpur early next month, an Indonesian official said in Jakarta.



The Brunei Times Brunei exports fell 32 percent year on year in May to US$698.5 million (Bt24.56 billion), because of a sharp decline in oil and gas shipments, according to data issued by the country's Department of Economic Planning and Development.



independent.co.uk Burma has freed almost 7000 detainees, including political prisoners and 260 foreigners, as part of a country-wide amnesty.

theconversation.com Regardless of who holds power after November 2015, the explosion of violence against ethnic and religious groups is a direct consequence of the reform process, which has now been put in jeopardy by a wave of racist violence. The most visible incarnation of this development is the ongoing campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

asiancorrespondent.com The most visible playmaker in this arena is the Ma Ba Tha monk group, which grew out of the anti-Muslim 969 movement and now has offices across the country, staffed by both monks and civilians. This week it took it upon itself to expel a local NGO aiding flood victims in northern Burma on account of the fact that the NGO hadn't coordinated with Ma Ba Tha over relief operations.

Philippines

npr.org Rome-trained exorcist Father Jose Francisco Syquia says he has been driving demonic spirits out of people and houses for more than a dozen years. He's seen a steady increase in cases in the past decade, with 200 so far this year.

qz.com Until fairly recently, users in the US who e-mailed a complaint to support@uber.com (the only way to contact Uber's customer service directly) would get a local customer service rep from the same city, or maybe even the same time zone. Starting in late 2014, though, Uber began outsourcing some of its US customer-service tasks overseas to low-cost areas including the Philippines.

Laos

xinhua No survivors have been found from a military helicopter crash that took place earlier this week, Lao defense ministry confirmed.

Thailand

bangkokpost.com The navy has launched a nine-page white paper on the urgent need to purchase submarines to safeguard lucrative national maritime interests and maintain security during maritime conflicts.

Singapore

channelnewsasia.com Flagship carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) has agreed to a request from Airbus to release seven of its A350-900 widebody jet orders back to the aircraft manufacturer, the carrier said in a statement.