Today Around Southeast Asia
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.
Burma
wsj.com A week ahead of Myanmar's closely watched elections, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi held her biggest rally yet in the country's largest city on Sunday, drawing tens of thousands of people in scenes that in part recalled her rise to prominence in pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988.
Cambodia
voanews.com Cambodians are expecting a 'seamless transition' when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is launched in two months and hopefully heralds a second investment wave, capable of transforming this country's pool of unskilled labor into a manufacturing hub.
Indonesia
mongabay.com There remains considerable debate as to how long Indonesia's current fire crisis may last. Some analysts believe we may be seeing the end of the crisis now; others suggest that drought conditions could extend into January. In either case, the damage from the fires has already been considerable, costing Indonesia's tens of billions in economic losses, straining diplomatic relations between Indonesia and its neighbors, and sending hundreds of thousands to hospitals.
Philippines
philstar.com Millions of people made their annual pilgrimage to family gravesites yesterday in a tradition that combines fervent Catholic faith with the country's penchant for festivity. The overwhelmingly Catholic Philippines has long celebrated All Saints' Day on Novomber 1 as an occasion to gather at the graves of loved ones, to light candles and pray for their souls.
Malaysia
straitstimes.com Malaysia's taxi drivers are introducing their own taxi app soon, as they fight to regain customers lost to Uber and GrabTaxi. The new app is called MesraCab (FriendlyCab in Malay) and can be used in the Greater Kuala Lumpur or Klang Valley area - a wide swathe of districts that surround Kuala Lumpur.
Vietnam
tuoitrenews.vn Around six million Vietnamese people, or nearly seven percent of the total population, have chronic kidney disease, according to Doctor Nguyen Bach, head of the kidney department of Thong Nhat Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. It mainly results from diabetes and the inflammation of kidney parts, the doctor said at a conference.
