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 FOUR Asean countries which have gross domestic product per capita values higher than the Asean average of US$3770 are Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand, reports establishmentpost.com.
http://www.establishmentpost.com/asean-rank-union/



afp Two American sisters have been arrested in Cambodia for baring their bottoms and taking naked photos of each other inside the famed Angkor Wat complex, officials said - the latest nude stunt by tourists to spark anger.

japantimes.co.jp A Japanese woman traveling in Cambodia was injured by a gunshot in Phnom Penh after drive-by robbers attempted to take her purse, a police officer said.



watoday.com.au Just one week after Canberra man Liam Rudd arrived in Bali for holidays, a motorcycle crash left him lying in a hospital bed with a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain. The 24-year-old's shocked family and friends are rallying to raise money to help pay mounting hospital bills of at least $20,000 after the crash last Sunday, with fears he will be stuck in Bali until the medical expenses are paid.

rfi.fr Divers have recovered a body they believe to be that of the French co-pilot of the AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into the sea off Indonesia last December with 162 people on board.



thestar.com.my A former commander of a terror group based in Syria and Iraq was detained while transiting in Malaysia with a forged passport. The 45-year-old suspect was believed to have been to several countries, including Thailand, before arriving in Malaysia on January 19.

straitstimes.com Some 20 passengers on a Malindo Air flight bound for Subang Airport in Kuala Lumpur disembarked from the aircraft minutes before take-off after hearing what they claimed was ''a loud argument from the cockpit''. A passenger said seven of them eventually decided not to continue with their flight from Penang's Bayan Lepas International Airport, while the rest went back on board after the pilot apologised.



independent.co.uk Burma's period of isolation is over, gone since the ruling military junta unexpectedly abolished itself and announced democratic reforms in 2012. Where five years ago there were around 760,000 tourists a year, there are now around three million. The price of a mobile phone SIM card has fallen from $2000 to $2.



asiaone.com Singapore Airlines, Southeast Asias largest airline operator by market capitalisation, announced that net profit for the quarter ended December quadrupled to 202.6 million Singapore dollars (US$150 million) from a year earlier. The big showing was largely an accounting gain that came from adding budget carrier Tiger Airways Holdings, a subsidiary, to the operator's books.



rfa.org Northern Laos Authorities near the Golden Triangle have vowed to crack down harder on illegal drugs seen as threat to society by going after important ring leaders and dealers on the street as well as increasing border inspections around the Golden Triangle area where narcotics are smuggled in and out of Laos-Myanmar and Thailand.



therecord.com More than one million Filipinos now work at call centres and in related outsourcing businesses, mostly serving American companies. The industry in the Philippines has grown so fast that it has overtaken India as the call-centre capital of the world.



gizmodo.com.au Vietnam is where my family is from, and I only just visited the country for the first time a few weeks ago. The food is delicious, the people were kind and it seems like a wonderful place to get lost in and explore and get lost again.