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.

TOURISM officials are finalising plans for a multi-stage cycling event along the Mekong River, while playing down confusion over talks last year with Tour de France organisers, the Bangkok Post reports. Sports and Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said details were still being worked on, but Loei had been pegged as the likely start.



dailymail.co.uk A British man who rode a motorbike naked through Cambodia will be kicked out of the country for ''violating the beautiful customs and culture'' of the country. Crawford Brown, 24, spent the weekend in jail after being pulled over by police for riding naked. Police also caught 22-year-old Catarina Aarnio, from Finland, and Italian Giancarlo Allocca, 30, travelling naked with Mr Brown.



theguardian.com Indonesian divers have found the black box flight recorders of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people on board, the transport ministry has said. However, they did not retrieve the box immediately from the seabed because it was stuck under debris from the main body of the plane.

tvnz.co.nz Richard James Wackrow, 40, is charged with assaulting his German ex-girlfriend, known in police documents as Lisa Christina. Originally from New Zealand, he is accused of first slapping the designer and then hitting her with a motorcycle helmet, breaking her nose and damaging her cheek and both eyes.



maannews.net The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that a group of Palestinian refugees detained in Laos after entering the country illegally have been released. The Palestinians arrived in Laos after fleeing their refugee camps in Syria due to the war. After entering the country using fake passports, they were caught and detained for four months, the statement said.



AP The government's failure to prevent Buddhist-Muslim clashes, and continued discrimination against the stateless Rohingya - an estimated 100,000 fled the country also known as Burma in the past two years - are at the top of a long list of enduring human rights concerns. The US is hoping to nudge Myanmar's quasi-civilian government on stalled reforms during a high-level human rights dialogue.

thedailystar.net Bangladesh urged the international community to come up with a ''louder voice'' to resolve the long-pending Rohingya refugee issue and ensure their return to their homeland in Burma. Some 30,000-32,000 documented Myanmar nationals are living in Bangladesh.



straitstimes.com By the end of this year, you no longer have to bring cash when you eat at some hawker centres in Singapore as they will allow you to pay via Nets FlashPay. The system will be introduced in 10 to 20 hawker centres over the next few months, the chief executive officer of Nets, Mr Jeffrey Goh, announced.



tuoitrenews.vn Two Vietnamese budget airlines are offering nearly-free tickets for several domestic routes to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year, or Vietnam's Tet, which falls on February 19.



upi.com Thousands of troops and police in the Philippines have been placed on high alert for the visit starting this week of Pope Francis, his first to the country. As many as 37,000 security personnel are involved.