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.



reuters Fireworks lit up Singapore's sky as crowds celebrated the city state's 50th anniversary on Sunday, an occasion of national pride the ruling party is expected to exploit by calling an election next month.



ft.com Fifty years ago, Malaysia expelled Singapore from the federation and the two entities went their separate ways. So distraught was Lee Kuan Yew, then Singapore's chief minister, that he shed tears in public for the first and last time in his long and extraordinary career. Half a century later, it should be Malaysians who are crying.

dpa A Singapore-registered tanker was seized by pirates while sailing in Malaysian waters and robbed of its marine fuel before releasing it, a senior Malaysian coast guard official said.



straitstimes.com A ship with 3500 tonnes of marine fuel oil that was reported missing in the Malacca Strait off Malaysia has been found in Indonesian waters without its cargo, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said.



khmertimeskh.com Despite differing political situations, citizens of Burma (Myanmar) and Cambodia face many of the same issues and can learn from each other, activists from the two countries told a conference. Both countries are experiencing growing opposition to social and economic land concessions granted to investors from China and other Asian nations, the activists said at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Cambodia office.



nationmultimedia.com Vietnam is one of four Asean countries negotiating to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the US-led trade agreement. This is expected to attract more investment to Vietnam not only from the US but also other countries, including China, that wish to tap into the preferential trade terms.



bangkokpost.com My personal, and probably controversial, view as a long-term American resident in ''Amazing Thailand,'' is the Thai military did the right thing [in taking charge in May last year]. Short of an outbreak of civil war, then brewing, there was economic standstill and a dearth of other viable options to untangle the Gordian knot of the Thai political turmoil.



AP The number of people affected by flooding across Burma was approaching 1 million, with waters in the low-lying southwestern delta inundating homes and forcing villagers into temporary shelters, the government said. The death toll was on the verge of topping 100.



china post Thai renewable company Impact Energy Asia (IEA) plans to build the largest wind farm in Asean - and generate 600 megawatts on 400,000 rai in southern Laos - under an agreement signed by the Lao government and the company. ''Called Monsoon Wind Farm, the US$1.5 billion farm will be located near the Mekong River across from Ubon Ratchathani,'' said Woramol Khamkanist, who heads the firm.



xinhua The Breastfeeding Awareness Day was observed in Brunei on Sunday, which is aimed at encouraging more and more women to make breastfeeding as a healthy practice and better alternative to bottle feeding.