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.



ctvnews.ca Who needs a selfie stick when you've got a camera-friendly elephant? Canadian Christian LeBlanc was staying on Thailand's Koh Phangan island two months ago when he started feeding elephants and taking photos. When the 22-year-old ran out of bananas, one of the animals picked up his GoPro and snapped a spectacular ''elphie.''



nytimes.com Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to take in thousands of migrants stranded at sea until they can be sent home or resettled in a third country, in the first official action by Southeast Asian nations to try to resolve a crisis well into its second week.

ft.com Malaysia and Indonesia issued a joint statement after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, pledging to offer the migrants at sea temporary shelter and humanitarian assistance, followed by ''resettlement and repatriation'' within a year.

wsj.com More than 400 exhausted and starving Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants staggered ashore after the three-decked, green-painted wooden trawler was towed into the tiny fishing port of Julok in Indonesia's Aceh province by fishing boats.

wsj.com The World Bank offered a big chunk of funding to Indonesia, a signal that the Washington-based lender is pushing back against China's ambitions to finance projects in the region.

reuters China is offering $40 billion to set up a Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia, including to Indonesia.

anantara The Indonesian maritime authorities sank 41 fishing ships found illegally operating in Indonesian waters to coincide with the the National Awakening Day celebrations.



christiantoday.com The Philippines has said it is willing to welcome 3000 ethnic Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladesh, which the Catholic Church has attributed to a sense of Christian duty.



independent.co.uk In a genocide silence is complicity, and so it is with Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's desperate Rohingya community. The Burmese government's ongoing persecution of the Rohingya has, in the last two years, reached a level so untenable that the Rohingya are faced with only two options, to remain and risk annihilation or flee. The Rohingya now face what genocide scholar Daniel Feirestein describes as ''systematic weakening,'' the genocidal stage prior to annihilation.
Full story here http://goo.gl/O2wAEe

cnn.com ''What needs to change here is that the Rohingya need to feel welcome in the country of their birth, in the country of their parents' birth, of their grandparents' birth,'' Tom Malinowski, Assistant Secretary of State for democracy, human rights and labor, told CNN. ''They need to be treated as citizens with dignity and human rights.''

theguardian.com An extra $6m in humanitarian aid will be given to agencies working in Burma's Rakhine state, an area that houses the majority of Rohingya people, the foreign minister Julie Bishop announced: ''It will also undermine the ability of people smugglers to sell the false hope of unsafe boat journeys to neighboring countries.''



ibtimes.co.uk A Malaysia court sentenced 33-year-old mechanic, Basheer Ahmad Maula Sahul Hameed to four years jail and three strokes of the cane for stealing $2115 from the account of a passenger who was on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

thestar.com.my Malaysians has been ranked poorly in environmental democratic rights, coming in 69th of 70 countries surveyed worldwide. On the US-based World Resources Institute's Environmental Democracy Index in Southeast Asia, Indonesia came out tops with a score of 1.8, followed by Thailand at 1.38 and the Philippines at 1.35.



channelnewsasia.com More than 1000 people marked Cambodia's annual ''Day of Anger'' against the genocidal former Khmer Rouge regime, with black-clad students wielding rifles, knives and bamboo sticks to mimic its crimes of the late 1970s. Up to two million people were executed or died from starvation, overwork or torture during the Khmer Rouge era, which lasted from 1975-79.



bbc.com Animal rights activists say they have obtained video showing exported Australian cattle being killed with sledgehammers in Vietnam. The Australian government says it will investigate the footage.



theconversation.com Over the past two decades, all of the territorial claimants, other than Brunei, have developed outposts in the South China Sea, which they use to project civilian or maritime presence into surrounding waters, assert their sovereignty claims to land features, and monitor the activities of other claimants. In the Spratly islands, Vietnam has 48 outposts; the Philippines eight; China eight; Malaysia five; and Taiwan one. But have you ever read or heard of US criticism of Hanoi, or a US threat to send warships to deter the Vietnamese activity in the South China Sea?



bignewsnetwork.com High-ranking officials in Laos have been tapping state coffers to build roads to their private residences, prompting outrage among citizens who say such funds are needed to repair main thoroughfares used by the public, sources inside the country said.



channelnewsasia.com Tigerair flight TR2464 from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur returned to Changi Airport shortly after takeoff on Wednesday due to ''inclement weather and a technical problem with the aircraft's radar,'' the airline confirmed.