SINGAPORE, Jan 21 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – In late 2011, Singapore pledged 50 million Singapore dollars (40.7 million US dollars) to help its neighbours Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam integrate better into the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community that is to be in place by 2015. ...

In this Sep.26 open letter, human rights activists argue that "serious flaws" in the draft ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, set to be adopted by ASEAN later in the year, must be addressed. If not, they say, the declaration would "not bode well for the reputation and credibility" of the ASEAN human rights mechanism. ...

SINGAPORE (IPS Asia-Pacific) – Say ‘ASEAN’ and South-east Asians are likely to know of their main regional organisation. But this good recall does not always mean they understand how ASEAN really works, its kind of regionalism, or how this relates to their governments’ policies or their daily lives. ...

There is a lot of discussion in the media and public space about ASEAN, but there are also many misconceptions about the regional organisation, says Rodolfo Severino, Head of the ASEAN Studies Centre. ...

SINGAPORE, Mar 20 (IPS) - A routine announcement by the government of this city-state entitling foreign, female domestic workers to a day off each week has sent their affluent employers into a tizzy. link: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107134 ...