Malaysia

Myanmar's delegate to talks in Bangkok on Southeast Asia's migrant crisis on May 29 rebuked the UN's refugee agency for calling on the country to recognise the Muslim Rohingya minority as citizens to stem their exodus from its shores.

Malaysian police forensic teams, digging with hoes and shovels,  on May 26 began pulling out bodies from shallow graves found in abandoned jungle camps where an inter-governmental body said hundreds of victims of human traffickers may be buried. 

China hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the building of two lighthouses in the disputed South China Sea, state media said on May 26, a move that is likely to escalate tensions in a region already jittery about Beijing's maritime ambitions. 

Two high-ranking officials in Ankara told Reuters Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan will stay on in at least an advisory role to Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu, if the Justice and Development Party (AKP) forms the next government.

Malaysia's home minister has announced that mass graves have been found in the country's north near detention camps run by human traffickers, a report said May 24.

Indonesia has begun search and rescue operations for stranded migrant boats carrying Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar, an official said May 24, after it dropped a hardline policy of refusing them sanctuary.

EU Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva was appointed as co-chair of the newly-established UN High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the establishment of the panel on Thursday, the UN News Centre reports.

Turkey?s defense exports for the first four months of this year were valued at $461 million, a 1.36 percent increase from the same period last year, according to figures from the Turkish Exporters? Assembly (T?M). 

Myanmar's navy has carried out its first rescue of a migrant boat, bringing 208 people to shore, an official told AFP May 22, as it faced mounting international pressure to tackle a regional migration crisis.

Turkey has pledged to add $1 million to efforts by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide humanitarian aid for Rohingya and Bengalese refugees stranded at sea, Anadolu Agency has reported, citing presidency sources.