These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
Get up to speed with what’s happening in the fastest growing region in the world.
Search and rescue operations end at Kep building collapse site
The National Committee for Disaster Management yesterday ended search and rescue efforts at the site of a building collapse which killed 36 people and injured 23 in Kep province’s Kep city.
NCDM first vice president Kun Kim, who led rescue efforts since Friday’s collapse of the seven-storey building, announced at 11.30am yesterday that the operation has ended after all bodies had been removed from the rubble.
The building which was under construction collapsed at about 4.30pm Friday after workers had just finished work on the top floor and were partying on the ground floor. – Khmer Times
1MDB scandal: Fugitive Jho Low tells ST he was just an intermediary
Fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who is at the heart of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, has claimed that he has been made a target to shift the blame away from a clutch of other parties who played far bigger roles in the financial swindle.
Breaking a long silence over his role in the global financial debacle, Low argued that the "inordinate amount of media scrutiny on me compared to that placed on the global financial and other institutions and advisers that actually organised and facilitated the fundraisings at issue is astounding". – The Straits Times
US-Iran crisis spurs oil fears
The government is moving to find ways to cushion the impact of the US-Iran conflict - particularly rising oil prices - if the tensions escalate into war, in the wake of the US assassination of Iranian top general Qassem Soleimani on Friday.
Energy Minister, Sontirat Sontijirawong, said on Sunday state agencies are closely monitoring the situation because an escalation will have a direct impact on oil prices. Today, the minister will call an urgent meeting to discuss the matter and he promised to provide the public with an update on the situation. – Bangkok Post
Ethnic armed group leader to meet State Counsellor, Senior General
General Yawd Serk, the leader of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) will meet separately with State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Nay Pyi Taw later in the week, the ethnic armed group said in a statement on Sunday.
The RCSS said General Yawd Serk would attend the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM), which will be held in Nay Pyi Taw on Wednesday. The meet is the highest-level meeting in the peace process, which is usually attended by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, top military officials and leaders of the NCA signatories. – Myanmar Times
Travelers monitored for mystery illness
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Sunday ordered the Bureau of Quarantine to intensify surveillance of travelers coming to the Philippines amid reports of the outbreak of a mystery disease in China.
The order came after hospitals in Hong Kong raised their alert level to “serious” on Saturday as the mystery viral pneumonia outbreak in mainland China continued to spread. – Philippine Daily Inquirer