Would the end-2015 launch of the ASEAN Community be meaningless if ASEAN does not rise up to the challenge posed by the Rohingya “boat people” crisis? The crisis has pushed Southeast Asia into uncharted diplomatic and political waters, given expectations that ASEAN would take the lead to cobble together a long-term solution to a problem that has come to its shores. Experts say that what is needed is a much larger approach that puts a stop to the large number of Rohingyas leaving Myanmar, stamps out the human smuggling networks that profit from their dangerous sea journeys, and puts an end to the deaths at sea and displacement of these people.

Read this two-part series on ASEAN and the Rohingya crisis on Rappler.

The reported extra-judicial executions continue. Whole families had been executed, including children along with their parents. The Islamic State (ISIS) group killed at least 217 people in and around the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in the last 9 days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Reports said some of the executions were shootings, while others were killed with knives and beheaded.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Read a related story on Reuters.

It’s a stunning turnaround. Conservative opposition challenger Andrzej Duda won a surprise victory in Poland’s presidential run-off, trumping incumbent centrist Bronislaw Komorowski with promises of change and generous social spending. Analysts said voters hungry for change in the EU and NATO member state could oust the governing centrist Civic Platform in this year’s parliamentary polls and return the controversial Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party to power after 8 years. The country’s powerful Roman Catholic church also congratulated Duda, with whom it shares an opinion on certain social issues.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Read a related story on The Guardian.

Princeton University mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Nash Jr was in a taxi with his wife, Alicia, in New Jersey on May 23, when the driver lost control and crashed into a guard rail. They were ejected, police said. Nash was 86 while his wife was 82. Nash’s life was the subject of the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind. Nash, from Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is best known for his contribution to game theory – the mathematics of decision-making – which won him the Nobel economics prize in 1994.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Beyond the legal front and possible money-laundering cases, the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay camp admits the freeze order on his bank accounts hits the opposition’s standard-bearer where it hurts: the campaign war chest. One of the objectives of the order is to discourage donors, according to Binay’s party mate Navotas Representative Tobias “Toby” Tiangco. Binay also dared the Anti-Money Laundering Council to also look into the bank accounts of the stalwarts of the ruling Liberal Party.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Read the full story on Binay’s statement on the AMLC.

A vice presidential post does not appeal to him. The presidency is destiny. And what’s more, he wants to retire from politics. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Détente hogged the headlines this weekend after he met with presumptive Liberal Party presidential bet Mar Roxas and he was mentioned by another presidential wannabe, Vice President Jejomar Binay, as one he’s considering as a running mate. But Duterte is undecided. “I have said it before. Just because I am going around promoting federalism does not mean I am running,” he said. He stressed he neither has the funds nor the machinery to run a national campaign. And that he’s old.

Read the full story on Rappler.

A Greek government minister said that Athens will be unable to repay the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on schedule in June, reiterating previous warnings by officials during tense talks with the country’s creditors. Greece faces 4 debt repayments to the IMF from June 5. Athens would struggle to meet all of them without using bailout funds due to it that are being blocked by its international creditors. A failure to honor the repayments could result in default, raising the specter of a possible exit from the euro.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Two residents of Isabela province in Northern Luzon died due to the hot weather, health officials said. The region experienced higher temperatures the past week, bringing scorching heat in the area. Nearby Tuguegarao, considered the hottest city in the country, may still expect higher temperatures in the next few days, a local weather bureau officer said.

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She’s the oldest woman to give birth to 4. Last week, Annegret Raunigk, a 65-year-old German grandmother, gave birth to quadruplets – 3 boys and 1 girl – after a pregnancy of about 26 weeks, CNN said. The premature babies were delivered via C-section and were still in incubators. Raunigk had her first child at the age of 21.

Read the full story on CNN.

The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center once again took on a festive atmosphere last May 23 as all 2,397 inmates flocked to the prison ground to witness the facility’s first professional boxing event. Observers cheered on members of the CPDRC Supermax Boxer team, who had a decided home court advantage. Jimmy Berian of Catmon in northern Cebu, who has spent the last 5 years imprisoned on frustrated murder charges, lost his bout against Luid Bartolome of the Phil Aust Boxing Club via a split decision. His 3 other teammates won their bouts.

Read the full story on Rappler.