BANGKOK - ABHISIT Vejjajiva - a patrician 44-year-old with an Oxford education - became Thailand's prime minister on Monday amid hopes that he can calm the political storms that have battered the country for the past three years.

But untested at the pinnacle of power and said to lack decisiveness, he could face one of the roughest rides in modern Thai history.

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA may freeze permits for foreign workers due to rising unemployment, the country's labour ministry said om Monday, in a move that comes after Singapore said it could return thousands of foreign workers.

State news agency Bernama quoted the Director-General of Labour, Ismail Abdul Rahim, as saying that a freeze was one of the ways the government would seek to staunch the rise in unemployment.

PHNOM PENH - PRINCE Norodom Ranariddh, a key leader in post-civil war Cambodia, has been appointed as chief adviser to his half brother, the king, the prince's office said on Monday.

King Norodom Sihamoni appointed Prince Ranariddh as president of the Supreme Privy Advisory Council on Dec 6, giving him a rank formally equivalent to that of prime minister, the prince's office said in a statement.