Police are using road blocks and tracker dogs as they try and hunt down 109 asylum seekers who burned down a Malaysian detention centre before escaping.  The BBC reports the detainees include asylum seekers and illegal immigrants from Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Iran and Nigeria.

“Investigations showed that they were dissatisfied over cramped living conditions, the food and long detention periods,” the state deputy police chief, Abdul Manan Mohamad Hassan, was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

He added that many had lost patience over the long process needed to resettle in third countries.

The centre houses a total of 540 migrants, many of whom had been there for more than a year.

On the other side of the world a search is under way for 150 migrants missing in the Mediterranean after their boat capsized in rough seas off the Italian isle of Lampedusa. Italian rescue vessels and a helicopter saved 48 refugees from the boat, which had been carrying about 200 people.