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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- In his first trip abroad since the summer heat of the re-election campaign, President Barack Obama will seek to reinforce American influence in Southeast Asia in spite of the large shadow cast by China. He will become the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar, an appreciation for its steps toward democratization, as well as Cambodia.
• The four-day trip beginning Saturday will be the president's fourth to Asia. It comes amid unusual challenges at home, including opening discussions with lawmakers about dealing with the nation's fiscal health and a sex scandal that's roiling his national security team.
• Still, Obama is eager to return to foreign policy matters that were put on the back burner by the campaign. The unprecedented visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, gives the trip a historic edge while shoring up a strategic regional goal sought with stops in Thailand and in Cambodia, where he will attend the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh.
• The Asia trip underscores Obama's efforts to establish the United States as an Asia-Pacific power, a worldview defined by 21st century geopolitics but also by Obama's personal identity as America's first Pacific president. Obama was born in Hawaii.
• "Continuing to fill in our pivot to Asia will be a critical part of this president's second term and ultimately his foreign policy legacy," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said ahead of the trip.
• ___

• YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- When Arker Kyaw heard President Barack Obama was coming to Myanmar, he gathered 15 cans of spray paint and headed for a blank brick wall under cover of darkness. Kyaw, whose passion is graffiti, labored from 3 a.m. until the sun came up. Passing taxi drivers and the occasional pedestrian gave him signs of encouragement as Obama's grinning, uplifted face took shape against a background of the American and Myanmar flags.
• "I wanted to welcome him," said Kyaw, a 19-year-old with a sweep of styled hair

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