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BANGKOK (AFP) – Ethnic minority fighters battling Myanmar’s junta said Saturday they seized a trading hub in Shan state, days after China said it had mediated a temporary ceasefire. Clashes have raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state since the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) launched a joint offensive late October. The three allied groups — known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance — say […]
MANILA, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Sunday the country was “undeterred” after confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels. “We remain undeterred,” Marcos said in a statement on Facebook and X platforms. “The aggression and provocations perpetrated by the China Coast Guard and their Chinese Maritime Militia against our vessels and personnel over the weekend have only further steeled our determination to defend and protect our nation’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – The United States called Sunday for Beijing to halt its “dangerous and destabilizing” actions in the disputed South China Sea, after a Philippine boat and Chinese Coast Guard ship collided near a contested reef. Both countries traded blame after the incident earlier Sunday, the latest such confrontation in the contested sea. The collision happened during a Philippine resupply mission to a tiny garrison on Second Thomas Shoal in the […]
JAKARTA, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Friday his government suspects a human trafficking network is behind the rising number of Rohingya refugees reaching his country by boat. The mostly Muslim Rohingya face heavy persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar — including a 2017 crackdown that is subject to a UN genocide probe — and many have fled over the border to camps in neighbouring Bangladesh. From there, thousands risk their lives each […]
BANGKOK, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) – Seventeen Thai hostages kidnapped and held for weeks by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are expected to return home on Thursday to be met by overjoyed relatives at the Bangkok airport. Tens of thousands of Thais were working in Israel, mostly in the agricultural sector, when Palestinian militants poured over the border on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities. At […]
BANGKOK, Nov 26, 2023 (AFP) – An ethnic minority armed group in Myanmar has seized control from the country’s ruling junta of a lucrative border crossing to China, local media and a security source said Sunday. Clashes have raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state, close to the Chinese border, after an armed alliance of three ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military in October. The groups have seized dozens of military positions and […]
LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia, Nov 25, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesian police and fishermen said Saturday they have begun patrolling parts of the country’s westernmost province to prevent Rohingya refugees from landing on its shores, after nearly 1,100 members of the persecuted Myanmar minority arrived this month. Thousands from the mostly Muslim minority risk their lives each year making sea journeys from refugee camps in Bangladesh, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. As […]
BANGKOK, Nov 19, 2023 (AFP) – More than 250 Thais trapped in northern Myanmar by an upsurge in fighting between the junta and an alliance of ethnic minority groups are to be repatriated through China, Thailand’s foreign ministry said Sunday. Fighting has surged across a swathe of Myanmar since late October, when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA) launched attacks on the military. The rugged, […]
JAKARTA, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – A boat carrying Rohingya refugees that was forced back to sea earlier this week was sighted Saturday several miles off the coast of Indonesia’s westernmost region, according to a local commander. The group of around 250 people from the persecuted Myanmar minority arrived off Aceh province on Thursday, but residents told them not to land. The boat travelled to another location in Aceh where a second group of residents […]
JAKARTA, Nov 15, 2023 (AFP) – Southeast Asian defence ministers called for an end to the Myanmar crisis and to the Israel-Hamas war on Wednesday as they gathered for talks that will include meetings with regional counterparts and the Pentagon chief. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings in Jakarta were dominated by issues ranging from the Myanmar crisis to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as well as Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the […]
YANGON, Nov 3, 2023 (AFP) – An alliance of Myanmar ethnic minority groups is waging a lightning offensive against the military which analysts say is the biggest battlefield challenge to the junta since it seized power. The fighting across northern Shan state has displaced more than 23,000 people according to the UN, and seen dozens of military outposts fall. The rugged jungle region has long been a bitterly contested theatre of conflict between ethnic armed […]
