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by Richard SARGENT / Su Myat MON NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi cast her ballot Thursday ahead of election day next week with hundreds of thousands of elderly voters across the country expected to follow suit to reduce the risk of coronavirus. Wearing a face mask, rubber gloves and her trademark flowers in her hair, Suu Kyi was one of the first in the country to vote in the […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Parliament on Thursday removed Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the “Sakharov Prize community” because of her “acceptance” of state crimes against the Rohingya community. The EU assembly awarded the former democracy campaigner its top human rights prize in 1990, a year before she received the Nobel Peace Prize, but she will no longer take part in events for laureates. A source close to the parliament said […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Conservationists have warned a sudden change in Myanmar’s law allowing the commercial farming of tigers, pangolins and other endangered species risks further fuelling demand in China for rare wildlife products. The Southeast Asian nation is already a hub for the illegal trafficking of wildlife, a trade driven by demand from neighbouring China and worth an estimated $20 billion worldwide. In June, Myanmar’s Forest Department quietly gave the green light to private […]
HPAKANT, Myanmar (AFP) — The battered bodies of more than 160 jade miners were pulled from a sea of mud after a landslide in northern Myanmar on Thursday, after one of the worst-ever accidents to hit the treacherous industry. Scores die each year while working in the country’s lucrative but poorly regulated jade trade, which uses low-paid migrant workers to scrape out a gem highly coveted in China. The disaster struck after heavy rainfall pounded […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — The bodies of at least 100 jade miners were pulled from the mud after a landslide in northern Myanmar on Thursday, in one of the worst ever accidents to hit the perilous industry. Scores die each year while working in the country’s lucrative but poorly regulated jade industry, which uses low-paid migrant workers to scrape out a gem highly coveted in China. The disaster struck after an early bout of heavy […]
(Eagle News)–Thirty-five stranded Filipinos in Myanmar joined the special repatriation flight organized by the Philippine Embassy in Yangon and the Myanmar Embassy in Manila in coordination with Myanmar Airways International to return home. The relief flight departed Yangon International Airport for Manila on June 25. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, most of the passengers were “adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and could no longer afford to continue staying in Myanmar.” It said […]
LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia (AFP) — Nearly 100 Rohingya asylum seekers stranded off the coast of Indonesia were pulled to shore Thursday by locals angered at the refusal of authorities to give them shelter over coronavirus fears. Some 94 people from the persecuted Myanmar minority — including 30 children — were reportedly plucked from a rickety wooden boat by fishermen this week before being intercepted by maritime officials from Sumatra island who pulled them closer to shore. […]
(Eagle News) – Ninety-one Filipinos from Myanmar were repatriated back to the Philippines after being stranded in the capital city of Yangon, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported on Tuesday, May 19. In a statement, the DFA said that some of the Filipinos were stranded due to flight cancellations, while others lost their jobs due to COVID-19 restrictions. “Most of the Filipinos who were repatriated were staying in Yangon. Others came from the capital, Nay […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — More than a quarter of Myanmar’s prison population is being released, the president’s office announced Friday, after calls grew to ease pressure on overcrowded jails with coronavirus fears gripping the country. The Southeast Asian nation grants an annual amnesty to thousands of prisoners to mark its April New Year holiday, but this is the largest recorded in recent years. It comes as governments around the world — including the US, […]
by Sun Myat Mon and Richard Sargent YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar confirmed its first cases of the deadly novel coronavirus late Monday after weeks of increasing skepticism over the under-developed southeast Asian nation’s claims to be free of the disease. The country of 54 million people had been the world’s largest country by population not to report a single case of the pandemic that has confined more than 1.7 billion to their homes. With […]
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations on Tuesday appealed for nearly $900 million to help hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and vulnerable host communities in Bangladesh this year. The UN refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration and other partners launched a joint appeal for $877 million (789 million euros). The money would go “to respond to the needs of approximately 855,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and over 444,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in […]
by Danny KEMP Agence France Presse THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — The UN’s highest court ordered Myanmar on Thursday to do everything in its power to prevent the alleged genocide of Rohingya Muslims, as international justice stepped into the crisis for the first time. The International Court of Justice rejected arguments made by Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in The Hague in December and set out urgent steps for the majority Buddhist […]
