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KYAUKTAW, Myanmar, May 14, 2023 (AFP) – Cyclone Mocha intensified into a category five hurricane on Sunday, hours ahead of its predicted landfall in Myanmar and Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of people evacuated from the coasts were taking shelter. Mocha was packing winds of up to 140 knots or 259 kilometres per hour, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, the equivalent to a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. It […]
SITTWE, Myanmar, May 13, 2023 (AFP) – Thousands fled Myanmar’s west coast and officials in neighbouring Bangladesh raced to evacuate Rohingya refugees on Saturday as the most powerful cyclone in the region for over a decade churned across the Bay of Bengal. Cyclone Mocha was packing winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (136 miles per hour), according to India’s meteorological office, equivalent to a category four hurricane. It is expected to weaken before […]
GWA, Myanmar, May 11, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar and Bangladesh deployed thousands of volunteers and ordered evacuations from low-lying areas on Thursday as the Bay of Bengal’s first cyclone of the year approached. Cyclone Mocha is forecast to make landfall on Sunday along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, according to India’s meteorological office, packing winds of up to 175 kilometres (108 miles) per hour. The office predicted a storm surge of between two and two and a […]
LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia, May 11, 2023 (AFP) – Southeast Asian nations have made “no significant progress” on implementing a peace plan aimed at ending bloodshed in Myanmar, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Thursday, on the final day of a summit. Escalating violence in junta-ruled Myanmar has dominated the three-day meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc on the Indonesian island of Flores. ASEAN, which has spearheaded diplomatic efforts to resolve the […]
YANGON, May 8, 2023 (AFP) – A convoy of diplomats travelling in Myanmar came under fire from an unknown armed group, a military official and a diplomat said Monday. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration in February 2021. On Sunday a convoy of several vehicles travelling in Taunggyi township in eastern Myanmar’s Shan State was attacked by an unknown armed group, a foreign diplomat based in […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s junta on Wednesday announced it had pardoned more than 2,000 prisoners jailed under a law that criminalizes encouraging dissent against the military. The military pardoned “2,153 prisoners serving sentences under Penal Code 505 (a) to mark Kasone Full Moon Day”, a Buddhist festival, the junta said in a statement. The law — which carries a maximum three-year jail term — has been widely used in the junta’s crackdown on dissent […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan should sanction Myanmar as it has done for Russia over its Ukraine invasion, a United Nations expert said Thursday, slamming the junta’s “barbarism and oppression”. Thomas Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, also urged Japan to immediately end a training program for Myanmar troops, warning it was tarnishing the image of the country’s military. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung […]
Jakarta, Indonesia | AFP | Thursday 4/13/2023 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), criticised for its inaction over the deepening Myanmar crisis, strongly condemned on Thursday air strikes that reportedly killed dozens of people. Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, is the 2023 chair of the regional bloc and is hoping to kickstart a five-point plan, agreed with the Myanmar junta two years ago, and other mediation attempts that have so far failed to end […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Dozens of people in central Myanmar were killed in air strikes Tuesday, according to local media reports and a witness contacted by AFP, as the United Nations and Western powers condemned the attacks and demanded accountability. The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos and its economy in tatters since the military seized power in February 2021 coup. UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “horrified” by the deadly air […]
by Ross ADKIN Myanmar’s junta-stacked election commission on Tuesday announced Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law, state media said. The military justified its February 2021 coup with unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in 2020 elections won by the NLD, ending a 10-year democratic experiment and plunging the country into turmoil. In January, it gave political parties two […]
Manila, Philippines | AFP | by Mikhail FLORES Chinese criminals running cryptocurrency scams in Southeast Asia are targeting Filipinos to work for them because of their English language and computer skills, a Philippine foreign ministry official said Monday. Filipinos were “prized” targets for scam networks operating in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, said Eduardo de Vega, acting undersecretary for migrant workers affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs. De Vega said efforts to repatriate Filipinos sucked […]
Myanmar’s junta—the State Administration Council (SAC)—is illegal and illegitimate, the UN human rights expert on Myanmar said. He called for the international community to deny the SAC legitimacy, create a coalition of member states to enforce strong, coordinated sanctions against the SAC, and support the National Unity Government which has a stronger claim to legitimacy. UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
