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YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Envoys from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations arrived in Myanmar Thursday for talks with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, as the coup-stricken nation enters its fifth month of crippling unrest. Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the February coup, with more than 800 people killed in a brutal military crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group. Erywan Pehin Yusof, Brunei’s second minister for foreign […]
by Laurence BENHAMOU MARTEL, France (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that he planned to make “difficult” decisions this summer and again refused to confirm he will seek another five-year term in what is expected to be a hotly contested election next year. “I can’t manage this summer taking it easy,” Macron told a group of pensioners in the southern French village of Martel as part of a nationwide tour. “I’m going to […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — A Belarusian political activist stabbed himself in the neck on the first day of his trial Tuesday and was rushed to hospital, a rights group said. Viasna, an independent rights group monitoring the trial of Stepan Latypov, said it believed the activist had tried to commit suicide following pressure in detention. Thousands of opposition activists and protesters have been arrested and gone on trial in a harsh crackdown on anti-government demonstrations […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Schools in Myanmar will open on Tuesday for the first time since the military seized power, but teachers and students are set to defy the junta’s calls for full classrooms in a show of resistance. Four months of national turmoil have followed the February ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with more than 800 people killed by security forces and a nationwide strike crippling the economy. Public school teachers […]
MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Myanmar correspondent Mratt Kyaw Thu will arrive in Madrid on Tuesday to ask for asylum after fleeing the military junta in Yangon, said the Spanish news agency EFE, which he worked for. The 30-year-old correspondent, who will travel to Spain after failing to obtain asylum in Germany, won AFP’s Kate Webb award in 2017 for his outstanding coverage of the ethnic and religious conflicts in Myanmar. “Tomorrow he will fly from […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China on Monday relaxed its two-child policy to allow couples to have three children, a shift aimed at tackling an ageing society. Here is a timeline of the country’s evolving family planning policy. – One child – In 1979, China imposed a policy forcing couples to have only one baby, introduced by top leader Deng Xiaoping to curb population growth and boost economic development. The population stood at 969 million […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has relaxed its family planning policy to allow couples to have three children after a census showed its population is rapidly ageing, state media reported Monday, further unwinding four decades of controls in the world’s most populous nation which have strangled the birthrate. For almost 40 years, China enforced a controversial “one-child policy” — one of the strictest family planning regulations worldwide — which was relaxed in 2016 to […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Aye Mar sits with her seven children in their Yangon kitchen and worries whether their meal of rice and stringy vegetables — all she can afford in coup-stricken Myanmar — will satisfy their hunger. The national economy and banking system have been paralyzed since a military power-grab which pushed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi out of office in February. Livelihoods have been lost after strikes and factory closures, fuel prices […]
by Serge Daniel and Malick Konate BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali’s interim president and prime minister resigned on Wednesday, a top junta aide said, two days after they were detained and stripped of their powers in what appeared to amount to the country’s second coup in nine months. President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August, resigned in the presence of mediators […]
MINSK, Belarus (AFP) — Belarus on Tuesday sentenced seven activists, including senior opposition figure Pavel Severinets, to jail terms of four to seven years, a journalist reported from court. In a trial held behind closed doors in a court in the eastern Mogilev region, the activists were found guilty of taking part in “mass unrest”, referring to the historic protests that erupted after a disputed presidential election last August. The demonstrations gripped the country for […]
by Serge Daniel and Kassim Traore BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali was in turmoil Tuesday after disgruntled army officers detained the president and the prime minister, sparking fears of a coup less than a year after the last military takeover in the impoverished west African nation. The newest crisis to hit the vast country where jihadists control large swathes of territory sparked widespread international condemnation. Army officers upset with a government reshuffle detained President Bah […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her ousted party would “exist as long as the people exist” during her first in-person court appearance since a February coup, her lawyer told AFP Monday. Since the February 1 putsch, Myanmar has been in uproar with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement, with more than 800 killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group. “We met with Amay […]
