No mood to celebrate: Myanmar to snub water fight festival

AFP

Instead of the usual water pistols, splashing and jubilant crowds during Myanmar's New Year festival of Thingyan, this year's holiday will see real guns, blood on the streets and grief over a democracy robbed.

For a second year running, Myanmar's traditional Buddhist holiday period, which runs from Tuesday to Friday this week, has been disrupted.

Pandemic restrictions forced the cancellation of public water fights, street parties and dance performances last year.

Protests continue amid international bickering

AFP

Despite the dangers, protesters continue to rally and Monday -- the eve of Myanmar's Buddhist new year celebrations -- saw demonstrations in the second biggest city Mandalay as well as Kalay, in the north.

In Yangon, a number of city transport buses were torched overnight.

The bloody crackdown has brought widespread international condemnation and calls for restraint -- as well as sanctions from some countries on the Myanmar armed forces and their extensive business interests.

Myanmar's Suu Kyi hit with new criminal charge

AFP

Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with a fresh criminal charge on Monday, as the junta's tough crackdown on dissent rolls on.

The 75-year-old Nobel laureate has not been seen in public since being detained in the early hours of February 1 as the military deposed her government and seized power.

The generals have used increasingly brutal methods to try to quell a growing protest movement against their rule, while Suu Kyi faces a raft of criminal charges that could see her barred for life from office.

Pandaw cancels all cruises in Myanmar

Mizzima

Pandaw, a pioneer of luxury river cruises in Southeast Asia and India, has cancelled all cruises in Myanmar due to the “current deplorable situation,” TTRweekly reported

Pandaw is one of just a few travel enterprises to come out openly and support the people of Myanmar with medical assistance, the report said.

Myanmar was where Pandaw was born and provided the foundation for successful cruise itineraries in India, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Myanmar youth fight internet outages with underground newsletter

AFP

Myanmar youth are fighting the junta's internet shutdown and information suppression with an explosive underground printed newsletter they are secretly distributing across communities.

For 56 days straight there have been internet outages in coup-hit Myanmar, according to monitoring group NetBlocks.

The country has been in turmoil since democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted in a February 1 coup, triggering a mass uprising that has resulted in a brutal security crackdown and more than 700 civilian deaths.

Clashes break out in Kachin State

AFP

Sunday saw intense fighting in Momauk township in the northern Kachin state between the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic armed group, and the Myanmar military.

"They tried to get into our area, but our troops tried to block them on the road," KIA spokesman Colonel Naw Bu told AFP, adding clashes had broken out from 8 pm the previous night and that the Myanmar army had deployed airstrikes against them.

Seven killed after quake rocks Indonesia's Java island

AFP

At least seven people were killed after a 6.0 magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia's main Java island Saturday, as the country reels from a cyclone disaster in another part of the archipelago.

The afternoon quake hit offshore about 45 kilometres southwest of Malang city in East Java, damaging hundreds of homes as well as schools, government offices and mosques across the region.

Scores killed in Myanmar’s Bago as UN envoy calls for 'strong action'

AFP

 

Reports emerged Saturday of more than 80 killed in the latest bloodletting by Myanmar's military, as the country's own ambassador to the United Nations called for "strong action" against the junta.

 

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in February, with protesters refusing to submit to the junta and demanding a return to democracy.

 

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