myanmar

Myanmar Paraglider Bomb Attack Kills Dozens In Sagaing

October 8, 2025 8:45 am

At least 24 people were killed and 47 wounded in central Myanmar after a motorised paraglider dropped two bombs on a crowd gathered in Chaung U township on Monday evening. The attack struck during a national holiday protest and candlelight vigil, as around 100 people had assembled to call for political reforms and freedom for jailed leaders.

The reported bombing is one of the deadliest uses of paramotor strikes by Myanmar’s military in recent months.

Protesters had gathered in Sagaing’s Chaung U township to observe the Thadingyut full-moon festival and simultaneously press demands for the release of political prisoners including …

Visa: Ex UK Envoy To Myanmar, Vicky Bowman Arrested

August 26, 2022 5:57 am

A former British ambassador to Myanmar, Vicky Bowman, and her husband were on Friday detained by the military authorities in Myanmar.

Africa Daily News, New York gathered that she and her husband are both being accused of violating visa laws, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Between 2002 and 2006, Ms. Bowman served as an ambassador to Myanmar. She is wed to Htein Lin, a Burmese artist and former political detainee.

She is the director of the Yangon-based Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business.

A trial for the two has been set for September 6 at Insein detention center …

New East Myanmar Crises Have Displaced At Least 100,000 – UN

June 9, 2021 5:55 am

Approximately 100,000 people have been displaced by new fighting between Myanmar’s military and rebel groups in the east of the coup-stricken country, the UN disclosed yesterday.

Africa Daily News, New York gathered that Myanmar has been in chaos and its economy paralysed since the generals ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February, accusing it of fraud during the 2020 elections.

Fighting has flared in several communities — especially in townships that have seen a high death toll at the hands of police — and some locals have formed ‘defence forces’.

Yesterday, the UN’s Myanmar office revealed that recent clashes …

Many in Myanmar still view domestic abuse as a normal part of marriage that women must endure, says lawyer and activist Hla Hla Yee

No Country For Young Women? Myanmar’s Battle Against Rape

March 2, 2020 5:31 pm

Officially, rape hardly happens in Myanmar and domestic abuse is non-existent. The reality? Violence against women is so pervasive it is regarded as normal — and as a result — woefully underreported, says lawyer and activist Hla Hla Yee.

“Domestic abuse in Myanmar is regarded as a family matter and even if it is reported, the police fail to take action,” she explains, adding that many still view it as a normal part of marriage that women must endure.

The UN has warned violence against women and girls is a “silent emergency” in the country, with incidents spanning groping on …

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi Rejects Genocide Claims At Top UN Court

December 11, 2019 3:50 pm

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi rejected allegations of genocide against Myanmar in the UN’s top court Wednesday, despite admitting the army may have used excessive force against Rohingya Muslims.

Suu Kyi denied “misleading and incomplete” claims by The Gambia that a 2017 military operation had attempted to exterminate the Rohingya, in a rare address by a state leader to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Once hailed worldwide as a rights icon for her defiance of the same generals she is now defending, Suu Kyi also warned the Hague-based court that its involvement in the case risked “feeding …

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi Told To ‘Stop The Genocide’ In UN Court

December 10, 2019 3:30 pm

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi faced calls for Myanmar to “stop the genocide” of Rohingya Muslims as she personally led her country’s defence at the UN’s top court on Tuesday.

Myanmar’s civilian leader sat through graphic accounts of mass murder and rape as the west African state of The Gambia set out its case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Thousands of people back home in Yangon rallied in support of 74-year-old Suu Kyi, whose silence about the plight of the Rohingya has tarnished her international reputation as a rights icon.

Around 740,000 Rohingya …

Riding High On Myanmar’s Human-Powered Ferris Wheels

November 27, 2019 2:52 pm

Aung careers towards the ground, hanging from one arm on the basket of one of Myanmar’s human-powered Ferris wheels, reliant on gravity-defying agility and split-second coordination honed since the age of nine.

Fireworks shower down onto jubilant crowds nearby from stunning, if treacherous, hot air balloons at the annual festival in Shan State’s capital Taunggyi.

As ear-splitting techno pumps out from the fairground, the team of lithe youngsters coax captivated onlookers onto their Ferris ride, hamster-wheeling it round to fill up the baskets.

AFP / Ye Aung THUWorkers scamper up the 20-metre (60-foot) high structure

Aung Sein Phyo,

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Hostages ‘Killed’ As Rakhine Rebels, Myanmar Army Clash

October 27, 2019 8:28 pm

A number of hostages seized by ethnic Rakhine rebels in a raid on a ferry packed with scores of Myanmar security forces have been killed, the insurgents and army said late Sunday, blaming each other for the deaths.

On Saturday rebels from the Arakan Army (AA), who are fighting for greater autonomy for Rakhine Buddhists from the state, forced a ferry to the shore taking around 50 people hostage including 14 soldiers and 29 police officers.

The army said it deployed attack helicopters in pursuit of the rebels who tried to escape with the detainees loaded onto three boats.

Both …

Reuters journalists convicted in Myanmar pardoned, freed

May 6, 2019 10:42 pm

Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars, witnesses said.

The two reporters, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, had been convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a case that raised questions about Myanmar’s progress toward democracy and sparked an outcry from diplomats and human rights advocates.