Myanmar

Myanmar parliament elects ruling general Min Aung Hlaing as new president

Myanmar's parliament on Friday elected Min Aung Hlaing, a general who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in 2021 and kept an iron grip on power for the past five years, as the country's new president. The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered to be an effort to keep the army in power after an election organised by the military that opponents and independent observers deemed neither free nor fair. Min Aung Hlaing was one of three nominees for the president's post, but was virtually guaranteed the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the army hold a commanding majority in parliament.

Myanmar starts presidential election process under military influence

Myanmar's Parliament on Monday began the process of electing the country's next president, which will mark a nominal return to an elected government after five years of military rule, but is widely considered to be an effort to keep power in the hands of the army. The process began the same day that Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military-led government, announced that he was relinquishing his concurrent post of the military's commander-in-chief. The move is a prerequisite for becoming head of state, because the Constitution prohibits the president from simultaneously holding the top military position. Min Aung Hlaing will be among three nominees to contend for the president's post, but is virtually certain to get the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the military hold a commanding majority in Parliament. Here's what to know about the nominal transition to elected democracy. New president could be named by end of ...

FATF adds Kuwait, Papua New Guinea to increased monitoring list

Kuwait and Papua New Guinea have been placed under FATF's increased monitoring, while Iran, DPRK and Myanmar continue on the high-risk list requiring enhanced due diligence

Online extortion centres in Myanmar, Cambodia completely dismantled: China

China's security officials claim to have "completely dismantled" Myanmar and Cambodia based notorious Chinese criminal gangs who terrorised the world with online extortion rackets forcing people to part with their hard-earned savings. Thousands of people in India, China and several other countries were defrauded by these gangs operating in Thai-Myanmar borders and Cambodia. By the end of 2025, Chinese courts nationwide had sentenced more than 41,000 individuals repatriated from northern Myanmar for their involvement in telecom fraud, executing 16 after death sentences were pronounced against them and sentenced 39 to life terms in jail, a spokesman of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) said. The notorious Ming and Bai family criminal gangs based in northern Myanmar have been completely dismantled, state-run Global Times quoted the spokesman as saying on Thursday. More than 27,000 first-instance cases involving telecom fraud linked to northern Myanmar had been concluded by Chinese

93% biometric enrolment of Myanmar refugees completed in Mizoram: Minister

The Mizoram government has nearly completed the biometric enrolment of refugees from Myanmar who have taken shelter across the state, Home Minister K Sapdanga informed the Assembly on Monday. The minister said that deputy commissioners are currently supervising the final phase of the process. "Altogether, 93 per cent of the biometric enrolment for Myanmar refugees was completed as of February 5. We aim to complete the remaining work as quickly as possible," he said. According to the minister, Mizoram currently hosts 38,059 people, including refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs) from neighbouring Manipur. He said the registration process, which involves collecting biometric and demographic details of asylum seekers from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), is also underway and expected to be completed soon. A senior official of the state home department said 13 per cent of over 2,300 Bangladeshi nationals have been enrolled to ...

Tremors felt in Kolkata after earthquake hits Myanmar, Bangladesh, Tibet

Earlier on Tuesday, an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 struck Myanmar at about 9:04 PM. It occurred at a depth of 27 km, making it susceptible to aftershocks

Why Myanmar's junta plans elections during an ongoing nationwide civil war

Most analysts see the election as a way for the military, which has governed Myanmar for much of the past six decades, to entrench its rule via proxies in the absence of a viable political opposition

Asean won't endorse election in military-ruled Myanmar, says Malaysia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will not endorse elections in military-ruled Myanmar, Malaysia's foreign minister said Tuesday, citing concerns over the lack of inclusive and free participation. Myanmar's military-backed political party appeared headed for a parliamentary majority after the second round of voting earlier this month in the country's first general election since the army ousted a civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The takeover triggered widespread opposition that has grown into a civil war. Human rights and opposition groups say the polls were neither free nor fair and are an effort by the military to legitimise its rule. Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told Parliament that ASEAN leaders decided at their summit in October not to send observers to Myanmar because conditions for a credible election were not met, though some member countries chose to do so individually. Myanmar's Information Ministry said last month that ASEAN .

Myanmar's military frees over 6,100 prisoners on independence anniversary

Myanmar's military government granted amnesty to more than 6,100 prisoners and reduced other inmates' sentences Sunday to mark the 78th anniversary of the country's independence from Britain. It was not immediately clear whether those released include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule. The amnesty comes as the military government proceeds with a monthlong, three-stage election process that critics say is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo. State-run MRTV television reported that Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, pardoned 6,134 prisoners. A separate statement said 52 foreigners will also be released and deported from Myanmar. No comprehensive list of those freed is available. Other prisoners received reduced sentences, except for those convicted of serious charges such as murder and rape or those jailed on charges under various other security acts. The release terms warn that if the freed

Polls open for military-ruled Myanmar's first general election in 5 years

Voters went to the polls on Sunday for the initial phase of Myanmar's first general election in five years, held under the supervision of its military government while a civil war rages throughout much of the country. Critics charge that the election is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to military rule, which began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Her party won a landslide victory in the 2020 election but was blocked from taking office for a second term. In Yangon, the country's largest city, Naypyitaw, the capital, and elsewhere, voters were casting their ballots at high schools, government buildings and religious buildings. Critics argue that the results will lack legitimacy due to the exclusion of major parties and limits on freedom of speech and an atmosphere of repression. They contend that the expected victory of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party makes the nominal transition to civilian rule a ..

Why Myanmar is going to hold elections on December 28 amid a civil war

Critics argue the polls neither restore Myanmar's fragile democracy, dismantled by the military takeover in 2021, nor offer a pathway to ending the violence triggered by continued army rule

Myanmar to hold 1st election in 5 years as criticism of military rule grows

Myanmar will hold the first phase of a general election on Sunday, its first vote in five years and an exercise that critics say will neither restore the country's fragile democracy undone by a 2021 army takeover, nor end a devastating civil war triggered by the nation's harsh military rule. The military has framed the polls as a return to multi-party democracy, likely seeking to add a facade of legitimacy to its rule, which began after the army four years ago ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover triggered widespread popular opposition that has grown into a civil war. The fighting has complicated holding the polls in many contested areas. Voting will be held in different parts of the country in three phases, with the second on Jan. 11 and the third on Jan. 25. Human rights and opposition groups say the vote will be neither free nor fair and that power is likely to remain in the hands of military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. Critics doubt a real ..

Strike on hospital in rebel-controlled area of Myanmar kills 34, injures 80

An airstrike by Myanmar's military destroyed a hospital in an area controlled by a leading rebel armed force, killing 34 patients and medical staff, according to a rescue worker and independent media reports on Thursday. About 80 other people were injured in the attack on Wednesday night on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine. The military, which took over Myanmar's government in 2021 and has been fighting ethnic militias and armed resistance forces since then, has not mentioned any attack in the area. Wai Hun Aung, a senior official for rescue services in Rakhine, told The Associated Press that a jet fighter dropped two bombs at 9.13 pm with one hitting the hospital's recovery ward and the other landing near the hospital's main building. He said he arrived at the hospital early on Thursday to provide assistance and recorded the deaths of 17 women and 17 men. He said that most of the hospital buildin

Myanmar nationals misused Indians' GST credentials for drug trafficking: ED

Investigation into a cross-border narcotics trafficking racket has found that Myanmarese nationals "misused" GST credentials of Indians to facilitate purchase of raw material required for manufacturing drugs, the ED said. The federal probe agency had conducted its first-ever searches along the India-Myanmar border on November 27 following registration of a money laundering case into a drugs trafficking case of Mizoram. Locations across Aizawl and Champhai (along India-Myanmar border) in Mizoram, Sribhumi (Karimganj) in Assam and Ahmedabad in Gujarat were raided under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). India shares a 1,643-km-long front with Myanmar on its eastern side. Evidence gathered during the searches indicated that Indians procured Pseudoephedrine tablets and Caffeine Anhydrous on behalf of Myanmar nationals, enabling trans-border drug production and trafficking apart from money laundering, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement issued o

US sanctions entities in Myanmar, Thailand for fraudulent investment scams

Americans lost at least $10 billion in 2024 to Southeast Asia-based online scam operations, a 66 per cent increase from the prior year, Department of State said

197 Indians repatriated from Thailand by special Indian Air Force flights

According to the Indian Embassy, the Indian nationals deported today were detained in Mae Sot after they had recently crossed into Thailand from Myawaddy, Myanmar

Myanmar records earthquake of magnitude 3.3 in Sagaing Fault region

A 1,400-kilometre transform fault runs through Myanmar and connects the Andaman spreading centre to a collision zone in the north called the Sagaing Fault