November Elections
Myanmar protesters burn junta leader’s images on his birthday
Protesters burned mock coffins and pictures of Myanmar’s army ruler Min Aung Hlaing on Saturday in the latest demonstrations against the coup over five months ago that has plunged the Southeast Asian country into chaos. “May you not rest in peace” and “may your birthday and deathday be the same,” read the messages on funeral wreaths in Theinzayet township in eastern Mon state. Similar protests took place in many parts of Myanmar. “We are burning this as a curse,” said one protester in the second city of Mandalay, setting ablaze a small pile of picture of the general, 65. A spokesman for the military authorities did not respond to requests for comment. Min Aung Hlaing took power on Feb. 1, overthrowing elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and cutting short a decade of democratic reforms that had...
More than 90 killed in Myanmar in one of bloodiest days of protests
Security forces killed more than 90 people across Myanmar on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days of protests since a military coup last month, news reports and witnesses said. The lethal crackdown came on Armed Forces Day. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade in the capital Naypyitaw to mark the event that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy. State television had said on Friday that protesters risked being shot “in the head and back”. Despite this, demonstrators against the Feb. 1 coup came out on the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and other towns. The Myanmar Now news portal said 91 people were killed across the country by security forces. A boy reported by local media to be as young as five was among at least 29 people killed in...
Russia, China, Iran reject Microsoft’s hacking allegations
Agence France-Presse China, Russia and Iran have rejected accusations by software giant, Microsoft, that hackers from their countries are targeting U.S. presidential campaigns ahead of the November elections. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested on Friday that Microsoft and the U.S. were inventing the allegations. “With regard to the U.S. elections, I have repeatedly said the U.S. elections are an internal matter and we have no interest or intention of interfering.” A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry made a similar statement on Friday, saying that it didn’t matter to Tehran who won the election. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Microsoft’s conclusions didn’t require attention as long as there was no proof, according to the TASS news agency. The countries listed b...
