MYANMAR
Group seizes border gate
An ethnic minority armed group has seized control from the country’s ruling junta of a lucrative border crossing to China, local media and a security source said yesterday. Clashes have raged across Myanmar’s northern Shan state, close to the Chinese border, after an armed alliance of three ethnic minority groups launched an offensive against the military last month. An offensive by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) — one of the three allied groups — captured the Kyin San Kyawt border gate, a local media outlet affiliated with the group said. “MNDAA also reported they seized one more border trade gate, which is called Kyin San Kyawt, in Mongko area, Muse district this morning,” Kokang News reported yesterday. It added that the alliance — including the Arakan Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army — had taken other positions in the border trade zone after the assault began on Friday.
INDIA
Four die in stampede
At least four people were killed and dozens injured on Saturday evening in a stampede at a university in southern India, local officials and media reported. The stampede occurred at an outdoor auditorium in the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) in southwest Kerala state, where a concert had been planned. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan wrote on X that he was “deeply shocked and grieved to know about the sad demise of four students” at CUSAT. Four more people were in a critical condition and 60 people had been injured, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. A local police official told PTI that a crowd outside the auditorium had rushed for cover during a sudden downpour when a number of people slipped on some stairs and were trampled.
RUSSIA
Ex-PM Kasyanov blacklisted
The Minsitry of Justice on Friday classified former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who left the country to denounce the offensive in Ukraine, as a “foreign agent.” The name of Kasyanov, who was the first head of President Vladimir Putin’s government in the early 2000s, now appears in the justice ministry’s register of “foreign agents,” a term reminiscent of the Soviet-era “enemy of the people.” The ministry accused Kasyanov of having “opposed the special military operation in Ukraine” and of being “a member of the Russian Anti-War Committee, an association whose activities are aimed at discrediting Russian foreign and domestic policy.”
MEXICO
Three journalists freed
Three journalists recently kidnapped in Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero have been freed unharmed after search operations by security authorities, the office of the state’s attorney general said on Saturday. The three journalists released on Saturday were among five people whose disappearance in the tourist town of Taxco the state attorney general’s office had this week said it was investigating. Silvia Arce and Alberto Sanchez, who lead the digital platform RedSiete, were freed early on Saturday, free-speech group, Article 19 said, after having been taken on Wednesday by armed men who entered the outlet’s central Taxco offices. Another journalist freed on Saturday was Marco Toledo, director of the weekly El Espectador de Taxco, authorities said. Toledo’s wife and son had also been kidnapped by five armed men who entered their home last Sunday, Article 19 said. Although Toledo’s wife has been freed, authorities are still searching for his son.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
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