Clashes between Burmese troops and ethnic Kokang rebels near the Chinese border have left 47 government soldiers dead and 73 wounded, state media said yesterday.
The Global New Light of Myanmar yesterday said that there have been more than 13 clashes in the past several days between government troops and Kokang rebels near Laukkai close to the border, with the government carrying out five airstrikes.
The number of rebel casualties was not immediately known.
It said the fighting has been serious enough for the government to inform China, which is concerned about the clashes because they force civilians to flee across the border.
The report said a Kokang renegade group led by former Kokang leader Peng Jiasheng (彭家聲) attacked military stations with the objective of capturing Laukai, capital of the self-administered Kokang zone, near the border more than 800km northeast of Yangon.
The newspaper quoted local residents as saying that Kokang rebels had infiltrated the area by working in plantations, and had carried out attacks using rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns.
Kokang guerrillas were formerly the main fighting force for the now-defunct Burmese Communist Party until a ceasefire was signed with the then-military government in 1989.
Pheung and his commanders fled Myanmar in 2009 after government forces raided a Kokang weapons factory.
Since coming to power in 2011, the government of Burmese President Thein Sein has been trying to strike peace agreements with about a dozen ethnic rebel groups that have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy.
It has preliminary ceasefire pacts with most, but clashes occasionally occur with Kachin, Shan and other ethnic armed groups.
The ethnic parties say many questions need to be settled before further pacts are signed, which the government had hoped to do next month.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
MIGRATION: The Supreme Court justices said they were not deciding whether Trump could legally use the Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented migrants US President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at the US Supreme Court after it blocked his bid to resume deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, saying the justices are “not allowing me to do what I was elected to do.” Trump’s berating of the high court, in a post on Truth Social, came after it dealt another setback to his attempt to swiftly expel alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members using an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Trump has been at loggerheads with the judiciary ever since he returned to the White House, venting
RSS