Myanmar

(Reuters) --- Myanmar's junta-appointed election commission will dissolve Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party (NLD) because of what it said was fraud in a November election, news outlet Myanmar Now said on Friday, citing a commissioner.

Myanmar Now said the decision was made during a meeting with political parties that was boycotted by many parties including the NLD.

(Reuters) --- Children and the elderly make up a large proportion of people taking refuge in camps in northwest Myanmar to escape fighting between the army and insurgents, residents said on Thursday, as France called for an urgent delivery of humanitarian aid.

In the past week, Chin State bordering India has seen some of the most serious fighting since Myanmar's military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1 and removed the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

(Reuters) --- The number of people from Myanmar seeking shelter in India has swelled to more than 15,000, with more likely to cross over as fighting intensifies in parts Myanmar following a coup, an Indian government official said on Tuesday.

The influx into the small, northeast Indian state of Mizoram, which shares a porous, mountainous border with Myanmar, began in late February as policemen fled to avoid having to take orders from a junta trying to suppress opposition to the Feb. 1 coup. 

(Reuters) --- Myanmar's army battled local militia fighters in the northwestern town of Mindat on Saturday, residents said, to try to quell a rebellion that has sprung up to oppose the junta which seized power in the Southeast Asian country in February.

The fighting in Mindat, Chin state, underlines the growing chaos in Myanmar as the junta struggles to impose its authority in the face of daily protests, strikes and sabotage attacks after overthrowing elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

YANGON, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's Foreign Affairs Ministry will hold talks with officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next week, a spokesperson of the State Administration Council said on Saturday.

"There is no official notice regarding the visit of ASEAN chair and secretary general to Myanmar so far, but the Foreign Affairs Ministry will have discussions with ASEAN officials next week," Major General Zaw Min Tun told a press conference.

(Reuters) --- More than 11,000 academics and other university staff opposed to Myanmar's ruling junta have been suspended after going on strike in protest against military rule, a teachers' group told Reuters.

The suspensions come as the resumption of universities after a year closed due to the coronavirus epidemic prompts a new confrontation between the army and the staff and students who are calling for boycotts over the Feb. 1 coup.

(Reuters) --- Myanmar's ruling junta is focusing on creating a stable situation in the country before agreeing to allow a visit by a Southeast Asian envoy, as part of a five-point consensus agreed by regional leaders last month, an official said on Friday.

YANGON. May 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A leading Myanmar ethnic rebel army said that it had shot down a military helicopter on Monday, a day after a renewed junta crackdown on anti-coup protests left at least five civilians dead.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) said it downed the helicopter gunship during fierce clashes near the town of Momauk in the country’s far north.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power on Feb 1.

(Reuters) --- Protesters against military rule marched in Myanmar on Saturday three months after a coup ended a democratic transition, with several small blasts compounding a sense of crisis that a U.N. envoy warned could bring state administration to a halt.

The military has tried to end dissent and impose its authority on a people largely opposed to the return of rule by the generals after 10 years of democratic reforms that included a government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.

(Reuters) --- Thousands of ethnic Karen villagers in Myanmar are poised to cross into Thailand if, as expected, fighting intensifies between the Myanmar army and Karen insurgents, joining those who have already escaped the turmoil that followed a Feb. 1 coup.

The U.N. humanitarian office said on Friday that in all about 56,000 people have been displaced by conflict in Myanmar this year while another U.N. agency warned that the coronavirus and the political crisis could push nearly half the population into poverty.