The military launched more airstrikes in eastern Myanmar after earlier attacks forced thousands of ethnic Karen to flee into Thailand and further escalating violence two months after the junta seized power.

Myanmar activists held candle-lit vigils overnight after scores of deaths in recent days from a military crackdown on anti-coup protesters and clashes in ethnic border areas, as the United States ordered non-essential embassy staff to leave.

Japan has suspended the provision of new aid to Myanmar in response to last month's military coup, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday, as the violent crackdown against protesters draws a wave of international condemnation.

Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 500 civilians in nearly two months of efforts to stop protests against a February 1 coup, an advocacy group said, as thousands of people took to the streets again despite the growing toll.

US President Joe Biden has led global condemnation of an "absolutely outrageous" crackdown by Myanmar's junta that left more than 100 people -- including several children -- dead in the bloodiest day since the February 1 coup.

Myanmar army fighter jets launched air strikes on Saturday on a village near the Thai border in territory controlled by an armed ethnic group, the group said, as fears grow of civil war following last month’s military coup.

The leader of Myanmar’s ruling junta Min Aung Hlaing said that the military will protect the people and strive for democracy, as protesters called for a huge show of defiance against the February 1 coup despite warnings they risked being shot.

Myanmar anti-coup protesters staged more rallies after the military reportedly shot dead nine people a day earlier and as the World Bank warned the country’s economy could slump 10% this year due to the turmoil.

Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 300 people in attempts to crush opposition to a February 1 coup, with nearly 90% of victims shot dead and a quarter of them shot in the head, according to data from an advocacy group and local media.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, has called for an emergency summit of the UN member states, including ASEAN, European Union, the United States and China, to head off the deepening crisis in Myanmar.

In the last days of the Trump administration, some US officials urged outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to formally declare that the Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingya minority was a genocide.

Strung across remote mountain settlements, a secret network of activists and volunteers is helping spirit hundreds of defecting Myanmar policemen away from the military’s brutal crackdown on dissent and into relative safety in a small northeastern Indian state.

The United States is planning to impose sanctions on two conglomerates controlled by Myanmar’s military over the generals February 1 coup and a deadly crackdown, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

A consortium of private Japanese firms and a Japanese state entity paid rent on a multi-million dollar hotel and office development that ultimately went to Myanmar’s defence ministry, six company and government officials told Reuters.

Myanmar activists plan more anti-coup protests, including a silent strike with many businesses due to close and calls for people to stay home, after a seven-year-old girl was killed in her home when security forces opened fire during a crackdown in Mandalay.

Myanmar’s military accused anti-junta protesters of arson and violence as Western countries imposed more sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month’s coup and an ensuing brutal crackdown on dissent.

Myanmar protesters held candle-lit vigils for the scores killed in demonstrations against military rule, as Western countries imposed more sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month’s coup and an ensuing brutal crackdown on dissent.

Motorists honked car horns in Myanmar biggest city on Monday and planted posters in an empty field in fresh protests against last month’s military coup that ended a decade of tentative democratic reform.

Myanmar activists plan fresh protests including a call for vehicle convoys to drive through intersections honking horns with occupants raising three-finger anti-coup salutes despite reports of security forces killing more people at the weekend.

Demonstrators in Myanmar maintained their dogged opposition to military rule despite a rising death toll, with two more people killed as the junta appeared equally determined to resist growing pressure to compromise.