Myanmar’s first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan’s space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it, two Japanese university officials said.

At least 12 protesters were shot dead in Myanmar yesterday as the junta reacted to international condemnation of its crackdown by claiming ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted hefty illegal payments.

Myanmar’s junta added new bribery allegations to its charges against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while an advocacy group said security forces killed 12 protesters in one of the deadliest days since the military took power.

A bus carrying school children and some parents returning from an excursion plunged into a ravine on the Indonesian island of Java on Wednesday night, killing 27 people, the country’s transportation ministry said.

The UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement that would have condemned the coup in Myanmar, called for restraint by the military and threatened to consider “further measures.”

The Saudi government did not say that Rohingyas living in the country will be sent to Bangladesh, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam today.

Myanmar security forces quickly snuffed out sporadic anti-junta protests yesterday after hundreds of young activists who had been trapped overnight in a district of its biggest city Yangon were able to get out.

An official from deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) died in custody after he was arrested, becoming the second party figure to die in detention in two days as protesters challenged the military coup in the streets.

A Malaysian court on Tuesday granted international human rights groups permission to challenge the recent deportation of Myanmar nationals, a major step in a country where the law bars immigration decisions from being questioned in court.

Three demonstrators were killed in Myanmar yesterday, witnesses said, while shops, factories and banks were closed in the main city Yangon in protests against last month’s military coup.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city in defiance of a night curfew, chanting in anger after security forces besieged hundreds of young anti-coup protesters in one neighbourhood.

The European Union is preparing to widen its sanctions on Myanmar’s armed forces to target businesses they run, in protest at the February 1 military coup, according to diplomats and two internal documents seen by Reuters.

China is willing to engage with “all parties” to ease the crisis in neighbouring Myanmar and is not taking sides, the Chinese government’s top diplomat State Councillor Wang Yi said, as thousands of anti-coup demonstrators defied an ongoing military crackdown yesterday.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the military and police forces to “finish off” and “kill” all communist rebels in the country, prompting fears that it could unleash a new wave of bloodshed similar to his deadly war on drugs.

Myanmar security forces used tear gas and stun grenades to break up a protest in Yangon yesterday, a day after a United Nations envoy urged the Security Council to hear the nation’s “desperate pleas” and take swift action to restore democracy.

The US has pledged continued support to the Rohingyas and the host community in Bangladesh, while also calling for the Myanmar military to restore power to the democratically-elected government and refrain from further violence.

Relocating Rohingyas at Bhasan Char has been emphasised as part of a broader "humanitarian diplomacy", said international relations expert Prof Delwar Hossain today.

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has taken its first, short drive on the surface of the red planet, two weeks after the robot science lab’s picture-perfect touchdown on the floor of a massive crater, mission managers said on Friday.

A protester was shot dead in Myanmar yesterday in the latest round of bloodletting at anti-coup demonstrations, as the UN Security Council prepared to meet on the escalating crisis.

India today said it continued talks with Bangladesh to take back the 81 Rohingyas rescued by its coast guard after finding them adrift in the high seas with no fuel and food.