A magnitude 5.9 earthquake off Indonesia’s Java island on Saturday killed one person and damaged buildings in several cities, media reports said.

Myanmar’s junta said yesterday that a protest campaign against its rule was dwindling since people wanted peace, and that it would hold elections within two years, the first timeframe it has given for a return to democracy since its February 1 coup.

At least six lawmakers from Myanmar are sheltering in India after fleeing their country amid fears they could be detained by the military junta that seized power in a coup, an advisor to the body representing the ousted government said.

At least 11 demonstrators were killed in clashes with security forces in a town in northwest Myanmar after truckloads of troops arrived to quell a protest against the ruling military junta.

Anti-coup demonstrators in Myanmar fought back with handmade guns and firebombs against a crackdown by security forces in a town in the northwest but at least 11 of the protesters were killed, domestic media reported yesterday.

India’s Supreme Court today ordered not to deport Rohingyas detained in Jammu to Myanmar without following the prescribed process.

Troops in Myanmar opened fire on pro-democracy protesters, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, the latest victims of a campaign to crush opposition to the ruling military junta, activists and media said.

Myanmar troops fired at anti-coup protesters yesterday, killing at least 13 people and wounding several, media said, as a series of small blasts hit the commercial capital Yangon and a Chinese-owned factory was set on fire.

Opponents of military rule in Myanmar inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs yesterday while thousands of others were back on the streets, denouncing a February 1 coup and facing off with the security forces who shot and killed two men.

Taiwan’s transport minister said on Sunday he would not shirk his responsibility for a deadly train crash even as his resignation offer was rejected amid growing questions over safety lapses that could have contributed to the disaster.

Ten of Myanmar’s major rebel groups threw their support behind the country’s anti-coup movement yesterday, fanning fears that a broader conflict could erupt in a country long plagued by fighting between the military and the ethnic armies.

Myanmar’s junta faced fresh international criticism yesterday over the deaths of more than 40 children and the “forced disappearance” of hundreds of people in its crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Three Rohingya refugees were burnt to death today in a fire that gutted eight shops at the bazar near the Kutupalong camp in Ukhiya of Cox's Bazar.

A Rohingya teenager whose parents are reportedly residing in a camp in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, was taken to a town in the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur bordering Myanmar on Thursday to be deported to that country, the Indian media reported today quoting police officials.

At least 36 people were killed and 72 injured when a Taiwan train derailed in a tunnel on Friday after apparently hitting a truck in the island’s worst rail disaster in at least four decades.

Myanmar activists held protests across the country overnight two months after the military seized power, as a United Nations special envoy warned that “a bloodbath is imminent” because of the intensified crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations.

More Rohingyas are being relocated to Bhasan Char in the sixth phase.

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.

Malaysia has allowed entry of a container of plastic waste shipped from the United States, reversing previous opposition after finding it held only clean, recyclable material, and did not violate a new United Nations treaty banning trade in contaminated plastics.