Five million young voters will be able to cast their ballots for the first time in Myanmar's election on Sunday – about 14 percent of the electorate.In a country that emerged less than a decade ago from near total isolation under military rule, the nation's youth defies easy classification. AFP spoke to a number of Myanmar's Generation Z about the challenges they face and what they hope the next government will bring.Rakhine AngerHistory student Wai Wai Tun, 19, can vo

Some 45 million people around the world have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, with over one million fatalities reported to date.

Myanmar is set to hold general elections on 8 November amid a second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.

An armed group in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state confirmed Monday it had taken three election candidates of Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling party prisoner ahead of a November election already marred by mass disenfranchisement.Militant group the Arakan Army (AA) has for nearly two years been locked in battle against the military, fighting for more autonomy for the state's ethnic Rakhine population.Both sides stand accused of rights abuses, with hundreds killed or injured and some 20

More than 1.1 million voters in Myanmar's western Rakhine state will be disenfranchised in upcoming national polls, according to data released by the election commission Friday, a move that experts warn could fuel yet more conflict.Civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is widely expected to be returned to power in the 8 November election – only the second since the country emerged from outright military rule.But with virtually all Rohingya Muslims st

Outraged over ongoing discrimination in Myanmar, Myo Min Tun decided to stand as the first openly gay election candidate in a country where same-sex relations are illegal.His decision to enter the political fray came after transgender friends told him how they had suffered police harassment.The officers allegedly forced them to remove their bras and kneel in humiliating positions before touching them inappropriately, Myo Min Tun told the media. "This was a violation of their rig

A torrent of water, rock and heavy sludge spun Sai Ko as he clung to a corpse to survive - a memory that still traumatises the young "jade-picker" three months after Myanmar's worst-ever mine disaster.Heavy rainfall in July triggered a massive landslide in Hpakant - the green heart of Myanmar's jade trade in northern Kachin state - that entombed nearly 300 miners.Today, Sai Ko is still recovering from head injuries sustained when the unstable mountain of waste collapsed be

Myanmar's biggest city Yangon has rapidly built new quarantine centres as it scrambles to contain the commercial hub's first significant coronavirus outbreak, with overworked medical staff fearing thousands more cases to come.The Southeast Asian nation has one of the world's most impoverished healthcare systems, but had until recently remained relatively unscathed by the pandemic.Last month there were fewer than 400 total confirmed cases nationwide and just six deaths from the

Booted from Aung San Suu Kyi's "chaotic and autocratic" party, one female MP is now taking on Myanmar's national heroine in the upcoming election, claiming the country needs to work with, not against, a military accused of genocide.Voters are expected to return Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party to power at the 8 November polls - only the second since the country emerged from decades of outright military rule - but Thet Thet Khine is still hoping to make h

The plight of the “boat people” has come to the attention of the international community for a long time now. The world thus far has reacted to this cataclysmic humanitarian crisis that is even said to be tantamount to genocide.