Myanmar's military has said it is investigating its operations in violence-wrecked Rakhine state, where the United Nations has accused troops of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims.In the last seven weeks, more than half a million Rohingya have fled Rakhine and crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh, shocking the globe with accounts of Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs murdering and raping civilians before torching their villages to the ground.The western region d

Pope Francis will push for peace during his visit to Myanmar, a church official said Thursday, a trip that plunges the pontiff into the centre of a simmering religious conflict which has sparked an exodus of Muslim Rohingya.Myanmar's western Rakhine state has been torn apart by communal violence, sending more than 520,000 Rohingya racing over to neighbouring Bangladesh since late August.The leader of the world's Catholics will visit both nations on a highly charged trip in late Nove

The media has "exaggerated" the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing an army crackdown, Myanmar's commander-in-chief said Thursday, in a brash rebuttal of accusations of ethnic cleansing by his forces.Some 520,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's western Rakhine state since August 25, when the military launched a sweeping campaign against militants from the Muslim minority.

The Security Council will on Friday hold an informal meeting on Myanmar to hear former UN chief Kofi Annan provide details of a report on the plight of Rohingya Muslims, diplomats said.The UN's top political affairs official, Jeffrey Feltman, will travel to Myanmar on Friday for four days of talks on the crisis.More than 500,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, have since late August fled an army campaign in Myanmar's Rakhine state that the United Nations has denounced as ethnic cleansing.

Freedom of religious practise is a constitutionalised law that has been established in all 10 ASEAN countries. However therein lies the difference between establishing a law and enforcing it. Certain nations experienced severe backlash due to infringement on their religious practises caused by discrimination.

Hasina Begum's earliest memory is of watching the jungle cut down to expand the camp in Bangladesh that is the only home the 31-year-old Rohingya refugee has ever known.Begum is one of about 300,000 Rohingya who escaped turmoil in Myanmar before the latest eruption of violence brought another half a million refugees to Bangladesh, pushing already overcrowded camps to breaking point.She was just five when her family fled persecution of the Muslim minority in Myanmar and has become trapped

A boat packed with Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state capsised late Sunday night near the coast of Bangladesh, leaving at least two people dead and scores missing, officials said.Coast guard and border guard officials said the boat was overloaded with about 100 people when it sank in the mouth of the Naf river that separates Myanmar from its South Asian neighbour Bangladesh."It capsised near (the coastal village of) Galachar with nearly 100 people.

MonarchsThis week, the monarchs in ASEAN countries were prominently featured in news articles across the region. On Thursday, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is 71 years old this year, celebrated his 50-year reign in style. The sultan was pulled on a grand golden chariot through the capital city.

More than half a million Rohingya refugees have fled the atrocities in the Rakhine State to neighbouring Myanmar since the latest spate of violence began end of August.

Rohingya militants whose attacks triggered an army crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state unleashing a huge wave of refugees said Saturday their one-month ceasefire would end in two days, but added they were open to peace if the government reciprocated.In a statement released through its Twitter account, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) said its unilateral truce would end at midnight on October 9."The humanitarian pause was conducted in order to enable humanitarian actors to