The United States (US) on Thursday slapped sanctions on the leaders of Myanmar's junta, warning that more punishment could come even as the generals in Yangon ordered demonstrators to get back to work or face "effective actions".As Myanmar was preparing for a seventh consecutive day of anti-coup rallies, the US Treasury Department announced it was blocking any US assets and transactions with 10 current or former military officials held responsible for the 1 February coup.Demons

Directly or indirectly, the military has always called the shots in Myanmar.

North Korea criticised Donald Trump in a stinging denunciation of the United States (US) on Friday, the second anniversary of a landmark summit in Singapore where the US president shook hands with leader Kim Jong-un.It was the latest in a series of vitriolic statements from Pyongyang aimed at both Washington and Seoul, and came a day after the North implicitly threatened to disrupt November's election if the US did not stay out of inter-Korean affairs.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday urged greater international control of sanctions, criticizing United States (US) attempts to force all countries to stop doing business with Iran."We do not know under what laws sanctions are applied.

Myanmar's navy will join maritime drills with the US in Southeast Asia next week, a spokesman said Wednesday, in a rare show of military cooperation despite Washington slapping sanctions on top army brass over the Rohingya crisis.The inclusion in the drills does not violate US travel bans against Myanmar's commander-in-chief and three senior figures for overseeing a bloody campaign that drove 740,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh two years ago.But there are growing calls to furth

A US travel ban on Myanmar army chief Min Aung Hlaing over his role in orchestrating a bloody crackdown against Rohingya Muslims harms the dignity of the military, a spokesman said Wednesday, adding critics failed to properly understand the crisis.The sanctions against the army chief and three other top military brass was the strongest censure from a western power since the army launched its offensive against the Rohingya in August 2017 following attacks on police posts.Secretary of State Mik

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged United States (US) President Donald Trump to "show flexibility" towards North Korea, including the "timely" easing of sanctions, at the Group of Twenty (G20) summit last week, China's foreign minister said Tuesday.Xi visited North Korea prior to meeting Trump at the G20 in Japan on Saturday, and analysts had said the Chinese leader could use the trip as leverage in his trade war talks with the US leader.Trump met North Korean leader

Iran and the United States (US), locked in a tense standoff after the US withdrew from a nuclear deal, traded barbs Sunday the day before the US tightens sanctions against the Islamic republic.Both sides say they want to avoid going to war, but tensions have spiralled as a series of incidents, including attacks on tankers and the shooting down of a US drone by Iran in the Gulf, raised fears of an unintended slide towards conflict.On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sa

North Korea is once again pressing the boundaries of what it can get away with, returning to missile tests this week in violation of international sanctions championed by United States (US) President Donald Trump.

North Korea on Friday promised further negotiations with the United States (US) despite a spectacular failure to strike a nuclear deal at their Hanoi summit, with both sides keeping the door of diplomacy open.The high-stakes second meeting between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump broke up in disarray Thursday, without even a joint statement.In the aftermath, each sought to blame the other's intransigence for the deadlock.Trump insisted Pyongyang wanted al