Soldier-spies in Myanmar help pro-democracy rebels make crucial gains
The once formidable Myanmar military is cracking from within - riddled with spies secretly working for the pro-democracy rebels, the BBC has found.
The military only has full control of less than a quarter of Myanmar's territory, a BBC World Service investigation reveals.
The junta still controls the major cities and remains "extremely dangerous" according to the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar. But it has lost significant territory over the past 12 months - see map below.
At least 30 children die from drug shortages in Pakistan after sectarian violence
Key roads closed in Kurram, a hotbed of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims for decades
Fri 20 Dec 2024 16.01 GMT
At least 30 children have died in Kurram in north-west Pakistan due to drug shortages after the regional government closed key roads in and out of the district in an attempt to quell an outbreak of deadly sectarian violence.
Kurram, which borders Afghanistan in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakthunkwa region, has been a hotbed of sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims for decades, but since July disputes over farmland have escalated.
The violence flared on 21 November when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 42 people, mostly Shia Muslims. Nobody claimed responsibility for the assault, which triggered retaliatory gunfire and arson by rival groups in several areas.
German politicians criticize Musk backing for far-right AfD
After Elon Musk posted his support for Germany's far-right AfD, the party's leader Alice Weidel expressed her gratitude. Other German lawmakers have criticized "interference" in the country's upcoming federal elections.
The leader of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Friday welcomed a social media post by Elon Musk in which the American tech billionaire expressed support for her party.
Musk, a prominent supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, opined on his platform X (formerly Twitter) on Friday morning that "Only the AfD can save Germany."
Alice Weidel, who is running for chancellor as co-leader of the AfD, responded to Musk an hour later, saying:
"Yes! You are perfectly right! Please also have a look into my interview on President Trump, how socialist Merkel ruined our country, how the Soviet European Union destroys the countries [sic] economic backbone and malfunctioning Germany!"
Fallout of Assad’s ouster in Syria ripples down the Mediterranean to Libya
The loss of its military power in Syria has led Russia to turn its sights on Libya. Could the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria see the strengthening of his Libyan counterpart, Khalifa Haftar?
The reports began trickling in barely 24 hours after Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad was ousted.
“Several Assad regime officials arrive in Libya’s Benghazi,” read a headline on a local Libyan news site on Monday, December 9 – the morning after rebels arrived in Damascus to find the Syrian president had fled.
While Assad was taken to Moscow, Libyan news reports said “a number of Syrian officials” loyal to Assad had landed in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. No details of the fleeing officials were provided, although officials at Benghazi’s Benina airbase and global flight tracking sites confirmed the plane landing.
Why is Apple being sued by the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Tech giant accused of using illegally mined metals in iPhones and other products sold globally.
French President Emmanuel Macron has faced jeers from locals on the cyclone-battered French overseas territory of Mayotte, telling them they should be “happy to be in France, because if it wasn’t France you’d be 10,000 times even more in the s***.”
Macron has come under fire for his handling of Cyclone Chido, which ripped across Mayotte last weekend inflicting destruction that has been likened to an atomic bomb, and his comments only risk exacerbating anger from locals who are without water or electricity.
Opposition politicians say France has neglected the archipelago and has failed to anticipate how to fortify the islands in anticipation for natural disasters linked to climate change, such as Chido – a category 4 storm that flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.
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