Myanmar's National Defence and Security Council agreed on Wednesday to extend a state of emergency by six months, the junta said, again delaying elections the military has promised to hold.
Myanmar's military junta on Friday said the death toll from Cyclone Mocha has reached 145. Most of the dead, as per the news agency AFP, belong to the persecuted Rohingya minority. In a statement, the junta said that out of the 145 dead, 24 were locals, four were soldiers and the rest 117 were "Bengalis" a pejorative term for the Rohingya.
"Altogether 145 local people were killed during the cyclone," said the authorities in a statement.
A prominent Myanmar lawyer defending a close ally of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been arrested and charged with financing terrorism, a source close to the case said Friday.