Myanmar: regime (slightly) reduces Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence

Today’s headlines: Ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel comes into effect; Robots allow Hong Kong fire survivors return home for first time in four months to retrieve personal belongings; Indian Supreme Court has ordered an additional voter list for the elections to be held next week in West Bengal.

MYANMAR

The Burmese military regime has reduced the prison sentence of former democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her lawyer said. Suu Kyi, 80, was imprisoned during the coup in February 2021 and was subsequently sentenced to 27 years in prison, now reduced by a sixth, but it is unclear whether she will be allowed to serve the remainder of her sentence under house arrest. General Min Aung Hlaing, who now serves as president, has also announced an amnesty for over 4,000 prisoners to mark the Buddhist New Year.

MALAYSIA

At least 12 petrol stations on the border between Malaysia and Thailand have been identified as high-risk for smuggling, prompting the Malaysian police to deploy dozens of officers for regular patrols. Petrol in Malaysia is subsidised by the government, but fewer and fewer people have been crossing the border, according to local witnesses.

LEBANON – ISRAEL

The ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel came into force yesterday at midnight (local time), with Israeli troops remaining in a 10-kilometre ‘security zone’ in southern Lebanon, the Israeli government announced, whilst President Donald Trump announced that the United States and Iran are ‘very close’ to an agreement and negotiations could resume as early as this weekend. Meanwhile, France and the United Kingdom will chair a meeting on freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, which will be attended by around 40 countries.

HONG KONG

Some survivors of the fire at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Hong Kong’s northern Tai Po district have only recently returned to retrieve their personal belongings. Elderly residents were able to climb the dozens of floors thanks to robotic prosthetics provided by the NGO AidVengers Federation. In the fire, which occurred four months ago, 168 people died and a further 4,000 were forced to leave their homes.

INDIA

The Indian Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission to publish a supplementary register in West Bengal, including voters who have appealed against their removal from the electoral roll and whose appeals have been upheld by the appellate courts by 21 April. The first phase of voting in the state will take place on 23 April and the second on 29 April, whilst the counting of votes will take place on 4 May; however, for weeks the local and central governments have been accusing each other of reducing the number of people eligible to vote. Over 3 million people have lodged appeals, the Supreme Court added.

RUSSIA – NORTH KOREA

Viktor Saldo, governor of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson, held talks with the North Korean ambassador to Russia to discuss possible forms of cooperation in sectors such as agriculture, yet another sign of strengthening ties between Pyongyang and Moscow. Saldo stated that, given North Korea’s need for food, their interests coincide and that possible areas of cooperation include vegetable oil, flour and certain processed products.

JAPAN – KYRGYZSTAN

Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Labour and Migration, Kanybek Sagynbaev, travelled to Japan on a working visit, meeting Tokyo’s Deputy Minister Masayuki Kamya to discuss the prospects for Kyrgyz-Japanese relations in the field of labour migration, with a particular focus on the Specified Skilled Worker programme to meet the needs of the Japanese labour market, focusing on sector-specific specialisations.