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At least 2,500 people including hundreds of children have fled a flare-up in fighting between the Myanmar army and ethnic minority rebels and have taken refuge across the border in Thailand, Thai authorities and an aid group said.
Those displaced had poured into the Thai town of Mae Sot after fighting in the past few days between the Karen National Union (KNU) and Myanmar’s army, Somchai Kitcharoenrungroj, deputy governor of western Tak province, told a news conference.
The French territory of New Caledonia has voted against independence in a referendum, provisional results show, amid a big drop in turnout due to a boycott of the vote by the independence movement.
The indigenous Kanak population, who largely favour independence, had called for non-participation in the referendum because they are in a 12-month mourning period following a September surge in coronavirus infections.
Voters in the French territory of New Caledonia vote Sunday on whether to remain a part of France, The Associated Press reports.
New Caledonia, an archipelago in the South Pacific with a population of around 250,000, became a French colony in 1853, gained equal citizenship for its native inhabitants in 1957, received a degree of autonomy in 1988, and rejected previous independence referenda in 2018 and 2020. In 2018, 43.6 percent of voters backed independence. In 2020, the share of voters who favored independence rose to 46.7 percent.
Ethiopia’s government said Monday it had recaptured two strategic towns from rebel fighters, the latest in a rapid series of battlefield victories claimed by forces loyal to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
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The announcement marks another dramatic twist in the 13-month-old conflict that has killed thousands of people and triggered a deep humanitarian crisis in the north of Africa’s second most populous nation.
The ethnic Kokang army said it clashed with Myanmar’s junta 126 times during November in northern Shan State.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) is fighting around Kokang, Mongkoe and Hsenwi to gain control to the west of Salween River with violence increasing last month after the arrival of junta reinforcements.
U.S. intelligence is warning of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine involving as many as 175,000 troops as soon as January, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News following a Friday report in The Washington Post about the scale of a possible offensive.
The plans involve extensive movement of 100 battalion tactical groups with an estimated 175,000 personnel, along with armor, artillery and equipment, according to an administration official.
Clashes erupted between Iranian soldiers and Taliban forces near the Afghanistan-Iran border, but appear to have led to no casualties and was later described as a “misunderstanding”.
Multiple videos on Wednesday showed Taliban troops mobilising. Gunfire can be heard while one shows Iranian forces firing artillery shells in response to Taliban fire.