12/02/2026

THURSDAY | FEB 12, 2026

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Surge in Myanmar airstrikes

LOI TAI LENG : The head of one of Myanmar’s influential ethnic armies accused world leaders of ignoring the military government’s surge in airstrikes on civilians, adding that only China was intervening in the conflict. Reuters was the only international outlet present for the leader’s first meeting with media in years, just days after an election that cemented the military’s grip on power. “The civilians are suffering and I want the international community not to ignore it,” said General Yawd Serk, who chairs the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), speaking at his mountaintop base. The world has failed to stop the turmoil as the military steps up

200 scam centres shut down in Cambodia KAMPOT: Cambodia has closed almost 200 scam centres in a crackdown on transnational fraud in recent weeks, a senior government official said, with authorities providing rare access to one centre in a bid to show they are tackling the sophisticated operations targeting people across the globe. “There are about 190 locations that we have sealed off now,” Chhay Sinarith, the deputy chief of Cambodia’s Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Online Scams, told Reuters in Phnom Penh this week before the visit to a sprawling complex in Kampot province near the Vietnam border. Chhay said 173 senior crime figures linked to the centres had been arrested and 11,000 workers deported in a campaign that began late last year after the US indicted and then China extradited a China-born alleged scam kingpin in the strongest international move so far against the criminal networks. Since then, thousands of scam workers, some of them trafficking victims confined in brutal conditions, have fled compounds in recent weeks seeking to return home, in what Amnesty International has called a “humanitarian crisis”. At the Kampot compound, reporters were shown large work rooms with rows of computer stations and desks strewn with documents instructing how to scam Thai victims and a fake Indian police station. Authorities said there were no arrests made inside the Kampot casino complex. – Reuters future, the International Crisis Group said in November. “There is one country which intervenes in Myanmar, it is China and only China,” Yawd Serk said, declining to elaborate. China has “long played a constructive role in the domestic peace and reconciliation process, earning recognition from all sectors of the Myanmar society and the international community” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It backed parties strengthening dialogue and reconciliation, it said. At Saturday’s event, attended by representatives of groups including longtime RCSS rivals, Yawd Serk said he aimed to build trust, resolve disputes through talks and work to set up a federal army, a key demand of forces opposing the military. A diverse array of Shan groups had met and agreed on principles for a future federal state, he said. Saw Taw Nee, spokesperson for the Karen National Union, one of the most powerful rebel groups, which did not attend the gathering but sent a letter, said it was a “critical time for us to build unity”. “We are proud that our Shan brothers are trying to pave the way,” he said by telephone, adding that his group would work with them. – Reuters

Chairman Min Aung Hlaing, blaming Myanmar’s turmoil on a “leadership driven by excessive ego, pride, and greed – placing the will of one individual above the desires of the public”. In a statement, Min Aung Hlaing urged ethnic and “terrorist” groups to abandon armed struggle and join peace talks. Yawd Serk dismissed the request as an old message “no one has accepted” but added that his army would judge the new government by its actions, saying he preferred a political solution to renewed fighting. A key hub for both legal and illegal business in Asia’s Golden Triangle, Shan State is home to armed groups with competing interests and shifting alliances, where the coup reshaped the balance of power as non-Shan factions seized territory. China acted as powerbroker, backing some groups, before pressing them to halt offensives to stabilise the government, which Beijing views as a guarantor of security for Belt and Road infrastructure projects vital to its interests. Rival forces pushed the RCSS out of areas near the Chinese frontier. The approach has led to a “fractured landscape” that risks deepening grievances and destabilising a state key to Myanmar’s

o Shan leader says world ignoring attacks

bombing campaigns, he said, citing airstrikes that have hit more than 1,000 civilian locations in 15 months, according to data from the Myanmar Peace Monitor. Yawd Serk’s group controls territory between China and Thailand, and is headquartered at Loi Tai Leng, a town perched between forest-clad hills on the Thai border.

Since late 2024, air attacks have killed at least 1,728 civilians, slowing the advance of pro-democracy forces that lack an air force. The government says it is targeting terrorists. Speaking after a military parade for Shan National Day, Yawd Serk called for trust-building among Myanmar’s array of armed factions, adding that political dialogue with the military was still needed to end the war. A military-backed party claimed victory last month after elections in limited areas, a vote the United Nations and rights groups have criticised as designed to entrench military power, with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing expected to be president. Addressing thousands gathered at his border headquarters for a parade by about 1,000 soldiers armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Yawd Serk, long seen as a shrewd player who maintains a ceasefire with the government, struck a sharp tone. He praised Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted administration and criticised State Administration Council

Yawd Serk aims to build trust, resolve disputes through talks and work to set up a federal army. – AFPPIC

Overloading may have led to Philippine ferry sinking MANILA: Philippine authorities said yesterday that a ferry may have been overloaded when it sank in the country’s south last month, killing dozens of people who received no warning from the ship’s crew.

The death toll has risen steadily since the Trisha Kerstin 3 went down off the coast of southwestern Mindanao on Jan 26, with the body of a woman pulled from the wreckage by divers yesterday bringing the tally to 52. The triple-decker vessel capsized on nearly the same route where 31 people were killed in a 2023 fire aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry. Locally based Aleson Shipping Lines owned both ships. Transport Secretary Giovanni Lopez cited safety violations in announcing administrative charges against the company, including the fact that vehicles boarding the ferry were never weighed as required by law. “One of the possible causes of the sinking of the ship was the possibility of overcapacity and overloading,” Lopez told a news briefing. “The investigation found that rolling cargo like trucks and motorcycles didn’t pass through the weighing station,” he said. “If there was overloading or overcapacity, it’s possible cargo shifted ... inside the vessel,” Lopez said, adding it was “highly probable” other ships in the archipelago nation were sailing overweight. Reiniel Pascual, an investigator for the country’s maritime authority, separately confirmed passengers had received no instructions from the crew as the ship began to list. “Based on the statements of the crew ... there was no alarm or public address that took place during the

(From left) Sonia Malaluan, Administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority, Lopez and Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan at a press conference on the sunken ferry in Manila yesterday. – AFPPIC

The incident has also raised corruption concerns, Lopez said, with members of the coast guard and the country’s maritime authority tasked with permitting ships to leave port also under investigation. – AFP

numbers became apparent as more bodies were discovered. Aquino Sajili, an attorney who survived the sinking, told AFP he expected more bodies to be found by divers now searching the ship, which lies an estimated 76m deep.

emergency before the sinking and capsizing of the ship,” he said. While at least 368 people were on board at the time of the sinking, a precise tally may never be known as a mismatch between the ferry’s manifest and actual passenger