More than 12 million people in Myanmar will face acute hunger next year as mounting violence forces more people to flee their homes, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Thursday. Around 1 million of those will face emergency levels of hunger,

"We are working to completely eradicate online scam activities from their roots," the Myanmar junta's spokesman Gen Zaw Min Tun said. But there are good reasons for scepticism about the military's claims. Not for the first time, Myanmar's long civil war and its scam crisis are entwined.

Opponents of military rule in Myanmar have staged a joint protest calling on people to stay indoors to show they are boycotting elections scheduled for late this month

Facing a widespread election boycott, many overseas missions have extended the period for advance voting, but most expats regard the polls as a sham.

Opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar surged to its highest level in a decade this year as the nation engaged in a civil war remains one of the world’s primary suppliers of illicit drugs, according to a United Nations survey.

The newly formed body’s chair, Home Affairs Minister Tun Tun Naung, insists his regime is a victim, not a perpetrator, and is doing all it can to thwart online scammers.

She will be deported once her case concludes, said MHA. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.