Myanmar’s new military-backed government wants to hold peace talks with opposition armed groups by the end of July, the country’s junta leader-turned-president said, but two key rebel groups rejected the offer on Tuesday. State media reported that President Min Aung Hlaing, who led a coup five years ago that plunged the Southeast Asian country into a civil war that continues to rage, told a government meeting that he wanted rebel groups that were not part of a ceasefire deal to join talks to...
Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing won a parliamentary vote on Friday to become the country’s president, formalising his grip on political power in the war-torn nation five years after he ousted an elected government. His transition from top general to civilian president follows a recent lopsided election won overwhelmingly by an army-backed party, which critics and Western governments derided as a sham to perpetuate military rule behind a veneer of democracy. The 69-year-old general...