Pope arrives in Bangladesh in shadow of Rohingya crisis

Pope Francis landed in Bangladesh on Thursday after a diplomatically sensitive trip to mainly Buddhist Myanmar, where he made no direct reference to the plight of Rohingya Muslims who have fled to Bangladesh in their hundreds of thousands. Pope Francis walks with Bangladesh's President Abdul Hamid after arriving at the airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh November 30, 2017.

Vatican defends Pope’s avoidance of word Rohingya on historic Myanmar visit

The Vatican is pushing back against criticism aimed at Pope Francis for not speaking out against Myanmar's treatment of the Rohingya Muslims during his historic visit to the southeast Asian country. Foreign diplomats, including US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have called what Myanmar's military is doing to the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, a charge that its leadership and the country's defacto ruler Aung San Suu Kyi deny.

Internment fears as Myanmar plans new camps for scattered Rohingya

Myanmar plans to open new displacement camps for Rohingya in violence-ridden Rakhine State, sparking fears that members of the Muslim minority not already driven out of the country will instead be forcibly interned. More than 420,000 Rohingya - around two thirds of the ethnic minority's estimated population in northern Rakhine State - have fled to Bangladesh this past month amid a military crackdown prompted by a Rohingya militant group's coordinated attacks on 25 August.

Gunfire heard near Bangladesh border as Myanmar residents flee

YANGON/COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Myanmar's government said it has evacuated at least 4,000 non-Muslim villagers amid ongoing clashes in northwestern Rakhine state, as thousands more Rohingya Muslims sought to flee across the border to Bangladesh on Sunday. The death toll from the violence that erupted on Friday with coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents has climbed to 98, including some 80 insurgents and 12 members of the security forces, the government said.

At least six Buddhists killed in rising Rakhine violence

Buddhist nationalists shout slogans during a protest at their camp at entrance of a pagoda on Thursday in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar nationalist Buddhist monks and laymen gathered for a protest against the government led by the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy party, claiming the government has neglected the national interest and fail to hold the country's most vulnerable ethnic Muslim Rohingya minority in Rakhine State of the country's west.

Hunger rife among Rohingya children after Myanmar crackdown – WFP

YANGON: More than 80,000 young children may need treatment for malnutrition in part of western Myanmar where the army cracked down on stateless Rohingya Muslims last year, the World Food Programme said on Wednesday. Myanmar's security forces launched a counter-offensive in the northern part of Rakhine state after attacks by Rohingya insurgents that killed nine border police in October.

End to US sanctions a boon Myanmar economy, but woes remain

KFC's grinning Colonel Sanders and his goatee are among the few prominent signs of U.S. brands or business in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon. That will likely change after President Barack Obama ended most remaining U.S. sanctions against this fledgling democracy on Oct. 7. But much hinges on how the government led by former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi revamps the country's outdated laws and other policies.

Suu Kyi oversees panel on plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on Monday oversaw the first meeting of a panel tasked with bringing peace to a region where violence between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims has cast a pall over the country's democratic transition. The plight of the Rohingya has raised questions about Suu Kyi's commitment to human rights and represents a politically sensitive issue for her National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory last year.