Cross-border incidents in the fighting have strained ties between the neighbours.
They have also proved problematic for President Thein Sein, who has ambitions to sign a nationwide ceasefire with many of the country’s armed ethnic groups before a general election on Nov 8.
On Tuesday, a majority of parliament members backed the motion to continue martial law in the Kokang region of Shan state. Martial law gives the military sweeping judicial and administrative powers.
The measure was needed because of continued instability in the region, said Shwe Mann, the embattled speaker of parliament.
President Thein Sein declared a three-month state of emergency and imposed martial law in the region on Feb 17 after fighting broke out between the Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).
Parliament voted to extend martial law for the first time in May. The MNDAA declared a unilateral ceasefire the following month after coming under pressure from Beijing to end the conflict, but clashes have since been reported.
The government said the attack during the Monday evening rush hour in the capital’s bustling commercial hub was aimed at destroying the economy. No one has claimed responsibility.
Jangling nerves in the city on Tuesday, a small explosive was thrown from a bridge towards a river pier, sending a plume of water into the air, but no one was injured.
The man suspected of the bombing at the Erawan shrine was seen in grainy CCTV footage entering the compound with a backpack on, sitting down against a railing and then slipping out of the bag’s straps.
Wearing a yellow shirt and with shaggy, dark hair, the young man then stands up and walks out holding a blue plastic bag and what appears to be a mobile phone. The backpack was left by the fence as tourists milled about.
A man wearing a yellow T-shirt and carrying a backpack is seen walking near the Erawan shrine, where a bomb blast killed 22 people on Monday, in Bangkok, Thailand in this handout still image taken from closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, released by the Thai Police on August 18, 2015. REUTERS
National police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said the suspect could be Thai or foreign.
“That man was carrying a backpack and walked past the scene at the time of the incident. But we need to look at the before and after CCTV footage to see if there is a link,” Somyot told a news conference.
Police earlier said they had not ruled out any group, including elements opposed to the military government, for the bombing at the shrine, although officials said the attack did not match the tactics of Muslim insurgents in the south.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha also referred to the man as a suspect without giving details. He said there were “still anti-government groups out there”, although he did not elaborate.
Police were at the blood-splattered site on Tuesday, some wearing white gloves and carrying plastic bags, searching for clues to an attack that could dent tourism and investor confidence.
The Thai baht fell 0.57 percent to 35.57 baht, its weakest in more than six years, on concern the bombing may scare off visitors. Thai stocks fell as much as 3 percent.
Police said the death toll was 22, with 123 people wounded.
“Police are not ruling out anything including (Thai) politics and the conflict of ethnic Uighurs who, before this, Thailand sent back to China,” Somyot said.
Thailand forcibly returned 109 Uighurs to China last month.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of members of the Turkic-speaking and largely Muslim minority have fled unrest in China’s western Xinjiang region, where hundreds of people have been killed, prompting a crackdown by Chinese authorities. Many Uighurs have travelled through Southeast Asia to Turkey.
CHINESE CALL
The blast comes at a sensitive time for Thailand, which has been riven for a decade by a sometimes violent struggle for power between political factions in Bangkok.
An interim parliament hand-picked by a junta that seized power in a 2014 coup is due to vote on a draft constitution next month.
Critics say the draft is undemocratic and intended to help the military secure power and limit the influence of elected politicians.
The Erawan shrine, on a busy corner near top hotels, shopping centres, offices and a hospital, is a major attraction, especially for visitors from East Asia, including China.
Four Chinese, including two people from Hong Kong, were among the dead, China’s Xinhua news agency said. A British resident of Hong Kong, two Malaysians, a Singaporean, an Indonesian and a Filipino were also killed, officials said.
Scores of people were wounded, including many Asian tourists. China urged Thailand to thoroughly investigate the blast and punish the perpetrators.
Tourism is one of the few bright spots in an economy that is still struggling, more than a year after the military seized power.
It accounts for about 10 percent of the economy and the government had been banking on record arrivals this year following a sharp fall in 2014 because of protests and the coup.
Occasional small blasts over recent years have been blamed on one side of the domestic political divide or the other. In February, two pipe bombs exploded outside a shopping mall in the same area as the Monday blast but caused little damage.
Thai forces are also fighting a low-level Muslim insurgency in the predominantly Buddhist country’s south, but the separatists have rarely launched attacks outside their heartland.
Bilbao, who only field players of Basque origin, last secured a major trophy when they won Spain’s traditional season opener in 1984 and Friday’s 4-0 drubbing of the Spanish and European champions in the first leg at the San Mames left Barcelona with too much to do at the Nou Camp.
After waves of sustained pressure, Lionel Messi gave the home side a 1-0 second-leg lead shortly before halftime when he chested down a clever Luis Suarez layoff and clipped a close-range volley into the net.
Barca’s hopes suffered a blow 10 minutes into the second half when centre back Gerard Pique was shown a straight red card after he strode angrily over to the side of the pitch and shouted in the referee’s assistant’s face to protest a decision.
The incident seemed to give Barca renewed energy and Pedro and Ivan Rakitic immediately had chances to make it 2-0 before Suarez fired wildly over when through on the left.
However, the home defence left a gaping hole at the back 16 minutes from time and Aritz Aduriz, who netted a hat-trick in the first leg, was able to score at the second attempt past Claudio Bravo sending the travelling fans inside the giant arena into raptures.
Not even a late red card for substitute Kike Sola could tarnish Bilbao’s joy as they ended Barca’s hopes of repeating their 2009 feat when they won all six competitions they contested: the Champions League, La Liga, the King’s Cup, the European Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
“If you wrote the script it’s impossible it would turn out like this,” an emotional Aduriz said in an interview with Spanish television.
“For us, for what it means to win a title for Bilbao, it’s the greatest thing that could happen and against Barca as well,” he added.
“We have to compete against the rest of the world and it’s an incredible thing.”
Barca need to recover quickly for Sunday’s trip to face Bilbao again in their opening La Liga match of the campaign, when they begin their bid for a sixth title in eight years.
Touhidur Rahman, 58, and two active members of outlawed Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team were arrested in Dhaka on Monday night, said Maksudul Alam, a spokesman for the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force.
“Rahman is a Bangladeshi origin British citizen and we suspect he is the main planner of the killings of U.S. blogger Avijit Roy and Ananta Bijoy Das,” he told Reuters.
In February, machete-wielding assailants killed a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin and critic of religious militancy, Avijit Roy, and seriously injured his wife and fellow blogger, Rafida Bonya Ahmed.
Another secular blogger, Ananta Bijoy Das, was hacked to death on May 12.
Militants have targeted secularist writers in Bangladesh in recent years, while the government has tried to crack down on hardline Islamist groups seeking to make the South Asian nation of 160 million people a sharia-based state.
Last week, police arrested two members of Ansarullah Bangla Team for alleged involvement in the killing of blogger Niloy Chatterjee on Aug. 7, the fourth such killing of an online critic of religious extremism in less than six months, spurring calls by human rights groups for a swift and thorough investigation.
On March 30, Washiqur Rahman, another secular blogger who aired his outrage over Roy’s death on social media, was killed in a similar fashion.
Rogers had already indicated that the series would be his last and the 37-year-old told reporters in London he had no reason to change his mind.
“I think it is time, I have had an amazing couple of years playing for Australia and enjoyed it and been part of some pretty special things but everything comes to an end and I have been pretty lucky,” he told reporters at Australia’s hotel in London.
“You are never 100 per cent sure but I felt like this was the last one, there’s been a few things, particularly the head issues lately, I am quite happy to call it a day.
“People tell me you know when you know and I felt like this is the right time.”
Rogers is the oldest member of the current Australian team but has been one of the few to shine in the Ashes, scoring 437 runs at an average of 62.42.
He made 173 in the first innings of the second test at Lord’s, but retired hurt in the second innings, complaining of dizziness after being hit in the head earlier in the match.
After struggling for years to cement a place in the team, the left-hander has been in the best form of his career, in which he has excelled at first-class cricket but managed only 24 test appearances since his debut in 2008.
“It’s pretty special, someone said to me not many people go out when they’re scoring runs or taking wickets, it’s generally not how it happens, so that’s something to be proud of as well,” he said.
“It would’ve been perfect to have won this series but it’s not to be, England have been deserving winners and we’ve been outplayed.
“I think I can be proud I’ve played quite well and stood up, and made a little bit of a difference.”
Australian captain Michael Clarke is also retiring after the fifth and test, which starts at The Oval on Thursday with England holding an unbeatable 3-1 lead.
Officials from Iran’s oil refining company NIORDC, its National Petrochemical Company and the privately owned Persian Oil and Gas are holding talks with services firms to clinch projects to repair Iran’s derelict refining and petrochemical sector.
Iran badly needs to complete modernisation plans that ground to a halt after sanctions hit the country five years ago over its nuclear programme.
The projects are worth at least $100 billion, according to sources close to firms that have held talks in Iran.
The talks accelerated after a nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers in July paved the way to lifting sanctions.
Sources close to the talks said Iran is moving forward with its pre-sanctions goal to refine more of its own oil and upgrade its petrochemical plants, with a view to boosting earnings.
Iranian officials have already held meetings with a string of international companies to outline their plans, and even organised group bus tours for service companies to visit refineries, according to industry sources.
Business prospects in the sector were also discussed during a string of trade visits from Italy, Germany, Japan and other countries in recent weeks.
“There is also great potential in the modernisation of existing plants for extraction and processing of raw materials and the infrastructure sector,” Wolfgang Bchele, Chief Executive Officer of German gas and engineering company Linde , told Der Spiegel magazine after visiting Tehran as part of a German delegation led by Minister of Economic Affairs Sigmar Gabriel last month.
Oil services companies that had been active in building refineries in Iran prior to the sanctions, including Australia’s WorleyParsons, France’s Technip and Axens, South Korea’s Daelim and China’s Sinopec Engineering were all interested in resuming business in the country, the sources said. The companies declined to discuss whether they are meeting in Iran.
Several large refinery upgrades were stopped in their tracks when sanctions hit, leaving parts and equipment stranded, according to a person who operated in several projects.
Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh said last month that the Islamic Republic planned to invest $80bn over the next 10 years to upgrade and expand its petrochemical sector.
Repairing the country’s 10 oil refineries would likely generate $100 million in projects for international companies in the short-term, according to industry officials and analysts.
“It is simple if you’re allowed to do it, and it’s urgent at certain refineries,” one oil industry executive said. “It’s a quick win.”
Years of restricted access to technology have left Iran’s refineries limping into the 21st century, forcing them to produce low quality and polluting fuels and creating safety hazards.
For a country with big aims, huge oil reserves and nearly 80m fuel-hungry consumers, addressing the refining problem is a priority for Iran’s leadership, according to analysts.
“The whole industry is in a mess,” said Mehdi Varzi, president of Varzi Energy consultancy. “Iran has 1.5m barrels per day (bpd) of refining capacity, but it is the wrong capacity. Iran wants western technology and American technology specially.”
Iranians consume close to 70m litres per day of gasoline, but the country’s refineries were designed to produce only around 40m litres. As a result, in 2010, when then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the country self-sufficient in gasoline in response to ramped up sanctions, Iran’s refineries were forced run above full capacity, and without regular maintenance.
Tianjin, the world’s third-largest port in terms of total cargo volume, was hit on Aug 12 by blasts that damaged a large industrial area and sent shockwaves across several kilometres.
Insurance companies including Zurich Insurance Group AG and Allianz SE said they had received claims from clients that had been affected by the disaster but could not provide any estimate of the potential losses.
“Based on the available information, we do not anticipate major financial claims to arise from this incident, but we continue to assess the situation,” Allianz, Europe’s largest insurer, said in a statement.
Chinese insurers are also expected to be affected.
“It is still very early to determine the level of insured losses, but the event is likely to be large with initial insured loss estimates of $1-$1.5bn and a large number of insurance companies affected,” analyst Arjan van Veen said on Monday in a note, in which he compiled estimates from a range of Chinese media reports.
Credit Suisse said those affected would be mostly Chinese insurance companies as well as international groups that either insure multinationals or provide re-insurance coverage.
As of Monday evening, global automakers had confirmed 4,950 cars were damaged in the blast, with most saying the vehicles were insured but declining to provide additional details.
Bencic needed nearly two hours and 30 minutes on a sweltering centre court to see off a determined Halep 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 3-0 and claim the biggest title of her young career, putting down a marker as a player to watch at the upcoming U.S. Open.
The 18-year-old’s Rogers Cup debut was a memorable one as Bencic’s drive to the title included a stunning semi-final upset of world number one Williams and two former number ones in fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki and fifth seed Ana Ivanovic.
“I’m really sorry it had to end like this, I am really sorry for Simona, I hope she will be fine for the next tournament,” said Bencic, the first Swiss woman to reach the final of the Rogers Cup since her mentor Martina Hingis in 2006.
“For me it has been an incredible week, I cannot believe it. A win is a win and I had to fight really hard today.”
It was Bencic’s second title in two months, following her breakthrough win at the Aegon International on grass in England in June. She arrived in Toronto ranked 20th in the world.
Halep produced a gutsy effort but the Romanian appeared in trouble right from the start as she struggled with the heat and a sore left thigh that required treatment throughout the match, including a medical time out when medical staff checked her blood pressure.
“In the first set I felt a little bit muscle and then it was going to the knee and in the second set I felt bad, like stomach cramps and dizzy and stuff like that,” explained Halep. “I was thinking that I need a miracle to finish the match.
“I tried just to finish the match, but at 3-0 I said it is no sense to continue, and I stopped.”
Down 5-3 in the second and with Bencic serving for the match, the 23-year-old Halep dug deep into her reserves and forced the set to a tiebreak which she won to thundering applause from the sun-baked crowd.
But the effort to force a third set proved too much.
Trailing 3-0, Halep went to her chair during the changeover and then quickly rose and walked over to Bencic and shook hands, telling her she could not continue.
“I don’t know why I continued to play, maybe for the fans,” said Halep. “They were like screaming all the time to push me to still play.
“I have no idea why I still played the second set but I did great, and I’m happy that I could find the power to win the second set.”
Top seed Djokovic defeated unseeded Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4 6-4 in the earlier semi-final.
A three-time champion on the Canadian hardcourts, Djokovic has a 19-8 career record against Murray and has won their last eight meetings since the Scot beat Djokovic in the 2013 Wimbledon final. Murray has claimed two Canadian titles.
Djokovic, who received treatment on a sore right elbow several times during changeovers, showed no signs of distress on the court as he dismissed Chardy in a tidy one hour, 20 minutes to run his record to 10-0 against the Frenchman.
“I didn’t allow Jeremy to find his forehand too much; one break per set was enough to win the match, could have done some things better but a win is a win,” said Djokovic, who did not face a break point the entire match.
“It the (elbow trouble) comes and goes, now is not very pleasant.
“Every day is a new day, I try to bury the pain, play with the pain, it is part of what we do.”
He said it was par for the course for every athlete in professional sport to have “something troubling” him.
Chardy, who needed three hours and three tiebreaks to get past John Isner in the quarter-finals, got the match off to a shaky start when he handed Djokovic a break, with the help of a couple of double faults, to open the match.
That was all Djokovic would need with Chardy unable to apply kind of any pressure.
Djokovic got the only break of the second set in the fifth game and then held serve as Chardy again left the court without taking a set from the Serb.
It was a welcome low-stress match for the Serbian, who was pushed the brink of elimination in his Friday quarter-final, during which he survived two match points to beat 87th-ranked Latvian Ernests Gulbis.
In the late semi-final, Nishikori appeared to be fatigued in the second set as Murray won 12 of the final 13 points.
“I think I’m more tired,” the Japanese fourth seed said.
“Everything was sore these couple of days. Today it got a little bit worst so I couldn’t really move 100 per cent.
“Especially after the first set, I was feeling it more and more. At the beginning of the first set I was okay, but after that I wasn’t the same player.”
Compton, which the 50 year-old rapper has dedicated to his Californian birthplace of the same name, outperformed its nearest competitors by over 28,000 combined chart sales, the Official Charts Company said.
Puth’s second British Number 1 finished the week with sales of over 94,000 after entering the tally the week before, and it marked another success for Trainor whose debut single spent four weeks at Number 1 last October.
Calvin Harris and Disciples’ “How Deep Is Your Love” stayed firm at number two on the singles charts, having been streamed over 2.21 million times in the last seven days, and the Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face” jumped five places to number three.
Former chart-toppers Little Mix’s “Black Magic” and Lost Frequencies’ “Are You With Me” rounded out the top five.
Dr Dre’s return comes after a successful stretch in the producer’s seat during which he fostered hip-hop artists such as Eminem, 50 Cent and Timbaland. He also became a successful entrepreneur and sold his headphone company Beats to Apple for 3 billion dollars in 2014.
Elsewhere in the album charts, British folk singer Frank Turner’s “Positive Songs For Negative People” was at number two and British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s “x” at number three.
