Myanmar junta to attend arms fair in Thailand

Today's headlines: Mikhail Gorbachev has died; Japanese Premier Fumio Kishida said his party to sever ties with the Unification Church; Taiwan fires warning shots at three drones; Afghanistan increases the number of female street vendors; Israel sentences an aid worker accused of sending money to Hamas to 12 years in prison.

MYANMAR

Myanmar's coup junta has been invited to an arms fair to be held in Bangkok, Thailand. The event, titled Tri-Service Asian Defence & Security Exhibition, Conference and Networking, is a 'unique platform for Asian defence procurement', the website states. Other invitees include countries that have placed an arms embargo on Myanmar.

TAIWAN

Taiwan fired warning shots at three unidentified drones flying near its shores. It is unclear who was piloting the drones, but all three were seen heading back towards mainland China, Taiwan's defence ministry said. There was no immediate response from China.

JAPAN

Accusations against the Japanese government over links to the Unification Church continue. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said today that the Liberal Democratic Party will sever all ties and release the results of an investigation into party members' relations with this religious denomination. The majority of the population opposes the idea of holding state funerals for slain former premier Shinzo Abe.

AFGHANISTAN

The number of female street vendors in Afghanistan has increased due to the economic crisis and the poverty of families. "We ask the Islamic Emirate to help us stop working on the streets," one woman told Tolo News. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs said that the Taliban government is trying to provide these women with job opportunities in accordance with shari'a.

RUSSIA

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, "a unique statesman," has died at 91 years of age. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres wrote on Twitter: "The world has lost an impressive global leader, a committed multilateralist and a tireless advocate for peace." Through the glasnost and perestroika reforms, Gorbachev had created the conditions for the end of the Cold War in Russia.

TURKMENISTAN

The authorities in Ashgabat have banned the street collection of plastic bottles, which are sold for small sums as a form of subsidy for the masses of unemployed, who are often encountered in parks and at bus stops, selling a kilo of plastic for 2 manat. The city council declared that this practice 'is a disgrace to the state of Turkmenistan'.

ISRAEL - PALESTINE

The Israeli court in Beersheba sentenced an aid worker from a major US-based Christian aid agency to 12 years in prison on charges of sending money to the Palestinian Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip. Mohammad al-Halabi, head of operations at World Vision will thus serve a further six years on top of the six he has already spent in prison.

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