BANGKOK, June 19 — Thailand on Monday hosts talks aimed at re-engaging Myanmar's shunned military leaders though important Southeast Asian neighbours are staying away from a gathering critics view as undermining regional unity on the strife-torn country's crisis.

WASHINGTON, June 17 — There has been no sign of improvement in the political situation in Myanmar since the 2021 coup, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said following a meeting in Washington with United States (US) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said he shared his counterpart's pessimism.

BANGKOK, June 17 —Thailand's caretaker government is proposing to 'fully re-engage' Myanmar's military rulers and has invited Asean foreign ministers to an informal meeting on Sunday (June 18) to discuss a stalled peace plan, according to a letter seen by Reuters and sources aware of the invitation.

BANGKOK, June 16 — Thailand is a source and transit country for criminal syndicates operating cyber scams in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and the Philippines, often in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the United States' (US) State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2023 said.

GENEVA, June 16 — The International Federation of Football Association (Fifa) President Gianni Infantino met Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior on Thursday (June 15), saying that football cannot go on when there is discrimination.

BEIJING, June 16 — Lionel Messi delighted Argentina fans in Beijing when he scored the fastest goal of his international career, netting after 79 seconds as the world champions beat Australia 2-0 in a friendly at a raucous Workers' Stadium on Thursday.

LONDON, June 16 — The successor to Boris Johnson's seat in Britain's parliament will be chosen in a by-election vote on July 20, the local council said on Thursday, after the former prime minister quit over an investigation into his conduct.

JAKARTA, June 15 — Short video app TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, said on Thursday it would invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia over the next few years, as it doubles down on the region amid intensifying global scrutiny over its data security.

WASHINGTON, June 14 — Former US President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 37 counts brought by federal prosecutors related to his alleged retention of classified government records after he left office.

LONDON, June 13 — Ikea is training call centre workers to become interior design advisers as the Swedish furniture giant aims to offer more home improvement services and hand run-of-the-mill customer queries to an artificial intelligence bot called Billie.

PHNOM PENH, June 13 — Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Tuesday that the kingdom will amend its election law to ban any politicians who do not vote from standing for elections.

TOKYO, June 13 — Toyota Motor said it will introduce high-performance, solid-state batteries and other technologies to improve the range and performance and to cut costs of its electric vehicles.

REUTERS, June 13 — Lawyers for Ukraine at the top UN court on Monday rejected Russia's account of the downing of a Malaysian airliner as a "rambling conspiracy theory", in a case alleging Moscow backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

WASHINGTON, June 13 — Former US President Donald Trump arrived on Monday in the state of Florida ahead of his arraignment at a federal courthouse in Miami.

BUCHAREST, June 13 — Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca announced his resignation on Monday, saying he expects the country's new government to be inaugurated "by the end of the week", reported Xinhua.

SEOUL, June 12 — South Korea has called on the European Union (EU) to ensure its new acts on batteries, critical minerals, and net-zero goals are not discriminatory against foreign companies, as the two sides seek to enhance trade and industry ties, reported Yonhap quoting Seoul's industry ministry on Monday.

PARIS, June 12 — The city administration of the French capital of Paris has set up a working group on "coexistence" with rats to identify ways to improve the living conditions of citizens despite the widespread presence of rodents, reported Sputnik.

SEOUL, June 12 — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has voiced his willingness to build closer strategic ties with Russia in his congratulatory message to President Vladimir Putin over Moscow's key national holiday, state media said Monday.

PATTANI, June 11 — A policeman on duty at a railway guard hut was shot dead by a group of men in Khok Pho, Pattani, southern Thailand.

LONDON, June 11 — Ted Kaczynski, former math professor and 'twisted genius' who came to be known as the Unabomber when he carried out a 17-year spree of mysterious bombings that killed three people and baffled the FBI, died on Saturday (June 10) in the United States at the age of 81.