Suu Kyi looks to deal with Dhaka on Rohingya

NAYPYITAW • Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday that she hopes talks with Bangladesh this week will result in a memorandum of understanding on the "safe and voluntary return" of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh in the past three months. A counter-insurgency operation launched in the Rakhine state has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the Buddhist-majority country since late August. Rights groups have accused Myanmar's military of atrocities, including mass rape, against Rohingya during the clearance operation.

REUTERS

Manhunt for Uighurs who fled Thai detention

BANGKOK • A manhunt was under way yesterday for 20 ethnic Uighur Muslims from China who made a daring escape from an immigration detention centre in southern Thailand, as Beijing urged Bangkok to return the group to Chinese soil. Police said the escapees bored through the wall of the centre in Sadao, near Thailand's southern-most border, and used blankets to climb out as heavy rains masked their flight.

The group were among hundreds detained in Thailand 2014 despite claims that they were Turkish citizens.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

US strikes on drug labs to stop Taleban funding

KABUL • The United States military has launched air strikes on drug-making laboratories in Afghanistan as part of a new joint strategy with Afghan forces to cut off funding for the Taleban, the authorities said on Monday.

Ten drug labs were destroyed in a series of aerial bombardments in the poppy-rich southern province of Helmand - a Taleban stronghold - on Sunday night, said General John Nicholson, commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE