Mobs on motorbikes drove through the city of Mandalay with Buddhists throwing stones at mosques and Muslim-owned shops in a second night of violence in Myanmar that left at least two people dead.
A fire engulfed a mosque housing Muslim schoolchildren in Myanmar’s largest city on Tuesday, killing at least 13. Authorities, anxious over sectarian violence, quickly blamed the blaze on an accidental electrical short.
Myanmar's state monopoly on daily newspapers ended on Monday as four privately owned dailies launched for the first time in nearly five deacades. There have been no privately owned dailies in the country since it came under military rule in the 1960s.
Myanmar’s government warned on Monday that religious violence could threaten democratic reforms after anti-Muslim mobs rampaged through three more towns in the country’s predominantly Buddhist heartland.
A 5.8-magnitude aftershock has hit northern Myanmar hours after a strong earthquake on Sunday morning damaged several Buddhist pagodas, collapsed a bridge and a gold mine and left 12 people feared dead. There are no initial reports of casualties or damage from the latest 5.8-magnitude aftershock, according to the US Geological Survey.
