AFP Asia

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with the interim leader of neighbouring Bangladesh on Friday, the first such meeting since a revolution in Dhaka ousted New Delhi’s long-term ally and soured relations.Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, took charge of Bangladesh in August 2024 after India’s old ally Sheikh Hasina was toppled as prime minister by a student-led uprising and fled to India by helicopter.India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit last month to China — India’s biggest rival.Bangladesh has also moved closer to India’s arch-enemy Pakistan during the festering diplomatic dispute.Tensions between India and Bangladesh have prompted a number of tit-for-tat barbs between senior figures from both governments. New Delhi has repeatedly accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu citizens — charges denied by the caretaker administration of Yunus.Yunus posted a picture on social media on Friday showing him shaking hands with Modi. His press secretary Shafiqul Alam said later the “meeting was constructive, productive, and fruitful”.Their meeting took place on the sidelines of a regional summit in Thailand.Yunus also shared a photograph of the two men smiling as he handed Modi a framed picture of themselves a decade ago, when the Indian leader honoured the micro-finance pioneer in 2015 with a gold medal for his work supporting society’s poorest.- ‘Spirit of pragmatism’ -Vikram Misri, the secretary of India’s foreign ministry, told reporters that Modi “reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh”.Modi said he wanted a “positive and constructive relation with Bangladesh based on a spirit of pragmatism”, Misri added, repeating New Delhi’s concerns about alleged “atrocities” against minorities in Bangladesh.Yunus, according to Alam, also raised with Modi Dhaka’s long-running complaint about what it says are Hasina’s incendiary remarks from exile.Hasina, who remains in India, has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.Dhaka has requested that India allow Hasina’s extradition to face charges of crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government.Misri said Modi and Yunus had discussed the extradition order but there was “nothing more to add” at present.Yunus also raised concerns about border violence along the porous frontier with India, as well as issues of the shared river waters that flow from India as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra wind towards the sea.Misri said that the “prevention of illegal border crossing” was necessary.Yunus’s caretaker government is tasked with implementing democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections slated to take place by June 2026.Modi and Yunus had dinner on Thursday night, sitting next to each other alongside other leaders from the BIMSTEC regional bloc in Bangkok, but the bilateral meeting on Friday was the first since relations frayed between the neighbouring nations.burs-pjm/pbt

Pacific island nations hit hardest by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs are querying the “unfair” impost, and they are fearful of the impact.The United States has punished Fiji, Vanuatu and tiny Nauru for running trade surpluses with the economic superpower, slapping them with duties far above its new 10-percent baseline.Besides squeezing their finances, analysts say the US levies are making Pacific countries wary of their historic ally, which has already cut humanitarian aid programmes.”It’s just another reason to have less trust in the US, stacked on top of the US aid freeze,” said Blake Johnson, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.It also creates opportunities for China to expand its ties from aid to trade, he said, as Beijing vies with the United States and its allies for influence in the geographically strategic region.Among the Pacific countries’ biggest sellers in the United States are the traditional narcotic kava drink, and spring water under the brand Fiji Water — owned by Los Angeles-based The Wonderful Company.The 22-percent tariffs on Vanuatu are expected to impact exports and hurt kava farmers, a spokesperson for the prime minister said.-‘Just suck them up’ -Vanuatu was hit by the tariffs after running a US$6.6 million surplus in its trade of goods with the United States last year, according to UN data. Jonathan Naupa, owner of Vanuatu kava exporter Mount Kava, said demand for kava was high and he had no plans to cut prices for the US market.”We are going to keep our prices right where they are — the American public can just suck them up,” he told AFP, adding that there was a growing global market for kava exports.He welcomed Trump’s move.”I actually think it’s a good thing that he’s done this because it will make the Americans realise that they need to treat our cultural product with a bit more respect,” he said.”With the shortage of kava in Vanuatu, I don’t see prices going down, and I hope my fellow exporters also try to follow suit and not drop their prices.”Nauru’s main exports include the remnants of its once-vast phosphate deposits and the sale of fishing rights, but it was not clear what made up its 2024 goods trade surplus with the United States of $1.4 million — about the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.It faces a 30-percent US trade tariff.Fiji runs a larger surplus in the trade of goods with the United States of about $252 million helped by exports of  Fiji Water, kava and fish, and it now faces a 32-percent tariff across the board.- ‘Unfair’ -The beach-fringed tourist magnet says it applies zero or five-percent duty on 96 percent of US imports.Trump’s levy “is quite disproportionate and unfair”, Finance Minister Biman Prasad said in a statement.”We are still trying to get more details on the exact rationale and application of the newly announced retaliatory tariff by the US and will work with our key stakeholders and US counterparts to get this,” he said.Roland Rajah, director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre at the Lowy Institute think tank, said the tariffs were based on the scale of US trade deficits with each country.But it makes economic sense to have a trade deficit with some countries and a surplus with others, he said.”It’s not necessarily driven by particular policy distortions,” Rajah added, making it hard for countries to find a basis for trade talks with the United States.”The other factor for the Pacific is that being small countries and quite small trading partners in the world it might be very difficult for them to get a hearing with the Trump administration, who will have bigger fish to fry at the current moment.”Papua New Guinea, the most populous Pacific island country, said it had no plans to retaliate against the US decision to impose a 10-percent tariff.”We will continue to strengthen our trade relations in Asia and the Pacific, where our produce is welcomed,” Prime Minister James Marape said in a statement.”If the US market becomes more difficult due to this tariff, we will simply redirect our goods to markets where there is mutual respect and no artificial barriers.”

Family members of people killed during former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs demanded an investigation Friday into what they say has been a flood of online threats since his arrest.Duterte was detained on March 11 and put on a plane to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands the same day to face a charge of crimes against humanity tied to his drug war, in which thousands of mostly poor were killed.On Friday, the relatives of four of those slain and their lawyer, Kristina Conti, filed complaints asking the National Bureau of Investigation “to identify the names, addresses and IP addresses” of alleged Duterte supporters responsible for online threats and disinformation targeting them.Conti said her own social media pages had been bombarded with “hate speech, expletives and misogynistic remarks”.”People might think that if the victims are gone, the case against Duterte will be dissolved too. So we are taking these threats seriously,” she told reporters after filing the complaints, warning that online threats can escalate into physical harm.Sheerah Escudero, whose brother was found dead in 2017 with his head wrapped in packaging tape at the height of the bloody crackdown, was among the complainants.Escudero said people on social media had accused her of being a liar and a drug addict, with some even sending personal messages telling her she deserved to be killed and beheaded.”We are just calling for justice, but they are twisting our narratives and accusing us of spreading fake news,” an emotional Escudero said.Following Duterte’s arrest, AFP fact-checkers saw dozens of online posts by his supporters targeting the families of drug war victims, seeking to discredit their accounts of extrajudicial killings.In one Facebook post, a photo of a drug war widow holding a portrait of her late husband was altered to claim she was lying about her husband’s death.Conti said they have identified specific pro-Duterte vloggers and pages as responsible for the disinformation that fueled the online attacks.She added the online harassment seemed systematic based on the dates and time stamps, but noted they have yet to determine if these were funded by the Duterte camp.”But definitely, the sentiments are pro-Duterte,” Conti said. The complainants held a meeting with NBI officials who said they would assign an agent to look into their complaints.While no timeline for an investigation has been set, Conti said once the report is completed, they will study the possibility of filing libel or civil cases.

Indian actor Manoj Kumar, known for his roles in Hindi-language films with patriotic themes, died on Friday aged 87.The death of the man dubbed “Bharat” Kumar — a reference to the ancient Sanskrit word for India steeped in Hindu religious symbolism — sparked tributes from across the country.Kumar, who was also a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), died in Mumbai due to heart-related complications.  Modi led the condolences, calling Kumar an “icon” of Indian cinema, saying that his works “ignited a spirit of national pride and will continue to inspire generations”.Throughout his career, Kumar was known for acting — and at times directing — films that had a focus on unity and national pride.Born Harikrishan Goswami, he renamed himself in Bollywood tradition — taking on the name Manoj Kumar.He was the recipient of several national awards, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honour for cinema.Kumar made his debut in Indian cinema in the late 1950s.He went on to star in several films, many with patriotic themes, including “Upkar” (1967),  “Purab Aur Pachhim” (1970) and “Kranti” (1981).

The head of Myanmar’s junta was due to discuss the response to his country’s devastating earthquake at a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday after the death toll passed 3,000.Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering — representing the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal — where he will raise the emergency response to last Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake.The junta chief arrived at Bangkok’s plush Shangri-La hotel, the summit venue, amid tight security, AFP journalists saw.Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications — as well as a rumbling civil war — have hampered efforts.Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.Following reports of sporadic clashes even after Friday’s quake, the junta joined its opponents on Wednesday in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.UN chief Antonio Guterres, speaking in New York, called for the Myanmar truce to “quickly lead to a beginning of a serious political dialogue and the release of political prisoners.”AFP journalists saw hectic scenes on Thursday in the city of Sagaing — less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the epicentre — as hundreds of desperate people scrambled for emergency supplies distributed by civilian volunteers.Roads leading to the city were packed with traffic, many of the vehicles part of aid convoys organised by civilian volunteers and adorned with banners saying where they had been sent from across Myanmar.- Situation ‘devastating’ -Destruction in Sagaing is widespread, with 80 percent of buildings damaged, half severely, UNDP resident representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra told AFP.Food markets are unusable and hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and structurally unsound, he said, with patients being treated outdoors in heat of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).”We have seen children, pregnant women, injured people there. There’s not enough medical supplies,” he said.”If you look at the overall impacted area, there’s possibly three million-plus that may have been affected.”Residents say they still face a lack of help nearly a week after the quake.”We have a well for drinking water but we have no fuel for the water pump,” Aye Thikar told AFP.”We also don’t know how long we will be without electricity,” she said.The 63-year-old nun has been helping distribute relief funds to those left without basic amenities.But many people are still in need of mosquito nets and blankets, and are forced to sleep outside by the tremors that either destroyed their homes or severely damaged them.”People passing by on the road have generously donated water and food to us. We rely solely on their kindness,” she said.- Eyes on summit -While Sagaing residents scrabbled for handouts of water and instant noodles, Min Aung Hlaing prepared to sit down for a gala dinner with fellow leaders at the $400-a-night Shangri-La hotel.The leaders of the seven-member BIMSTEC grouping — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — will discuss trade, security and other issues, as Asia reels from US President Donald Trump’s swingeing new raft of tariffs.Host country Thailand has also proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the disaster when they meet on Friday.Opposition groups and rights organisations have fiercely criticised Thailand’s decision to host Min Aung Hlaing, accusing him of war crimes in Myanmar’s brutal conflict.His attendance at the summit represents a diplomatic win for Myanmar’s isolated government as it breaks with a regional policy of not inviting junta leaders to major events.Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura defended the decision, saying that the kingdom had a “responsibility” as summit host to invite all BIMSTEC leaders.Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival in the Thai capital came as a junta spokesperson said on Thursday that 3,085 deaths from the quake had been confirmed, with 341 people still missing and 4,715 injured.Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres from the quake’s epicentre, also suffered isolated damage.The city’s death toll has risen to 22, with over 70 still unaccounted for at the site of a building collapse.A 30-storey skyscraper under construction was reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds when the tremors hit, trapping dozens of workers.Rescuers are still scouring the immense pile of debris but the likelihood of finding more survivors is diminishing.burs-pdw/pbt/des/jhb

US President Donald Trump has slapped punishing new tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, deepening a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Beijing has vowed countermeasures in response and warned the new tariffs will cripple global supply chains — and Washington’s own interests.AFP looks at how so-called “liberation day” tariffs — which bring levies on Chinese goods to 54 percent — will hit China:- Why is China so vulnerable? – China’s export-driven economy is particularly sensitive to vicissitudes in international trade.Trade between it and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, is vast.According to Beijing’s customs data, sales of Chinese goods to the United States last year totalled more than $500 billion — 16.4 percent of the country’s exports.US duties also threaten to harm China’s fragile economic recovery as it struggles with a long-running debt crisis in the property sector and persistently low consumption — a downturn Beijing had sought to slow with broad fiscal stimulus last year.But an intensified trade war will likely mean China cannot peg its hopes for strong economic growth this year on its exports, which reached record highs in 2024.”The US tariffs on Chinese imports announced so far this year could fully negate the lift from the fiscal stimulus measures announced so far,” Frederic Neumann, Chief Asia Economist at HSBC, told AFP.And while he said the impact on export competition may be slightly mitigated by the fact that all countries are hit by the levies, he stressed “the drag on Chinese growth is nevertheless significant”.- What impact will the new tariffs have? -The new tariffs slap 10 percent levies on imports from around the world.But China has long drawn Trump’s ire with a trade surplus with the United States that reached $295.4 billion last year, according to the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.The latest salvo adds 34 percent to a 20 percent rate imposed last month, bringing the total additional tariffs on imports from the Asian economic powerhouse imposed by the Trump administration to 54 percent.The tariffs come into effect in stages — a ten percentage point bump on Thursday, followed by the full levy on April 9. China is also under sector-specific tariffs on steel, aluminium and car imports. Analysts expect the new levies to take a significant chunk out of the country’s GDP, which Beijing’s leadership hope will grow five percent this year.Julian Evans-Pritchard, Head of China Economics at Capital Economics, said in a note he said he expected the economic hit to range from 0.5 percent to one percent of GDP.Likely to be hit hardest are China’s top exports to the United States — the country is the dominant supplier of goods from electronics and electrical machinery to textiles and clothing, according to the Peterson Institute of International Economics.But analysts also warn that because of the crucial role Chinese goods play in supplying US firms, the tariffs may also have major knock-on effects. “US imports from China are dominated by capital goods and industrial materials instead of consumer goods,” Gene Ma, Head of China Research at the Institute of International Finance, told AFP.”The tariff will hurt US manufacturers as well as consumers.””This trade war not only has a destructive impact on China but also on the global trade system,” Chen Wenling, Chief Economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said.- How might Beijing respond? -Beijing has yet to specify what exactly its “countermeasures” will involve.But the retaliation could see Beijing hike pre-existing tariffs imposed in response to previous measures.”China’s countermeasures should be reasonable, beneficial and measured,” Mei Xinyu, an economist at the state-affiliated Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, told AFP.”They need to be strong and precise, while also avoiding turning the countermeasures into a decoupling of China and the United States,” Mei added.China last month slapped tariffs of 15 percent in imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States. Crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles and pickup trucks also face 10 percent duties.Analysts say those moves are designed to hit Trump’s support base — those in America’s rural heartlands that voted him into office last year.Beijing has called for dialogue to resolve the dispute, but any deal will take time.”There are still chances for the two parties to resume talks in the following months,” Betty Wang at Oxford Economics told AFP.”But historical experience suggests that tariffs are typically quick to rise and slow to fall.”

Indian police said on Thursday they had arrested a US tourist who sneaked onto a highly restricted island carrying a coconut and a can of Diet Coke to a tribe untouched by the modern world.Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel — part of India’s Andaman Islands — in a bid to meet the Sentinelese people, who are believed to number only around 150.All outsiders, Indians and foreigners alike, are banned from travelling within five kilometres (three miles) of the island to protect the Indigenous people from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.”The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal told AFP.Satellite photographs show a coral reef-fringed island — stretching to some 10 kilometres (six miles) at its widest point — with thick forest and white sand beaches.The Sentinelese last made international headlines in 2018 after they killed John Allen Chau, 27, an American missionary who landed illegally on their beach.Chau’s body was not recovered and there were no investigations over his death because of the Indian law prohibiting anyone from going to the island.India sees the wider Andaman and Nicobar Islands as strategically sited on key global shipping lanes. They are closer to Myanmar than mainland India.New Delhi plans to invest at least $9 billion to expand naval and air bases, troop accommodations, the port and the main city in the region.- Bow and arrows -Dhaliwal said Polyakov kept blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for about an hour to attract the tribe’s attention before he went ashore.”He landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat,” Dhaliwal said.”A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”Police said Polyakov was arrested late on Monday, about two days after he went ashore, and had visited the region twice in recent months.He first used an inflatable kayak in October 2024 but was stopped by hotel staff, police said on Thursday. Polyakov made another unsuccessful attempt during a visit in January 2025.This time Polyakov used another inflatable boat with a motor to travel the roughly 35 kilometres (22 miles) of open sea from the main archipelago.The Sentinelese, whose language and customs remain a mystery to outsiders, shun all contact and have a record of hostility to anyone who tries to get close.A photograph issued by the Indian Coast Guard and Survival International two decades ago showed a Sentinelese man aiming a bow and arrow at a passing helicopter.Indian authorities have prosecuted any locals who have aided attempts to enter the island and are trying to identify anyone who may have helped Polyakov.The Andamans are also home to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe, who activists say are also threatened by contact from outsiders. Tourists have previously bribed local officials in a bid to spend time with the Jarawa.

A 21-year-old shopkeeper with little money of her own, Ei Hay Mar Hlaing has delivered more help to victims at the epicentre of Myanmar’s devastating earthquake than most national or international aid organisations.When she saw the carnage the 7.7-magnitude tremor had inflicted on the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, she decided to act. “Myself and my friends gathered our pocket money and asked for donations,” she told AFP at her impromptu distribution site Thursday. “We can’t afford much because we are youths. We donated with what we had. If anyone can afford it, I would like to request them to help.”They loaded a truck with drinking water, instant noodles, energy drinks and electrolytes, plus first-aid kits, and headed to the disaster zone from their homes in Monywa, about 110 kilometres (63 miles) away. In matching white helmets, she and around eight of her friends handed out supplies in a field next to a school in Sagaing.Scores of would-be recipients whose homes have been destroyed or made uninhabitable packed tightly together, hoping to secure a share of the goods. Lwin Myint, 56, was looking for help for her family of six. “I came here to see if I can get some snacks and water,” she said. “Now, we do not have a place to live. “We haven’t received anything except some packets of rice and curry, and water as we queue. I want some rice and oil if possible.”Another woman walked away with two bottles of water and a few packs of instant noodles, looking slightly dazed. A tattooed pro-junta militiaman armed with an assault rifle paced between the queues of mostly women to maintain order. Over several days in the disaster zone, AFP journalists have not seen soldiers actively taking part in rescue or aid efforts, aside from one group putting up tents for the displaced around Mandalay Palace. International rescue teams -– many of them Chinese –- have been working at multiple disaster sites in Mandalay, but in neighbouring Sagaing, organisation logos are mostly remarkable by their absence.Instead, the road to the city was jammed with civilian aid convoys from neighbouring regions, draped with banners declaring the aid was sent to victims by their fellow Burmese. “Myanmar has been experiencing earthquakes, flood, fire and bombing. I am sad to see them,” said Ei Hay Mar Hlaing, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Believe Yourself”. “I want everyone to be okay,” she said. “I want international communities to help us as much as they can.”At a World Food Programme site in the city -– the only international aid distribution AFP saw in Sagaing on Thursday — bags of rice, boxes of fortified biscuits and bottles of sunflower oil were being handed out. “The situation is really devastating” in Sagaing, said the UNDP’s Resident Representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra, estimating 80 percent of buildings had been damaged, “50 percent probably severely”.”The markets are inoperable, the hospitals are absolutely overwhelmed, the structural integrity of the hospital itself is now compromised, so everyone is outside.” The hospital’s medical director told Mitra he had received no international assistance. “This is a crisis on top of a crisis on top of a crisis. The economy had collapsed, people’s coping mechanisms had collapsed and on top of that, you have this earthquake. “So, the short answer is that needs are immense.”

Nepal’s capital was blanketed in acrid smog Thursday as wildfires across the country pushed air pollution levels to among the worst in the world.Experts say that widespread wildfires, fuelled by an exceptionally dry winter and stagnant atmospheric conditions, have caused the thick and throat-burning smog to cover the Kathmandu valley.Levels of PM2.5 pollutants — cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — registered above 178 micrograms per cubic metre on Thursday, according to Swiss monitoring firm IQAir.A reading above 15 in a 24-hour period is considered unhealthy by the World Health Organization (WHO), and IQAir ranked Kathmandu the world’s most polluted city. The Himalayan nation sees a spate of wildfires annually, usually beginning in March, but their number and intensity have worsened in recent years, with climate change leading to drier winters.”The prevailing dry conditions have significantly increased the frequency of forest fires across the country, further worsening air pollution,” Khushboo Sharma, an air pollution analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD) told AFP.”This year, precipitation was exceptionally low, with hardly any rainfall, leaving forests dry and more susceptible to fire,” she added. Sharma said that stagnant meteorological conditions are also causing pollution to accumulate over the valley.On social media, people complained of stinging eyes and itchiness because of the pollution. Low visibility caused by the smog also disrupted flights at Kathmandu airport, sparking long delays.”The mountain flights… as well as some other flights have been disturbed because of the pollution,” said Rinji Sherpa, the airport’s spokesman. The health ministry issued a notice Wednesday requesting Nepalis to “avoid unnecessary travel” and to wear a mask when outside.The government has also urged people to avoid construction and burning rubbish. The Air Quality Life Index, issued by the University of Chicago, estimated that in 2024 air pollution stripped 3.4 years off the life of an average Nepal resident.

The head of Myanmar’s junta arrived in Bangkok on Thursday for a regional summit as the death toll from his country’s devastating earthquake passed 3,000.Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering — representing the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal — where he will raise the response to Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake. The junta chief arrived at Bangkok’s plush Shangri-La hotel, the venue for Friday’s summit, amid tight security, AFP journalists saw.Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications — as well as a rumbling civil war — have hampered efforts.Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.Following reports of sporadic clashes even after Friday’s quake, the junta joined its opponents on Wednesday in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.AFP journalists saw hectic scenes on Thursday in the city of Sagaing — less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the epicentre — as hundreds of desperate people scrambled for emergency supplies distributed by civilian volunteers.Roads leading to the city were packed with traffic, many of the vehicles part of aid convoys organised by civilian volunteers and adorned with banners saying where they had been sent from across Myanmar.- Situation ‘devastating’ -Destruction in Sagaing is widespread, with 80 percent of buildings damaged, 50 percent severely, UNDP resident representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra told AFP.”The situation is really devastating,” he said.Food markets are unusable and hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and structurally unsound, he said, with patients being treated outdoors in heat of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).”We have seen children, pregnant women, injured people there. There’s not enough medical supplies,” he said.”If you look at the overall impacted area, there’s possibly three million-plus that may have been affected.”Residents say they still face a lack of help nearly a week after the quake.”We have a well for drinking water but we have no fuel for the water pump,” Aye Thikar told AFP.”We also don’t know how long we will be without electricity,” she said.The 63-year-old nun has been helping distribute relief funds to those left without basic amenities.But many people are still in need of mosquito nets and blankets, and are forced to sleep outside by the tremors that either destroyed their homes or severely damaged them.”People passing by on the road have generously donated water and food to us. We rely solely on their kindness,” she said.- Eyes on summit -While Sagaing residents scrabbled for handouts of water and instant noodles, Min Aung Hlaing prepared to sit down for a gala dinner with fellow leaders at the $400-a-night Shangri-La hotel.The leaders of the seven-member BIMSTEC grouping — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — will discuss trade, security and other issues, as Asia reels from US President Donald Trump’s swingeing new raft of tariffs.Host country Thailand has also proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the disaster when they meet on Friday — a week from the day the quake struck.Opposition groups and rights organisations have fiercely criticised Thailand’s decision to host Min Aung Hlaing, accusing him of war crimes in Myanmar’s brutal conflict.His attendance at the summit represents a diplomatic win for Myanmar’s isolated government as it breaks with a regional policy of not inviting junta leaders to major events.Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura defended the decision, saying that the kingdom had a “responsibility” as summit host to invite all the BIMSTEC leaders.Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival in the Thai capital came as a junta spokesperson said on Thursday that 3,085 deaths from the quake had been confirmed, with 341 people still missing and 4,715 injured.Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres from the quake’s epicentre, also suffered isolated damage.The death toll in the city has risen to 22, with more than 70 still unaccounted for at the site of a building collapse.A 30-storey skyscraper — under construction at the time — was reduced to a pile of rubble in a matter of seconds when the tremors hit, trapping dozens of workers.Rescuers are still scouring the immense pile of debris but the likelihood of finding more survivors is diminishing.burs-pdw/pbt