MYANMAR: Elections will begin on December 28, the military-appointed election commission announced yesterday, setting a date for polls that critics have denounced as a sham intended to normalise the army’s 2021 seizure of power even as armed conflict rages throughout much of the country.

Nearly 60 parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, have registered to run, according to a list on the commission’s website.

SWITZERLAND: Swiss watchmaker Swatch was forced to apologise yesterday for an advertising campaign that upset consumers in China and elsewhere, saying it had “immediately removed all related materials worldwide.”

In an image for the Swatch Essentials collection, an Asian male model is shown pulling the edges of his eyelids upward and backward with his fingers — a gesture seen as derogatory and racist, public broadcaster SRF reported.

NIGERIA: At least 40 people are missing after a boat capsized on a river in north-western Nigeria.

Sunday’s accident happened around the Goronyo area in Sokoto state while the boat was carrying passengers to a market, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.

The accident is the latest in a series of deadly boat mishaps on Nigerian waterways. 

PAKISTAN: Athorities continued frantic searching remote areas yesterday for bodies swept away by flash floods as the death toll reached 277.

A changing climate has made residents of northern Pakistan’s river-carved mountainous areas more vulnerable to sudden heavy rains.

More than 150 people are still missing in the district of Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after Friday’s flash floods.