In a statement late on Thursday, the board said Richardson, who is a long-time friend of Suu Kyi, had to be asked to leave the body.

“The board feels that constructive and positive work can be done to help bring peace, reconciliation and economic progress for all communities in the Rakhine State,” the statement said.

Richardson quit the board as he was incensed over the suppression of press freedom in Myanmar, among other issues. He accused Aung San Suu Kyi of lacking the sincerity and moral leadership to tackle the crisis.

Richardson, a former governor of the US state of New Mexico and former US Ambassador to the United Nations, was one of five members who agreed to join the Advisory Board on the Implementation of Recommendations on Rakhine State last year.

He publicly expressed concern that Surakiart was not “genuinely committed” to implementing the recommendations made last August, just as the current crisis erupted, by the Rakhine Advisory Commission led by former United Nations chief Kofi Annan.

Nor did Richardson feel Surakiart was committed to addressing the root causes of the conflict in Rakhine.

Surakiart “parroted the dangerous and untrue notion that international NGOs employ radicals and that the humanitarian agencies are providing material support to ARSA,” he said, referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, a militant group that launched attacks on Myanmar security outposts last summer.

The attack ignited the exodus of over 640,000 refugees from Rakhine State to Bangladesh as well as atrocities against the displaced persons. Nay Pyi Taw and Dhaka agreed to repatriate them within two years. The process was supposed to begin on Tuesday but has been delayed due to the Rohingya refusing to return unless their human rights are recognised and with NGOs and the UN reporting ongoing burning of Rohingya villages along with killings and rape.

In the statement, the board said it intended to engage in an open dialogue with all relevant stakeholders, although it recognised that it is not an investigatory body. “Its aim is to develop mutual trust and respect and to demonstrate our desire to understand the hopes, fears, and aspirations of the people of Rakhine and of Myanmar,” it said.

Reacting to Richardson’s statement, it said the advisory board members met together with open minds, to listen to all perspectives, and to learn, in order to formulate their collective views.

“We agreed to speak with one voice, and to provide our preliminary recommendations to the implementation committee in the next few months. It was the first time we had met in Myanmar. We had not yet agreed to submit any advice to the implementation committee. Therefore, any statement about the board ‘whitewashing’ or ‘cheerleading’ for anyone lacks complete legitimacy.”

“The board was informed that one international member of the board, Mr Bill Richardson, had to be asked to leave,” the statement said.

One-time Suu Kyi ally Richardson was one of five foreign members hand picked by Myanmar’s civilian leader to serve on the committee.

But after a three-day visit to Myanmar, Richardson struck out at his hosts, saying he could not in “good conscience” sit on a panel he feared would only “whitewash” the causes of the Rohingya crisis.

He lambasted Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi for an “absence of moral leadership” over Rakhine and described her “furious response” to his calls to free two Reuters journalists arrested while covering the crisis.

A Myanmar government spokesman hit back Thursday, accusing the former New Mexico Governor Richardson of over-stepping the mark in his stinging resignation letter.

“He should review himself over his personal attack against our State Counsellor,” government spokesman Zaw Htay told AFP.

“We understand his emotion about the two Reuters correspondents. However, he needs to understand, rather than blaming the Myanmar nation and the State Counsellor.”

Zaw Htay said the issue of the arrests was not in Richardson’s mandate and he should not have brought it up at his meeting with Suu Kyi.

Myanmar nationals Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, face a possible 14 years in prison under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly possessing classified documents that they say were given to them by two policemen.

They are waiting to hear whether they will be granted bail in a protracted case that could take months to even get to trial.

It is thought they had been reporting on atrocities committed by security forces in Rakhine.

Troops backed by hardline Buddhist mobs have torched hundreds of Rohingya villages, forcing nearly 690,000 to flee over the border into overflowing camps in Bangladesh.

They have brought with them consistent testimony of murder, rape and arson in violence the UN and US have condemned as ethnic cleansing.

Richardson’s resignation came after Myanmar and Bangladesh failed to meet a January 23 deadline to begin the complex and contested repatriation of refugees.

Richardson joined the Myanmar board as a private citizen, but the US State Department said the Washington administration shares many of his concerns.

After his trip to Myanmar, the diplomat said he was shocked by the disparagement of the media, the UN, human rights groups and the international community by some fellow panel members and Myanmar authorities.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast that wounded Joseph Bernos, who sits in the House of Representatives for Abra, an impoverished northern province notorious for political violence.

Thirteen other people were wounded including Bernos’ wife, the La Paz town Mayor Menchie Bernos, in the explosion that police said occurred as the couple watched a pre-dawn fireworks display in La Paz, 350 kilometres (215 miles) north of Manila.

Both the congressman and his wife were treated for minor injuries before being sent home, while two wounded police officers died in hospital, said regional police spokeswoman Carolina Lacuata.

The congressman’s office in Manila told AFP it will issue a statement later Thursday, while declining to discuss the attack.

Bernos belongs to Duterte’s ruling PDP-Laban party, the congressman’s aides said.

The wounded included the La Paz police chief and one other police officer, Lacuata said in a statement.

She said police investigators found two hand grenade levers at the crime scene, though it was unclear if there was more than one explosion.

A study conducted by Manila-based Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism listed 31 Abra politicians murdered allegedly by gunmen hired by rival politicians in a six-year period between 2001-2006.

The most prominent of the victims was Congressman Luis Bersamin, whose House seat Bernos now holds.

Bernos’ older brother, Ysrael Bernos, was also assassinated in 2006 while sitting as mayor of La Paz.

Congressman Bernos beat three rivals for the House seat in the 2016 elections.

As it turned out, he did — and he was impeached for lying about his trysts with Monica Lewinsky.

Today, another US president is accused of sexual impropriety — specifically of paying off a porn star one month before the November 2016 election to keep their adulterous liaison quiet.

Such a bombshell allegation would be the kiss of death to most political careers.

But Trump is no normal politician and in his tumultuous administration, “it’s not even the biggest story of the week,” wrote Aaron Blake in The Washington Post.

Political analysts are scratching their heads to explain why — when it comes to Trump — such a revelation barely elicits a collective shrug.

Clinton, of course, was president at the time and some of his assignations with Lewinsky, a 22-year-old intern, took place in a secluded study by the hallowed Oval Office.

Trump was a private citizen when the 2006 sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels was alleged to have taken place.

He was, though, married at the time and his wife, Melania, had given birth to their son less than four months earlier.

Tobe Berkovitz, an associate professor of advertising at Boston University, said Trump displays an uncanny ability to sail past scandals.

“Trump is an anomaly,” said Berkovitz, who has served as a political consultant on numerous political campaigns in addition to teaching.

“Look at the litany of other politicians, celebrities and journalists who have just had the trap door open out from under them for behavior that might not be as egregious or as bad as Trump’s,” Berkovitz told AFP.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Trump had paid Daniels $130,000 to keep a lid on their dalliance.

Trump, through his personal lawyer, and Daniels, 38, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, have both denied anything ever went on between them.

But In Touch magazine published a 2011 interview with Daniels last week in which she expounds at length and in detail on their relationship and what she described as their “textbook generic” sex.

The In Touch interview, which had not been published before, was conducted prior to Daniels’ alleged signing of a secrecy agreement in October 2016.

Voters seem disinterested

G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College, said he was a bit surprised at the lack of interest in the Stormy Daniels allegations — particularly during the current “Me Too” moment of reckoning over sexual misconduct.

“This doesn’t seem to have taken hold,” Madonna said. “You would think this was something that would have gotten a fair amount of attention but no, not at all.

“There’s not been an overriding interest in the American media and the voters seem, what’s the word, as though they’re disinterested.”

Madonna and other analysts said this may be partly due to the constant drumbeat of extraordinary headlines coming out of the Trump White House.

“I can’t figure out — and I’ve been doing this for a long time — whether it’s because every day there’s almost some huge national crisis of one sort or another,” Madonna said.

“(Maybe) it’s just the fact that it happened in 2006,” that Trump was a private citizen and that the sex was — by all accounts — consensual, he said.

In any case, Madonna doesn’t think Trump has anything to worry about.

“Believe me, with Trump things can change in a heartbeat, but I don’t think this has much legs to derail his presidency at this point,” he said.

Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York magazine, attributed the apparent blase reaction by the public and the press to what could be termed Trump “scandal fatigue.”

“You know, he’s had so many scandals like this that it kind of almost has a tiring effect on all of us,” Nuzzi said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

Boston University’s Berkovitz agreed. “I think what’s happened is that some people have perhaps become numb to some of this behavior when it comes to Trump,” he said.

“It’s not that there’s a different standard for Trump,” he said. “It’s how Trump reacts to the allegations. Trump pulls off the gloves and hits the mobile and starts tweeting. He doubles down on everything.”

Berkovitz said this reminds him, “ironically of Bill Clinton.”

“The classic 1990s Bill Clinton was to ‘Let no charge go unanswered,'” Berkovitz said. “Basically to — I don’t want to say lie — but to bend the truth dramatically.

“He had no qualms about that.”

Daniels, meanwhile, is cashing in on her notoriety.

She appeared at the Trophy Club strip club in Greenville, South Carolina, over the weekend as part of a “Make America Horny Again” tour that will also reportedly take her to several other states over the next few months.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off India’s diplomatic outreach to Asean countries with a bilateral meeting with Myanmar’s Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, the first of such one-on-one meetings, as India and Asean mark 25 years of ties.

The two leaders shook hands and posed for the photographers before going in for talks at Hyderabad House.

“The two leaders had a productive discussion on intensifying bilateral cooperation,” tweeted Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar afterwards.

India views Myanmar, with which it shares a 1,643km-long border, as a bridge to the rest of South-east Asia, and is involved in building a trilateral highway linking Myanmar and Thailand to the north-eastern part of India.

Ms Suu Kyi, who studied and lived in India, is among nine Asean leaders who arrived yesterday (Jan 24) for the Asean-India Commemorative Summit and to attend the annual 69th Republic Day parade as chief guests tomorrow.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the other leaders arrived to a warm welcome in capital city New Delhi .

“Welcome to India Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore, for the Asean-India Commemorative Summit. Warmly received by Minister of State for Women and Child Development Shri Virendra Kumar,” tweeted Mr Kumar, as he did for the other Asean leaders as they touched down.

Only Indonesia President Joko Widodo is scheduled to arrive today (Jan 25).

India and Asean – consisting of Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – are currently marking 25 years of dialogue partnership, 15 years of summit-level interaction and five years of strategic partnership.

Ties between the grouping and India have grown over the past couple of years against a backdrop of mutual concerns about the rise of China, but also in recognition of growing opportunities for cooperation in many areas. Mr Modi has pledged to deepen India’s ties with South-east Asia, scaling up the India Look East policy to the Act East policy at the 12th Asean-India summit in 2014.

Underscoring this, the theme of this year’s commemorative summit is “Shared Values, Common Destiny”, as India and Asean seek to deepen ties amid their common challenges and opportunities in Asia.

Separately, at a leaders’ retreat today, Mr Modi and leaders of the 10 Asean countries will also discuss maritime security and cooperation.

Mr Modi – who has rolled out the red carpet for the leaders as part of the diplomatic outreach to the South-east Asian countries – is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with PM Lee today and with the other six Asean leaders over the next two days.

Amid other events to mark India-Asean ties, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated a park in Tughlaq Road yesterday named the Bharat Asean Maitri Park.

Traffic restrictions are in place as Central Delhi became a hive of VIP movement since yesterday and over the next two days.

The Republic Day parade tomorrow is an annual event that showcases India’s military might and cultural prowess.

Apart from a display of the nation’s latest weaponry, which includes a flypast of fighter jets and attack helicopters, and marching contingents, it will also feature dancers and floats from different states of the country.

This year, India is showcasing Nirbhay – a locally developed long-range subsonic cruise missile – and two floats dedicated to India-Asean ties.

In a series of tweets, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also acknowledged India’s defence ties with Asean countries.

For instance, defence ties between India and Singapore included bilateral naval, air force and army joint training exercises.

Singapore, currently the Asean chair, has also been instrumental over the years in championing closer ties between India and Asean, she noted.

Leaders of the 10-member regional grouping and India gathered for the summit to celebrate the silver jubilee of relations and agreed to strengthen and deepen their partnership for their mutual benefit across the spectrum of political-security, economic and socio-culture issues.

The Delhi Declaration issued after the summit said the group gave importance to maintaining and promoting peace, stability, maritime safety and security, freedom of navigation and overflight in the contentious sea.

Some members of Asean have been at loggerheads with China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea for a long time, notably after Beijing built artificial islands to facilitate the militarisation of the region over recent years.

India is not a part of the conflict but supports freedom of navigation in the region in line with international law, notably the 1982 Untied Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In 2002, Asean and China signed the non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea. They are now working on a legal binding code of conduct after the approval of its framework by leaders of the group last year.

In the declaration, Asean and India said they looked forward to an early conclusion of the Code of Conduct.

In the meeting yesterday, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsein Loong, who co-chaired the event with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, called on the two sides to take the relationship forward by enhancing trade, investment and connectivity.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha also attended the summit. Prayut said in a bilateral meeting with Modi that Thailand, which will take the position of Asean-India coordinator in August, would push forward cooperation as well as support peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

The 2018 KPMG Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI) evaluates the preparedness of 20 countries globally for the introduction of self-driving vehicles, and highlights best practices to help countries accelerate AV adoption.

“The mobility freedom provided by AVs will have a transformational impact on society,” says Richard Threlfall, global head of infrastructure, KPMG International. “With the tremendous opportunity, though, comes significant challenges that have to be addressed in order for countries to be able to realise the benefits of AVs.”

The AVRI is the first study of its kind, examining where countries are today in terms of progress and capacity for adapting AV technology. The Index evaluates each country according to four pillars that are integral to a country’s capacity to adopt and integrate autonomous vehicles. The four pillars are: policy and legislation; technology and innovation, infrastructure, and consumer acceptance.

The pillars are comprised of a number of variables that reflect the wide range of factors that impact a country’s AV readiness, from the availability of electric vehicle charging stations, to AV technology R&D, to the population’s willingness to adopt technology, to the regulatory environment.

According to the AVRI, the 10 countries most prepared (among those researched) for the future of autonomous transportation are:

1. Netherlands

2. Singapore

3. United States

4. Sweden

5. United Kingdom

6. Germany

7. Canada

8. United Arab Emirates

9. New Zealand

10. South Korea

The Netherlands ranks consistently high – in the top four across all four pillars – with strengths including widespread acceptance of electric cars and a high density of charging stations, a robust telecommunications network, vital for directing AVs, and large scale AV road tests planned.

Others in the top five display a range of strengths, with Singapore ranking first in policy and legislation and consumer acceptance; the US and Sweden ranked first and second respectively in technology and innovation and the UK ranked in the top five for three pillars.

It is the first programme of its type to be formed in Myanmar with the aim of raising driver awareness of healthy vision and to make Yangon roads safer for drivers and passengers, according to a press release on Thursday.

Through this programme, which was launched in Yangon in September 2017, free eye screenings are conducted for Grab’s driver-partners in the Grab Myanmar office. Drivers receive information on their visual health and guidance on the need for visual aids such as prescription spectacles for their daily work. Essilor is also providing prescription spectacles and sunglasses to drivers at affordable prices through its inclusive business arm, 2.5 New Vision Generation.

The contest encourages contestants to display their artistic skills, intelligence, confidence, cultural pride and leadership.

The chosen Miss Grace Myanmar International Mandalay 2018 will represent Mandalay at the national-level competition to represent Myanmar at the Miss Progress International 2018 in Italy.

The event, organized by Grace Myanmar International Co Ltd and of which Hilton Mandalay is the main sponsor, brings together experts, couture designers and other leading figures in Mandalay’s fashion and beauty industries.

    “I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said as she handed down what amounts to a life sentence to the 54-year-old Nassar in a tense Lansing, Michigan, courtroom.

“You do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again,” the judge said as Nassar, dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit, stood expressionless before her flanked by two defense attorneys.

“You’re a danger, you remain a danger,” Aquilina said. “Anywhere you walk destruction will occur to those most vulnerable.”

Minutes ahead of the sentencing, Nassar apologized in court to his victims, who included Olympic gold-medal winning gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney but also scores of female athletes at Michigan State University, where he worked.

“What I am feeling pales in comparison to the pain, trauma, and emotional destruction that all of you are feeling,” Nassar said, turning at several points to face his victims in court.

“There are no words to describe the depth and breadth of how sorry I am for what has occurred,” he said.

Judge Aquilina scoffed at his apology, however, and read from a letter in which Nassar, despite his guilty plea, once again claimed to have been providing legitimate medical treatment.

“It was not treatment. It was not medical,” the judge said. “I wouldn’t send my dogs to you, sir.”

In extraordinary scenes over the past week, around 160 women appeared in court or testified anonymously to the emotional pain and suffering they continue to experience because of the sexual abuse by Nassar.

The slight, bespectacled Nassar looked down or occasionally wiped his eyes with a tissue as woman after woman delivered gut-wrenching statements about the impact of his abuse.

– ‘Bravest person ever’ –

Already sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges, Nassar pleaded guilty to 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced Wednesday on seven of those counts, with a final additional sentence to be handed down later this month.

The final woman to deliver a statement in court was Rachael Denhollander, the first to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse and file a police report against him.

Calling for the maximum sentence, she asked the judge: “How much is a little girl worth? How much is a young woman worth.”

Denhollander said the “brazen sexual assault” upon her occurred when she was 15 years old and was carried out “with my own mother in the room,” unaware of what was going on.

“I assured myself it must be fine because I could trust the adults around me,” Denhollander said.

“I pray you experience the soul-crushing weight of guilt,” she told Nassar.

Judge Aquilina congratulated Denhollander for coming forward and building “an army of survivors.”

“You are the bravest person I have ever had in my courtroom,” the judge said.

Another abuse victim, Sterling Riethman, told Nassar — but also the authorities at USA Gymnastics (USAG), the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and Michigan State University (MSU) — “this army isn’t going anywhere.”

“We are here to show you,” said the 25-year-old, “there is no white flag to wave when it comes to protecting little girls and their futures.”

    – USOC announces probe –

Riethman and others thanked Judge Aquilina for opening up the sentencing phase of the trial to anyone who wished to share their experiences — in what turned into a cathartic experience for many survivors.

Parents spoke of the anguish of failing to protect their children from a predator, and women spoke of post-traumatic stress and deep emotional scars.

Olympic gold-medal winning gymnast Aly Raisman, confronting Nassar on Friday, echoed the words and feelings of many athletes.

“You are so sick. I can’t even comprehend how angry I feel when I think of you,” Raisman said.

As victim after victim detailed Nassar’s actions — they also slammed a lack of accountability among sporting institutions.

Shortly after the sentence was handed down, the USOC said it will hold an independent probe into USA Gymnastics and the Olympic Committee itself.

In an open letter, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said the third party probe would seek to establish “who knew what and when” and how “abuse of this proportion could have gone undetected for so long.”

Three top officials of USA Gymnastics’ board of directors resigned this week but USOC is demanding an entire overhaul of the board.

USAG also severed ties with the famed Karolyi Ranch — the Texas training facility once considered a breeding ground of champions, where Nassar reportedly had unfettered access to young girls.

The body overseeing US collegiate sports, the NCAA, has also opened an investigation into the handling of the case by MSU, which is facing multiple lawsuits.

Nassar remained employed at the university until September 2016, when allegations against him were first made public by a newspaper.//AFP