Suu Kyi, a nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defence of the Rohingya.

Some 600,000 of the stateless minority have fled to Bangladesh since late August carrying accounts of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar’s powerful army, after militant raids sparked a ferocious military retaliation.

The UN says that crackdown is likely tantamount to ethnic cleansing, while pressure has mounted on Myanmar to provide security for the Rohingya and allow people to return home.

In addition to the state capital Sittwe, Suu Kyi is also visiting two of the epicentres of the violence, Maungdaw and Buthidaung, as part of the “one day trip,” government spokesman Zaw Htay told AFP.

It is her first trip in office to northern Rakhine, which has seen some of the worst of the communal violence that has cut through the western state since 2012, severely damaging Myanmar’s global reputation.

It was not clear if Suu Kyi would visit some of the hundreds of Rohingya villages torched by the army — allegedly aided by ethnic Rakhine Buddhist locals.

But “The Lady” — as she in known — did meet with Rohingya in Maungdaw, according to local media, a first for a leader keen to convince observers inside the country and abroad that the crisis has abated and reconstruction of Rakhine can begin.

The Rohingya who remain in northern Rakhine are living in fear, surrounded by hostile neighbours, who refuse to let them farm or move freely.

The UN on Thursday again called for unfettered humanitarian access to a zone still under army lockdown.

On Thursday 2,500 Rohingya arrived by land at the Bangladesh border, a sign hunger and fear is still driving people from their homes.

“The army didn’t attack us but made our life very difficult,”Mohammad Zafar, 35, from a village in Buthidaung told AFP at the Bangladesh border.

“We were not paid for any work and couldn’t go to markets. How long is it possible to live like that?”

– ‘Here for generations’ –

Suu Kyi heads a committee charged with rebuilding Rakhine.

She was joined on Thursday by businessman Zaw Zaw, one of a host of military “cronies” who thrived under junta rule and are now taking prominent roles in rebuilding the battered region.

There are fears a carve-up of contracts in Rakhine by big business will further divorce the Rohingya from their land.

She says the Rohingya who have fled are now welcome back, if they meet contested “verification” criteria for re-entry to Myanmar.

The Rohingya are loathed in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and denigrated as illegal “Bengali” immigrants.

Their legal status is at the crux of communal tensions, with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists adamant that Rohingya are foreign interlopers.

A Rohingya resident who has remained in Maungdaw town appealed to Suu Kyi to reconsider foisting a controversial national verification card (NVC) on the minority.

The card grants them limited rights of residence in Myanmar, but does not recognise them as an ethnic group with citizenship.

The Rohingya say it is a bureaucratic attempt to erase their identity and force a shaky legal status onto them in a region where many claim generations of ancestry.

“We can not do anything with this NVC card, so we do not want to receive it,” the resident said, requesting anonymity fearing reprisals.

“We are not Bengalis from Bangladesh, we are Rohingya living here for generations.”

Observers say Suu Kyi has chosen not to criticise the army in fear of a backlash from a powerful institution that controls all security matters.

The plight of the Rohingya garners little sympathy inside Myanmar, making a defence of the minority a politically toxic cause.

The Rohingya have packed into makeshift camps on a poor, already overcrowded slip of border land inside Bangladesh.

Aid groups say the risk of major outbreaks of disease is high, while they struggle to deliver food and basic supplies to the unprecedented number of refugees.

Myanmar’s army denies abuses in its campaign to flush out Rohingya militants whose attacks in late August sparked the latest round of a festering communal crisis.

On Monday, Kupang regent Ayub Titu Eki revealed that plans are already under way in conjunction with Lapan, as reported by tempo.co. The observatory is expected to encourage tourism in the area as well as developing the region as a research and technology center.

“Lapan will develop the facility to be a natural tourism site that would be attractive to tourists,” Titu said.

An advanced telescope measuring 3.8 meters in diameter would be placed in the building, Titu said, adding that it would be the largest in Southeast Asia.

Lapan said the mountainous region of ​​Timau is considered a strategic spot for space observation, covering both northern and southern directions.

Lapan is in the beginning stages of developing the facility, Titu said, adding that several heavy vehicle units had been being delayed due to severe road damage throughout the Kupang region.

“The Kupang regional government has informed the central government to repair the damaged roads because the observatory’s construction is earmarked for early next year,” he added.

In the meantime, he said, Lapan is also currently building a science center in the Tilong area in Central Kupang on an area spanning ​​40 hectares that would be dedicated to research.

May has ordered an investigation into an allegation that Damian Green, her de facto deputy and an old university friend, touched the woman’s knee and sent her a suggestive text message before he joined the cabinet.

Green said it was “absolutely and completely untrue that I’ve ever made any sexual advances” towards journalist and Conservative activist Kate Maltby, who is 30 years younger than him.

“This untrue allegation has come as a complete shock and is deeply hurtful, especially from someone I considered a personal friend,” he said.

A Downing Street spokesman said May had asked the head of the civil service, Jeremy Heywood, to “establish the facts and report back as soon as possible”.

Allegations of sexual harassment and abuse have been circulating in Westminster for almost a week, with all party leaders pledging to do more to tackle what many admit is a pervasive problem.

In the most serious case, an opposition Labour party activist on Tuesday revealed she had been raped by a party member as a teenager six years ago — but was told by a senior member of staff not to report it because it might harm her career.

– Ministerial code probe –

A list of MPs in May’s Conservative party has also been circulated detailing ordinary relationships, sexual penchants and unspecified and unverified claims of inappropriate behaviour.

Among them is junior trade minister Mark Garnier, who is currently under investigation for breaches of the ministerial code for asking his then secretary to buy him sex toys in 2010.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has also apologised for putting his hand on a journalist’s knee in 2002, but will face no investigation as the woman in question has brushed it off.

Maltby wrote in The Times on Wednesday how Green, a contact she met through her parents, put a “fleeting hand against my knee” when they went for a drink in early 2015.

“I had felt a meaningful political relationship was developing — suddenly, I’d been made aware that there might be a price I was not prepared to pay,” she wrote.

She cut off contact but Green sent her a text in May last year after she appeared in a magazine article wearing a corset, saying he had “admired” the picture and asking her if she wanted to meet for a drink.

Green said the text was sent in the spirit of “two friends agreeing to meet up for a regular catch-up”.

She ignored it but got in touch when he was appointed to May’s cabinet a few weeks later, and said they have since exchanged “many texts about political gossip”.

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A series of earthquakes, which is unusual in the area, have been recorded, while a massive tunnel collapse at the site was also detected.

Japan’s Asahi TV on Tuesday reported that at least 200 people died and about 100 people were trapped inside in the collapsed tunnel, without providing information on when it happened.

The news follows Seoul’s weather agency Korea Meteorological Administration chief, Nam Jae-cheol’s remarks that another detonation could possibly prompt a collapse of the test site and spill radioactive materials, during a parliamentary audit here on Monday.

“Based on our analysis of satellite imagery, we judge that there is a hollow space, which measures about 60 to 100 meters (in length), at the bottom of Mount Mantap in the Punggye-ri site,” Nam told lawmakers. “So, should another nuke test occur, there is the possibility (of a collapse).”

Concerned about nuclear waste contamination, Chinese scientists reportedly warned Pyongyang to relocate the test site, as the mountain range about 80 kilometers away from the North Korea-China border is at risk of collapse, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post said. If the site deteriorates, the nuclear waste spill may seep through the border and spoil Chinese soil.

North Korea’s sixth and latest nuclear test on Sept. 3, which is also referred to as its strongest yet, may have dealt a heavy blow to its topography. The South Korean Meteorological Administration said the test caused an artificial magnitude 5.7 earthquake, while the US Geological Survey and the Chinese government measured a seismic activity of 6.3. Smaller tremors followed, which many saw as aftershocks of the detonation.

But a US think tank claimed that “for the time being,” Pyongyang has no plans to abandon the Punggye-ri test site, “given the presence of additional test portals.” Although substantial damage to the tunnels is suspected, similar nuclear tests conducted at the US Nevada Test Site and former Soviet nuclear test sites did not lead to site abandonment, an analysis by 38 North, at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said.

Meanwhile, experts here expressed doubt over the possibility of a North Korean provocation triggered by the signs of its crumbling test site, to sustain the current level of tension — despite its longest hiatus in military provocations in recent months.

“North Korea currently has two options regarding military provocations — launching an intercontinental ballistic missile test or nuclear test,” Koh Yoo-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University said.

“However, if its nuclear test site (of Punggye-ri) is exhausted there won’t be another nuclear experiment any time soon,” he said.

On the possibility of an atmospheric nuclear test, Koh said that it entails a massive risk at the moment with US President Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to South Korea next week. At the UN General Assembly in New York last month, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho told reporters that Pyongyang is considering dropping a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean.

“The North will think twice before launching any sort of military provocation with President Trump’s Asia tour. It will weigh the current situation and keep close tabs on how the situation shifts after the tour,” Koh added.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry said Wednesday that it will probe further the Asahi TV report and plans to announce relevant reports by the end of the year.

He was painting the roof of the two-storey building in the village of Lalapet and had gone downstairs for his lunch break just minutes before the door crashed onto the house’s empty terrace.

Nobody was hurt, according to a report in the Times of India (TOI).

The plane, owned by the Telangana State Aviation Academy, reportedly had two pilots onboard and was flying at 2,500 feet (762m) when it wobbled in the air, causing one of the metal doors to fall off.

“It was like an explosion and we ran in panic,” he said.

The white door, which weighed about 20kg, was discovered lying near an overhead water tank. Smashed glass was strewn all over the terrace floor.

Local police have since seized the door, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation launching a probe into the incident.

Police inspector Karan Kumar Singh, speaking to the BBC, said it was common to see low-flying training planes in the area.

The majority of the people who are faced with the high risk of displacement live in Asian countries mostly struggling with various economic hardships. Eight countries with highest risk of internally displaced people are in Asia.

China tops the list with most number of internally displaced people due to the natural disasters. Around 7. 4 million people are displaced​ and earthquakes, storms, floods and geophysical hazards are mostly responsible for their displacement.

The Philippines has the second highest number of internally displaced people in Asia. Disasters due to typhoons are a major factor for displacement of people in the country. The armed conflicts in the southern island of Mindano has ​also ​forced people to dislocate. Clan based violence and human rights violations by state and non-state actors continue to push people away from their locations.

In India which has the third highest number of displaced people, displacement in recent years has been attributed to the environmental factors. India is prone to droughts, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and cyclones. The third of country’s population live in poverty and substandard housing which makes it difficult for them to cope in the face of natural disasters. Combined with these factors is the poorly planned urbanisation and environmental degradation which has led to risk of damage and displacement. Also, the political conflicts in various states of the country and increase of human rights violations also have led to people displacing and moving to safer areas.

In Indonesia​, people have been dislocated because of protracted inter communal violence and insurgency related violence and as a result ​of which ​they have been unwilling to reintegrate and re-establish their lives. Conflict of Aceh, Free Papua Movement, attack on religious minorities, targeting of shia population in the country has forced people to displace​, according to IDMC.

People in Japan continue to bear the brunt of The Great East Japan Earthquake, persistent tsunamis and the Fukushima nuclear radiation disaster.​ ​The country has fifth largest number of internally displaced people in Asia.

Floods and protracted ethnic conflicts has rendered thousands of  people displaced in Bangladesh making it country with sixth largest number of ​internally displaced people.

Myanmar has also been witnessing inter community conflicts leading to violence and consequently displacement. The conflict between Buddhists and Muslims in the Rakhine state since 2012 has continuously been displacing people.

Sri Lanka has been witness to a brutal war between State and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) which has resulted in thousands of people being displaced from Northern and Eastern provinces.

The conflict in Thailand between Malay Muslims and the State has resulted in internal displacement along with environmental disasters like recent floods in the county. The Buddhist minority in the state of Pattani has moved to safer places to evade the conflict. The displacement due to natural disasters has been mostly from rural to urban areas.

Refugees and people uprooted in their own countries are already at record-high numbers​. Worse the internal​ly displaced people are in a much difficult position​. While ​​refuges benefit from an established legal system of protection​,​ those displaced internally lack any institutional support or assistance from international community or justice system.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services, said the army is helping the Central Committee for the Implementation of Stability, Peace and Development in Rakhine State led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to have success in her meeting with Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai at the parlour of Zeyathiri Villa on October 30.

This is according to an announcement from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services.

The Foreign Minister said although the two countries share a long common border, there are no major issues. There are excellent relations between the two armed forces and bilateral relations between the ministries of foreign affairs of the two countries are also good.

There is also close cooperation and mutual support. Thailand supports the stance of Myanmar government. Although there is progress in the government’s action in connection with the Rakhine issue, it needs time to solve it, the minister said.

Thailand understands the complicated nature of the issue and the requirement of time, as the country had also faced a similar situation. Thailand views the issue as a matter that must be solved through short-term, mid-term and long-term programmes from a comprehensive outlook.

The senior general said although it needs to measure some parts of the boundary between Myanmar and Thailand which is than 2,000 kilometers in total, neither country has a big border problem.

Despite solving boundary affairs with all neighbouring countries in a peaceful way, Myanmar faces some problems in its western part.

With regard to the issue of Rakhine State, he said that the majority of global countries put pressure on Myanmar based on accusations by the media without knowing true events in Myanmar.Whatever it may be, it must accept the truth, he said. The issue of Rakhine State was made under preparations based on the events that happened over many years.

Myanmar could not accept anyone as citizens without scrutinising and identifying them. Conducting the citizenship scrutiny started the problem.The army is also helping the Central Committee for the Implementation of Stability, Peace and Development in Rakhine State led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to have success.The visiting foreign minister  met with State Counsellor and Foreign Affairs Minister Aung San Suu Kyi on October 30 at Nay Pyi Taw.

The suspect exited his rental vehicle holding up two fake guns, before being shot by police and taken into custody. The incident happened around 3:05 pm (1905 GMT) close to schools as children in America’s largest city celebrated Halloween.

Loved ones mourned the first deaths from a terror-linked attack in New York since September 11, 2001.

It was also the city’s first such incident since a pipe bomb explosion in September 2016 in Chelsea, lightly wounding 31 people. An American of Afghan descent, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, was convicted of terrorism over that attack earlier this month.

The city, which has frequently been on high security alert since the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on the Twin Towers, is America’s financial and entertainment capital, with a population of 8.5 million.

President Donald Trump decried the 29-year-old attacker, whose name and nationality has not yet been revealed, as “very sick” and a “deranged person.”

New York police chief James O’Neill said that eight people were killed, at least six of whom were men. Eleven people were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The suspect drove a rented pickup truck from retailer Home Depot southbound down a bike and pedestrian lane, striking people before colliding with a school bus, injuring two adults and two children.

The suspect then stepped out of the vehicle, brandishing two apparent handguns, before being shot in the abdomen by a police officer, police said.

‘Horrible tragedy’

A paintball gun and pellet gun was recovered at the scene, police said.

“It’s a very painful day in our city. Horrible tragedy,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“Let me be clear, based on the information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them,” the mayor added.

“We at this moment based on the information we have, we know of eight innocent people who have lost their lives. And over a dozen more injured.”

New York’s Democratic State Governor Andrew Cuomo noted that “New York is an international symbol of freedom and democracy.”

“That also makes us a target for those people who oppose those concepts and we’ve lived with this before,” he added.

Police officers and ambulances swamped the area, in front of a park and next to a school as sirens wailed continuously and helicopters roared through the sky.

Worried parents gathered outside a public elementary school that had closed, waiting to see if they could collect children who stayed after the end of the classes for extracurricular lessons and activities.

“I didn’t see the actual shooting, but I got there about 30 seconds after,” said witness John Williams, 22, who was en route to the park. “There was a smell of gunshots.

“There was a man lying on the ground. It looked as he’d been shot,” Williams added.

– ‘Little bit crazy’ –

The last mass casualty incident in New York was on May 18, when a US Navy veteran plowed a car into pedestrians in Times Square, killing an 18-year-old woman from Michigan and injuring 22 other people.

Police patrols in Times Square, one of the world’s busiest districts, had already been beefed up in recent years, following a 2010 car bombing attempt and in the wake of attacks in Europe.

A witness who gave his name only as Frank told local television network NY1 that he saw a man running around an intersection, heard five to six gunshots and saw “about 100 cops” flood into the street.

“I saw he had something in his hand, but I couldn’t tell what it was. But they said that it was a gun, so I was like: ‘Oh my God,'” the witness told NY1.

“When the cops shot him, everybody started running away and it got a little bit crazy right there. So when I tried to look again, the guy was already down.”

It was the most serious security breach in New York since Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani immigrant, plant a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, 2010.

His explosive device failed to detonate and he was arrested shortly after boarding a flight to the Middle East. He pleaded guilty and said he was aiming to avenge deaths from US missiles fired from drones operating over Pakistan.

He was sentenced to life behind bars.