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Sri Lankan among hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar’s scam centres

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More than 250 people from 20 nationalities including a Sri Lankan who had been working in telecom fraud centres in Myanmar’s Karen State have been released by an ethnic armed group and brought to Thailand.

The workers, more than half of whom were from African or Asian nations, were received by the Thai army, and are being assessed to find out if they were victims of human trafficking.

Last week Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met Chinese leader Xi Jinping and promised to shut down the scam centres which have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Her government has stopped access to power and fuel from the Thai side of the border, and toughened up banking and visa rules to try to prevent scam operators from using Thailand as a transit country for moving workers and cash.

Some opposition MPs in Thailand have been pushing for this kind of action for the past two years.

Foreign workers are typically lured to these scam centres by offers of good salaries, or in some cases tricked into thinking they will be doing different work in Thailand, not Myanmar.

The scammers look for workers with skills in the languages of those who are targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese.

They are pressed into conducting online criminal activity, ranging from love scams known as “pig butchering” and crypto fraud, to money laundering and illegal gambling.

Some are willing to do the work, but others are forced to stay, with release only possible if their families pay large ransoms. Some of those who have escaped have described being tortured.

The released foreign workers were handed over by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, DKBA, one of several armed factions which control territory inside Karen State.

These armed groups have been accused of allowing the scam compounds to operate under their protection, and of tolerating the widespread abuse of trafficking victims who are forced to work in the compounds.

The Myanmar government has been unable to extend its control over much of Karen State since independence in 1948.

Thai News Pix Three people released from scam centres walk across a tarmac
The scammers look for workers with skills in the languages of those who are targeted for cyber-fraud, usually English and Chinese [BBC]

On Tuesday, Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation, which is similar to the US FBI, requested arrest warrants for three commanders of another armed group known as the Karen National Army.

The warrants included Saw Chit Thu, the Karen warlord who struck a deal in 2017 with a Chinese company to build Shwe Kokko, a new city believed to be largely funded by scams.

The BBC visited Shwe Kokko at the invitation of Yatai, the company which built the city.

Yatai says there are no more scams in Shwe Kokko. It has put up huge billboards all over town proclaiming, in Chinese, Burmese and English, that forced labour is not allowed, and that “online businesses” should leave.

But we were told by local people that the scam business was still running, and interviewed a worker who had been employed in one.

Chart showing nationalities of rescued workers

Like the DKBA, Saw Chit Thu broke away from the main Karen insurgent group, the KNU, in 1994, and allied himself to the Myanmar military.

Under pressure from Thailand and China, both Saw Chit Thu and the DKBA have said they are expelling the scam businesses from their territories.

The DKBA commander contacted a Thai member of parliament on Tuesday to arrange the handover of the 260 workers.

They included 221 men and 39 women, from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Nepal, Uganda, Laos, Burundi, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Sir Lanka, India, Ghana and Cambodia.

[BBC]



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Advisory for Severe Lightning issued to the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and Galle and Matara districts

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Advisory for Severe Lightning Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre at 12.30 noon 12 March 2026 valid for the period until 11.00 p.m. 12 March 2026

Thundershowers accompanied with severe lightning are likely to occur at some places in the Western and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Galle and Matara districts after 2.00 p.m.

There may be temporary localized strong winds during thundershowers. General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning activity.

ACTION REQUIRED:
The Department of Meteorology advises that people should:
 Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.
 Avoid open areas such as paddy fields, tea plantations and open water bodies during thunderstorms.
 Avoid using wired telephones and connected electric appliances during thunderstorms.
 Avoid using open vehicles, such as bicycles, tractors and boats etc.
 Beware of fallen trees and power lines.
 For emergency assistance contact the local disaster management authorities.

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Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Mitchell Starc and Kuldeep Yadav among ESPNcricinfo award winners for 2025

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We're all winners here: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues won big in 2025 [Cricinfo]

India’s players swept all the women’s categories in ESPNcricinfo’s annual awards for individual performances in 2025, reflecting a year in which the team won their first World Cup title.

While Jemimah Rodrigues won the women’s ODI batting honours for her awe-inspiring, cramp-battling century that knocked Australia out of the World Cup. Deepti  Sharma grabbed the ODI bowling award for her match turning five for in the final against South Africa. And Harmanpreet Kaur took the captain’s award for winning the world title and for sealing white-ball series (ODIs and T20Is) in England and winning her second WPL title with Mumbai Indians. Her title clinching 66in the WPL final against Delhi Capitals took the women’s T20 leagues batting award.

South Africa Women had to deal with the bitter heartbreak of losing yet another World Cup final, but the men, who for long fell agonizingly short of the big prizes, took home the World Test Championship,  eating Australia by five wickets in the final at Lord’s. They were rewarded by our jurors too:Aiden Markram won the Test batting award for his epic fourth-innings hundred in that final, while Temba Bavuma,  who made a vital 66 while nursing a hamstring injury during that chase, was picked as the men’s captain of the year for leading his side to the WTC mace, to a sweep of India in Tests in India, and for ODI series wins in Australia and England.

Fast bowler Marco Jansen, one of the bowling architects of South Africa’s 2-0 win in India, narrowly lost the Test bowling award to the incandescent Mitchell Starc, who decimated England with 7 for 58 in Perth on the opening day of the Ashes.

Another seven-for took the men’s T20 leagues bowling award: Taskin Ahmed’s 7 for 19 fro Durbar Rajshahi against Dhakar Capital in the BPL. The batting prize in that category went to Hobart Hurricanes opener Mitchell Owen, whose  39 ball century against Sydney Thunder – which equalled the tournament record for the fastest hundred – took his side to their maiden BBL title.

The women’s T20 leagues bowling award, like the one for batting, also came against Delhi Capitals in the WPL: 21-year-old UP Warriorz fast bowler Kranti Gaud,  in her first season, took 4 for 25, including the wickets of Rodrigues, Meg Lanning and Shafali Verma.

The Champions Trophy was the headline event in men’s cricket in 2025 and the winning ODI performances came from that tournament: in Lahore, Ibrahim Zadran broke records for the highest individual score for Afghanistan in ODIs and for the highest score in the Champions Trophy overall with his majestic 177,  which knocked England out of the tournament. The ODI bowling award was picked up by India legspinner Varun Chakravarthy who took 5 for 42 against New Zealand in Dubai, where a week later India won the Champions Trophy.

Six months later, at the same ground, India also won the T20 Asia Cup. In the final against Pakistan, the dismantler-in-chief was our men’s T20I bowling award winner, another legspinner, Kuldeep Yadav, who took 4 for 30, including three wickets in his final over.

The men’s T20I batting award went to England’s Phil Salt, whose 141 not out off 60 balls against South Africa at Old Trafford was not only England’s fastest T20I hundred, but also their highest individual score in the format; and it took them to their highest team total – 304.

Australian allrounder Beau Webster, who scored four half-centuries, including a series-sealing one in his first Test, in Sydney against India, and took eight wickets in seven Tests, was named the men’s debutant of the year. The women’s debutant award went to India fast bowler N Shree Charani who showed remarkable temperament at the age of 20 to pick up a four for on T20I debut in England. She went on to take 14 wickets in the ODI World Cup, second highest for India after Deepti.

Charani, like Harmanpreet, won two awards. Her other one, for women’s T20I bowling, came for her four wickets against England at Trent Bridge, in a match where opener Smriti Mandhana’s maiden T20I hundred played a vital role in setting up India’s win. Mandhana won the women’s T20I batting award for that performance.

The men’s Associate batting award went to Max O’Dowd for masterminding Netherlands’ 370-run chase – the third-highest successful one in all ODIs -against Scotland in Dundee. His 158 not out came off only 130 balls and trumped George Munsey’s 191 in the same match. The men’s Associate bowling award was picked up by seamer Harry Manenti, whose 5 for 31 against Scotland in the qualifier in The Hague, played a big role in Italy qualifying for the 2026 T20 World Cup.

THE JURY : Ian Bishop, Sambit Bal, Shane Bond, Aakash Chopra, Andrew Fernando, Andy Flower, Nagraj Gollapudi, Mohammad Isam, Isobel Joyce, Raunak Kapoor, Nick Knight, Farveez Maharoof, Andrew McGlashan, Andrew Miller, Sidharth Monga, Tom Moody, Firdose Moonda, Urooj Mumtaz, Vernon Philander, Matt Roller, Osman Samiuddin, Dale Steyn

[Cricinfo]

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Nasa spacecraft weighing 1,300lb due to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere

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The two Van Allen Probes were launched in 2012 [BBC]

A Van Allen Probe spacecraft weighing more than 1,300lb (600kg) is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere almost 14 years after its launch, Nasa says.

The spacecraft is projected to re-enter around 19:45 EDT (23:45 GMT) on Tuesday the US Space Force predicted, according to Nasa, though there is a 24-hour margin of “uncertainty” in the timing.

The Van Allen Probe A, which launched in 2012, is expected mostly to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, though some components may survive.

The space agency said there is a one in 4,200 chance of being harmed by a piece of the probe, which it characterised as “low” risk.

The spacecraft and its twin, Van Allen Probe B, were on a mission to gather unprecedented data on Earth’s two permanent radiation belts.

It was not immediately clear where in Earth’s atmosphere the satellite is projected to re-enter. The BBC has contacted Nasa for further detail.

Nasa and the US Space Force have said they will monitor the re-entry and update any predictions.

The mission, which was originally designed to last two years, went on for almost seven. It ended after the spacecrafts ran out of fuel and were no longer able to orient themselves toward the Sun.

The probes flew through rings of charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field from 2012 to 2019, in order to study how particles were gained and lost, per Nasa.

Those rings, called the Van Allen belts, shield Earth from cosmic radiation, solar storms and streaming solar wind, which are harmful to humans and can damage technology.

The mission made significant discoveries, including the first data that show the existence of a transient third radiation belt, which can form during times of intense solar activity, Nasa said.

Van Allen Probe B is not expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere before 2030.

[BBC]

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