World News for Students of English

05-02-2021 07:00

Myanmar’s military has seized power after detaining the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other democratically elected leaders.

The army says that the recent election victory by Suu Kyi’s party was gained by fraud. Troops are patrolling the streets, and a night-time curfew is in force, with a one-year state of emergency declared.

Myanmar was ruled by the armed forces until 2011; however, after democratic reforms, Suu Kyi was in partial control with the military’s agreement. She spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010 and she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. However, her leadership and reputation suffered after she defended the army’s brutal crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.

Suu Kyi’s party has released a statement saying that the coup was against the will of voters. Leaders across the world, including the US and UK, have criticized the coup.

Difficult words: seize (to take hold of something by force), curfew (an order that requires people to stay indoors), crackdown (a strong official action to punish people who break laws), coup (a sudden and often violent taking of government power).

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