State of emergency extended in Myanmar 

Myanmar’s junta has extended a state of emergency by six months, delaying elections.

The military has promised to hold as it battles opposition across the country.

Acting president U Myint Swe announced the extension of the state of emergency for another six months at a meeting of the national defence and security council, the junta said in a statement on Wednesday.

The extension of the state of emergency -- due to expire at midnight on Wednesday -- was needed to "continue the process of combatting terrorists," the statement added.

Three years on, the junta is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule and recently suffered a series of stunning setbacks to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups. 

The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the February 2021 coup which ended a ten-year experiment with democracy and sparked mass protests and a crackdown on dissent.