INTERNATIONAL: Thailand has boosted security in the northern part of the country which borders Myanmar on Sunday, as it braced for more refugees amid an escalation of violence in the neighbouring country. Thai authorities have issued a statement on Saturday saying three shells of unknown origin had fallen into the Thailand side, with one causing some damage to a Thai citizen's property without reports of injuries or death. The statement was published along with a video of border patrol police entering the border village in armoured vehicles.

Authorities have said that recent clashes between the Myanmar military and the ethnic Karen resistance movement across the border have prompted more than 5,000 people from Myanmar to flee into Tak's Mae Sot district. More than 30 people, including women and children, were killed and their bodies burnt in Myanmar's conflict-torn Kayah state on Friday,

Tak governor Somchai Kitcharoenrungroj has said that as of Sunday, 5,358 villagers from Myanmar had crossed the Moei River to seek refuge on Thai soil. He also said that ecurity officials have also extended humanitarian assistance to refugees sheltering in Mae Sot and Phop Phra districts, where those injured are being treated by medics.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military on February 1 overthrew the elected government of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been sentenced to four years' detention and faces multiple other criminal charges. At least 1,375 people have been killed and more than 8,000 jailed in crackdowns on protests and armed opposition since the coup, according to a tally of the Association for Assistance of Political Prisoners.