A powerful 7.7 earthquake hit central Myanmar on Friday, close to the country’s second city of Mandalay, home to around 1 million people and historic temple complexes, with tremors shaking buildings as far away as the Thai capital of Bangkok.

Video posted online from both countries showed panicked residents running from swaying residential towers as dust fills the air, and traffic comes to a sudden stop on busy city streets.

Myanmar is already reeling from more than four years of civil war sparked by a bloody and economically destructive military coup, with has seen military forces battle rebel groups across the country.

It remains one of Asia’s poorest nations and is ill-equipped to deal with major natural disasters.

One resident in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial hub and around 380 miles away from the epicenter, told CNN: “We felt the quake for about one minute and then we ran out of the building.”

“We saw other people running out of the buildings too. It was very sudden and very strong.”

Another resident said phone networks in the city home to around 8 million people were briefly down following the quake but were now running again.

Video obtained by CNN from Myanmar appeared to show a road bridge spanning the Irrawaddy River that runs through Mandalay, collapsing into the river in a cloud of dust and water.

The epicenter was in nearby Sagaing region, which has been ravaged by the civil war, with the junta, pro-military militia and rebel groups battling for control and all running checkpoints, making travel by road or river extremely difficult.

In an early indication of the quake’s strength, tremors were felt not just in Thailand, but also China’s southwestern Yunnan province.

Video posted to X showed the collapse of a building in Chatuchak Park, Bangkok. The building, which appeared to be under construction, fell in a matter of seconds, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The National Institute for Emergency medicine says 43 people were trapped in the building while seven others have been injured.

A resident in Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai, who also did not want to be named, said “I felt it for about ten seconds in my room then I figured out I couldn’t stay inside. So I rushed out on to the street.”

CNN

The wildfires plaguing South Korea’s southeast region continued to rage on Tuesday, threatening a world heritage site and forcing thousands more residents to evacuate their homes.

With a population of 150,000 people, the city of Andong, home to Hahoe Village, a UNESCO World Heritage site, issued an alert to its residents to evacuate to safe areas.

Deadly wildfires continued to rage across the region as authorities designated the affected counties ‘special disaster zones’.

No fewer than four people have been killed and hundreds forced to flee their homes since blazes broke out in several areas on Saturday, stoked by strong winds and dry weather.

It was gathered that the wildfires have already gutted local landmarks including ancient Buddhist temples.

“Because this is such an old temple, it is so regrettable and heartbreaking that it has been burned down,” said Jeung Meung-suk, a 55-year-old Buddhist follower at Unramsa, a thousands-year old temple whose most buildings were burnt.

Meanwhile, acting President Han Duck-soo on Tuesday vowed to deploy resources from helicopters to workers on the ground to put out the fires as quickly as possible.

The United States government has placed a bounty on Liu Baoxia, also known as Emily Liu, and three other Chinese nationals accused of supporting Iran.

The 43-year-old woman, a “procurement agent and arms broker”, is on the most wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Liu, Li Yongxin (Emma Lee), Yung Yiu Wa (Stephen Yung) and Zhong Yanlai (Sydney Chung) allegedly aided IRGC armaments production and sales through delivery of U.S. dual-use technology.

The Department of State, through its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to their arrest.

The U.S. is working to disrupt the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its branches, all designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The government accused the IRGC of financing terrorist attacks globally, “including via its external proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq.”

A statement by the department said the IRGC partly funds its terrorist activities through sales of military equipment, including unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

On Thursday, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced it had sanctioned a “teapot” oil refinery and its chief executive officer.

The allegedly purchased and refined hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian crude oil from vessels linked to the Ansarallah, aka the Houthis, and the Iranian Ministry of Defense of Armed Forces Logistics.

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent stated that the teapot refinery’s purchases of Iranian oil “provide the primary economic lifeline for the Iranian regime.”

Bessent reiterated America’s commitment to “cutting off the revenue streams that enable Tehran’s continued financing of terrorism and development of its nuclear program.”