By Larissa Liao, Kevin Krolicki and Poppy McPherson BEIJING/BANGKOK (Reuters) -The abduction and cross-border rescue had all the makings of the kind of action script struggling Chinese actor Wang Xing had hoped to land – only not as a reality star.

China says it has brokered a ceasefire between Myanmar’s military government and a major ethnic rebel group in the country’s northeast.

The abduction of a young Chinese actor, who was trafficked from Thailand to Myanmar, prompted an unusually powerful public-pressure campaign and official actions.

The Myanmar military and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) signed a formal agreement for a ceasefire that began on Saturday, China's foreign ministry said, halting fighting near the border of both countries.

The peace deal comes into effect on the weekend but experts aren't convinced it will lead to hostilities easing across the war-torn country.

In a rare call, the junta asked other nations to “participate in combating online scams and online gambling”. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Both the great powers want access to Rakhine State’s Indian coastline and their ambitions have not ended because of advances by the Arakan Army.

Officials from China, Myanmar, Thailand reached consensus on eradicating telecommunication fraud centres in Myanmar on Tuesday during a meeting in the Chinese city of Kunming, said China's national broadcaster.

Myanmar’s ruling junta has called on neighbouring countries to help combat the issue, which analysts say is worth billions of dollars.

Foreign ministers of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN at a weekend retreat upheld their decision to bar Myanmar’s ruling generals from their summits and limit the country's participation to a non-political level,

Scammers under leading telecom fraud syndicates in north Myanmar are handed over to Chinese custody, on January 30, 2024. Photo: VCG. A senior officials' meeting on Lancang-Mekong

Myanmar's ruling junta said Tuesday it had deported to China more than 50,000 people suspected of involvement in online scam operations since October 2023, as it made a rare call to neighbouring countries to intervene.