Deadly Quake Gives Junta a Chance to Tighten Hold Over Myanmar

It was only hours after Myanmar was hit by its strongest earthquake in a century when the ruling military regime resumed bombing parts of the war-torn country where it lost crucial territory over more than a year of intense fighting.

Even as the damage of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake was still being assessed, pro-democracy rebel groups reported fresh airstrikes in areas close to the epicenter. The official death toll from the temblor has now surpassed 2,700, with over 4,500 injured, a military spokesman said, amid widespread destruction in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.