World News Roundup: Myanmar protesters burn army uniform five months after coup; Analysis-Kim's reshuffles serve to keep North Korea elite in line as crises mount and more

The standoff, which one official said has been going on for weeks, is in the course of being resolved, diplomats said, but it has also raised tensions with the West just as indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the Iran nuclear deal have adjourned without a date set for their resumption. Britain's parties fight for votes in northern England Voters in a northern English region were casting their ballots on Thursday in a new test of whether British Prime Minister Boris Johnson can extend his Conservative Party's control over traditionally opposition-supporting areas.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Myanmar protesters burn army uniform five months after coup

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on Thursday, setting fire to an army uniform and chanting calls for democracy five months after a military coup ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The protest was one of the biggest in Yangon in recent weeks, although demonstrations against the army take place daily in many parts of the Southeast Asian country.

Analysis-Kim's reshuffles serve to keep North Korea elite in line as crises mount

What may be the most significant reshuffle of top North Korean officials in years by leader Kim Jong Un serves as a warning to the ruling elite, analysts say, including those he accused this week of causing a "great crisis" with coronavirus lapses. Kim called a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea politburo on Tuesday and berated some party executives' neglect of duty, including failing to implement long-term measures to fight the pandemic, state media reported.

Security tight in HK on China anniversary, official says city now stable

Police deployed in the streets of Hong Kong in large numbers on Thursday to prevent protests on the anniversary of its return to Chinese rule, and its acting leader said a national security law had brought order back to the city after chaos. Police vans, water cannon trucks, armoured vehicles and police units patrolled the streets. Passers-by were stopped and searched, with three people arrested in the Mong Kok district for allegedly distributing "seditious" leaflets.

S.Africa's top court clears Ramaphosa of misleading parliament about donations

South Africa's top court on Thursday re-affirmed an earlier ruling that President Cyril Ramaphosa did not deliberately mislead lawmakers about donations to his 2017 campaign to lead the ruling party. The Public Protector, an anti-graft watchdog, had been unhappy with last year's ruling by the high court, which found that Ramaphosa did not, as alleged, intentionally mislead parliament about fundraising and donations. These included 500,000 rand deposited into Ramaphosa's son Andile's account.

Western forces pack up to end their war, Afghans "manage the consequences"

Afghan scrap dealers are picking over the detritus of the two-decade U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, collecting whatever they can of value from heaps of broken military hardware, scrapped machines and old furniture. While the scrap men search through junk outside the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, the Afghan government, and the country as a whole, are having to face up to the end of an international mission that promised so much but failed to bring peace.

Russian navy conducts live fire exercise in Black Sea as Ukraine, NATO drill

Russian warships have carried out a live fire training exercise in the Black Sea, the country's Black Sea fleet said on Thursday, as Ukraine and NATO countries held military drills in the same wider area. The Sea Breeze drills, led by Ukraine and the United States, follow a spike in tensions between NATO and Moscow after Russia last week said it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship to expel it from its territorial waters near Crimea.

'No reason to celebrate': Canada Day muted as country reckons with dark colonial history

Multiple cities scrapped Canada Day celebrations on Thursday after the discovery of hundreds of remains of children at former indigenous schools sparked a reckoning with the country's colonial past. Calls to scale back or cancel celebrations snowballed after, beginning in May, almost 1,000 unmarked graves were found at former so-called residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, that were mainly run by the Catholic Church and funded by the government.

Xi warns against foreign bullying as China marks party centenary

China's President Xi Jinping on Thursday warned that foreign forces attempting to bully the nation will "get their heads bashed", and hailed a "new world" created by its people as the ruling Communist Party marked the centenary of its founding.

In an hour-long address from Tiananmen Square, Xi pledged to build up China's military, committed to the "reunification" of Taiwan and said social stability would be ensured in Hong Kong while protecting China's security and sovereignty.

Exclusive: Iran restricts IAEA access to main enrichment plant after attack -diplomats

Iran has been restricting U.N. nuclear inspectors' access to its main uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, citing security concerns after what it says was an attack on the site by Israel in April, diplomats say. The standoff, which one official said has been going on for weeks, is in the course of being resolved, diplomats said, but it has also raised tensions with the West just as indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the Iran nuclear deal have adjourned without a date set for their resumption.

Britain's parties fight for votes in northern England

Voters in a northern English region were casting their ballots on Thursday in a new test of whether British Prime Minister Boris Johnson can extend his Conservative Party's control over traditionally opposition-supporting areas. The constituency Batley and Spen, which has voted for the opposition Labour Party since 1997, could hand another victory to Johnson, whose pursuit of Brexit and promise to tackle inequality has won over many voters in northern England.