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A senior U.S. official urged Cambodia on Friday not to make any concessions to Myanmar's military junta when Phnom Peng chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year.

The remarks by U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet came days after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Myanmar officials should be invited to return to ASEAN meetings, following an unprecedented exclusion from this year's summit.

Myanmar has been in crisis since General Min Aung Hlaing overthrew a civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, prompting widespread protests and pockets of armed resistance met with violent suppression. The military says its takeover was in line with the constitution and that the opposition are terrorists.

Min Aung Hlaing was not invited to ASEAN's October summit by current chair Brunei over a lack of cooperation with the regional bloc's peace plan, including not allowing an envoy access to Suu Kyi, who was sentenced on Monday to jail.

Chollet, on a brief visit to Phnom Penh, stopped short of calling on Cambodia to continue to exclude Myanmar junta officials, but he urged the country to promote and uphold the ASEAN peace plan.

"We would expect of any engagement that it actually brings results, it's not just something that's a concession to the junta," he said.

"The U.S. is not against engagement - we still have embassy in Myanmar - but we're quite clear that the engagement needs to have a purpose, you can’t come for free and we want to see genuine progress on the ground.”

Myanmar's military-appointed foreign minister visited Cambodia and met with Hun Sen on Tuesday, a day after the junta drew global condemnation for sentencing Suu Kyi to two years' detention on charges of incitement and breaching COVID-19 rules.

Hun Sen, who has faced criticism from rights groups and Western governments over what they see as his suppression of democracy, also pledged to visit Myanmar. (Reuters)

The United Nations human rights office said on Friday that Myanmar's military was committing grave violations including killing 11 people and setting fire to their bodies.

"We are appalled by the alarming escalation of grave human rights abuses in Myanmar," U.N. human rights spokesperson Rupert Colville told a Geneva briefing.

"In the last week alone, security forces have killed and burned to death 11 people, among them five minors, and rammed vehicles into protesters exercising their fundamental right to peaceful assembly."

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that the United States was outraged by reports that Myanmar soldiers rounded up and killed 11 people in the northwestern region of Sagaing. read more

There was no immediate reaction from Myanmar's military rulers to the accusations from the U.N. rights body. (Reuters)

 U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that the United States was "outraged" by reports that Myanmar soldiers rounded up and killed 11 people in the northwestern region of Sagaing.

The soldiers were accused of shooting the people and setting fire to their bodies. Charred remains were discovered in a village.

Video footage purporting to show the burned bodies was circulated on social media and images were published by some media including the Myanmar Now news portal.

"We are outraged by credible and sickening reports that the Burmese military bound 11 villagers, including children, in northwest Burma and burned them alive," Price said.

Price repeated Washington's call for the military to end the use of violence and to release those unjustly detained since generals seized power in a Feb. 1 coup.

The remains were found in a village in Sagaing, an area which has seen fierce fighting between security forces and militia set up by opponents of military rule, said residents, who said some of the victims were still alive when burned. (Reuters)

Australia will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 from Jan. 10, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, after the rollout cleared final regulatory hurdles.

"This will be welcome news for millions of families across the country who want the opportunity for their children to be vaccinated," Morrison said in a statement.

After reviewing clinical data from Canada, the country's vaccination advisory group recommended an eight-week interval between the two doses, which can be shortened to three weeks if there is an outbreak.

Pfizer (PFE.N) doses will be administered in the initial phase, while regulators assess the suitability of Moderna (MRNA.O) shots. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.

The decision comes as Australia seeks to accelerate the rollout of booster shots after becoming one of the world's most-vaccinated countries against COVID-19, inoculating nearly 90% of its population above 16 with two doses. Some 70% of children aged 12 to 15 have been fully vaccinated.

Authorities have been urging people to take the booster shot concerned about the new, more transmissible Omicron variant amid a steady rise in infections in Sydney, Australia's largest city.

New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, reported 516 new cases on Friday, its biggest rise in two months.

Most were caused by the Delta variant but the number of Omicron infections has been creeping up since Australia reported its first case about two weeks ago. Some 50 cases have been detected so far, the majority in Sydney.

Australia has reported about 225,000 COVID-19 cases and 2,084 deaths, far fewer than many comparable countries. (Reuters)