The death toll from the powerful earthquake in Myanmar has reached 1,644, the country’s authorities said on Saturday, even as rescue workers raced against time in search of survivors in the ruins of apartments buildings, monasteries and mosques.

The 7.7-magnitude temblor, which struck just outside Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, on Friday afternoon, sent shock waves around Southeast Asia and even beyond.

Myanmar's military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years. Friday's 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions.

A powerful earthquake has hit Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand, destroying buildings, damaging infrastructure and killing more than 150 people.

Myanmar’s state-run MRTV reported that at least 144 people were killed on Friday and 732 were injured in the country. The quake also hit Thailand, where at least nine people were killed in the capital, Bangkok, according to local authorities.

 For people fleeing the conflict in Myanmar, the injuries are often more than just physical.

Four years after a military coup that has morphed into a grinding civil war, experts say there is a growing mental health crisis in the Southeast Asian nation, made worse by the junta’s atrocities against civilians and a humanitarian disaster that has left more than 3 million people displaced.

They find some relief at the Mae Tao Clinic on the outskirts of Mae Sot, a border town in neighboring Thailand.

Two loudspeakers, as big as the men carrying them, are brought to the rocky hilltop. Some 800m below, in the town of Hpasang, lies a sprawling Myanmar army base.

It’s a blisteringly hot day - above 40C - and behind, on bamboo poles, more young resistance fighters carry a large, heavy battery pack and amplifier. Leading the ascent is Nay Myo Zin, a former army captain who, after 12 years in the military, defected to the resistance.

The Biden administration is considering sanctions targeting Myanmar’s energy sector, according to a U.S. official and aides familiar with the matter, following a crackdown on pro-democracy activists by the country’s ruling junta.

Record numbers of journalists are being locked up worldwide today, with a notable concentration of cases in Asia, according to a report released on Thursday by advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). 

Of the 488 media professionals currently imprisoned around the world, nearly half (223) are in China, Myanmar and Vietnam. China, by far the worst offender for the fifth straight year, topped the list with 127 jailed journalists, followed by Myanmar with 53, and Vietnam with 43. 

American journalist Danny Fenster, who was recently sentenced to 11 years of hard labor after spending nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, was freed and on his way home Monday, a former U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the release said.

The United States and China have brokered an agreement that will effectively block Myanmar’s military rulers from addressing the United Nations’ General Assembly next week, according to diplomats, dealing a blow to the junta’s quest for international legitimacy after it took power in a coup earlier this year. 

Two black pickups speed down an empty city street in Myanmar before coming to a sudden stop. Security forces standing in the back of the trucks begin firing at an oncoming motorbike carrying three young men.

The bike swerves, crashing into a gate. More shots are fired as two of the passengers run away, while the third, Kyaw Min Latt, remains on the ground. Moans are heard as officers grab the wounded 17-year-old from the pavement, throwing his limp body into a truck bed before driving off.