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 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.

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.

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,

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

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

Southeast Asian foreign ministers are gathering for their first meeting this year under the regional bloc’s new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar’s drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

When asked for details that Myanmar's Tatmadaw and ethnic armed organization (MNDAA) held peace talks and signed a ceasefire agreement in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated that in mid-January,

Following his ordeal, China’s embassies in Thailand and Myanmar have warned their citizens to beware of recruitment scams, while the state-run China Daily published an opinion piece warning that lawlessness “could undermine the confidence of Chinese tourists in neighboring countries.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold a closed-doors retreat in Malaysia on Sunday, as the country hosts its first meeting as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN amid an intensifying civil war in Myanmar and confrontations in the South China Sea.