Myanmar to host ASEAN women's football championships

YANGON (AFP) - Military-run Myanmar will host the 2007 ASEAN women's football championships for the first time in September, state media said Saturday.

Eight nations from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will join the 10-day tournament in Yangon, which kicks off on September 6, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.

Apart from the host Myanmar, teams from Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will compete in the championships, the paper said.

Myanmar joined the 10-member ASEAN in 1997. But the military regime is a bane of the regional bloc due to its human rights abuses including the continued detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.