The U.S. announced Tuesday it was easing economic sanctions on Myanmar after the country returned power to an elected civilian government after more than five decades under repressive military control.

The transfer of power to a civilian-led government steered by Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy party last year is a "historic milestone," said U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Adam Szubin.

Myanmar appeared to have escaped with only minor damage to buildings after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that rattled its remote north, police said Thursday, as early reports said there not had been any casualties.

The quake, which struck late Wednesday more than 130 kilometers (80 miles) below the surface, was felt from China to Bangladesh, where scores of people were injured in stampedes as panic spread.

Myanmar was struck by a magnitude 6.9 quake on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, with tremors in India and China sending residents rushing out into the streets.

The quake, which was 134 kilometers (214 miles) deep, hit some 396 kilometers north northwest of the capital Naypyidaw, the USGS added.

Myanmar’s president Wednesday signed a bill giving Aung San Suu Kyi a new role of state adviser, shoring up her influence across all branches of government despite vehement opposition from the still-powerful military.

Suu Kyi is determined to rule the former junta-run nation regardless of an army-scripted constitution that bars her from becoming president, as she strives to meet the aspirations of millions of voters who gave her pro-democracy party a landslide election victory last November.

Myanmar's foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi met her Chinese counterpart Tuesday in the first diplomatic foray of her new pro-democracy government, underscoring the importance of relations with Beijing.

The nation sees its giant neighbor -- and largest trading partner -- as its biggest foreign policy preoccupation, with border wars and controversial China-backed mega-projects topping the agenda.

Aung San Suu Kyi will be foreign minister in Myanmar's first civilian government for decades, her party said Tuesday, giving the democracy champion a formal post despite being blocked from the presidency.

The Nobel laureate has already vowed to rule above the man picked as president, Htin Kyaw, in the government which comes to power next week in the former army-ruled nation.

Myanmar's army sparked public criticism Saturday after it nominated a retired general still blacklisted by the United States to be vice president of the country's first civilian government in decades.

Hardliner Myint Swe, 64, is seen as a close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe and comes from a military establishment that pummeled the Southeast Asian country into poverty under decades of isolationist rule.

Aung San Suu Kyi was Thursday finally ruled out of the running to become Myanmar's next president, as her party nominated one of her most loyal aides to rule the formerly junta-run nation as her proxy.

Police in Myanmar seized more than $30 million worth of heroin and methamphetamine, a senior investigator told AFP Sunday, a bust that highlights the country's continued role as a major global drugs manufacturer.

Myanmar sits at the heart of the infamous "Golden Triangle", which also covers parts of Thailand and Laos, and has been a hotbed of narcotics production for decades despite repeated government vows to tackle the scourge.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party on Friday said that outgoing Myanmar President Thein Sein was snubbing part of their handover ceremony plans, as tensions over the looming political transition begin to pervade even logistical arrangements.

A sweeping win in November elections trouncing Thein Sein’s army-backed party has given Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy their first chance in a generation to form a government although the pro-democracy leader is barred from the presidency.