Monday, February 27th, 2006


Bangkok: Myanmar’s military junta has suspended visits by the Red Cross to 90 prisons and labor camps across the country, the humanitarian agency said on Monday.
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Burma’s ruling junta has increased its military presence in ethnic regions, giving rise to fears of a new counterinsurgency campaign, according to Karen National Union leaders.
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The Burmese military have forced villagers in Yathetaung township, Arakan State to form people’s militia groups and are planning to provide them with military training sources told Mizzima.
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Mae Sot: She is branded an enemy by Myanmar’s military rulers, but to the thousands who flock to her clinic many of them victims of the country’s harsh regime Dr. Cynthia Maung is the gentle healer in a world of torched villages, squalid refugee camps and sweatshops.
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February 26: Yangon: Three more available blocks off Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi coast are under natural gas exploration with test wells being planned for drilling by Malaysia ‘s Petronas Company, sources with the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise confirmed Sunday.
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February 26: Yangon: Myanmar and South Korea will cooperate in a project of “Specialized Complex of Agriculture” under mutually beneficial basis to boost the development of Myanmar’s agriculture, a local weekly reported in its latest issue.
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February 25: Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said Saturday that a date had been set for his landmark visit to Myanmar after his January trip was cancelled.
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Jakarta: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left Jakarta Monday for a five-day visit to three other ASEAN member countries, with political repression in Myanmar (Burma) expected to be the most contentious issue in talks with regional leaders.
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February 26: Some Burmese nationals working and studying in Singapore, in a statement issued recently, expressed their support for the National League for Democracy’s (NLD) special statement issued on 12 February, calling for national reconciliation and positive actions.
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New York: A United Nations human rights expert has urged Myanmar’s military government to release all political prisoners including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by June, while estimating the total number of political prisoners in Myanmar at 1,144 as of the end of last year, according to a recent U.N. report obtained by Kyodo News on Monday.
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As the two growing powers of Asia sort out their places in their continent and the world, India has a comparative advantage over China that it doesn’t always exploit: its status as the globe’s largest democracy.
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