The planned historic meeting between the Burma Army and Shan State Army (SSA) South on the border today was postponed indefinitely after the Burma Army delegation failed to appear at the venue, according to SSA leader Col Yawdserk. (more…)

Yangon: Myanmar has arrested another two members of the National League for Democracy, the party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, activists said Wednesday, as a round-up of her supporters continued. (more…)

Burma’s ruling junta has effectively erased the history of modern Burmese rulers by suppressing their biographies, according to a Rangoon-based historian. (more…)

Yangon: A North Korean ship that docked near Yangon was in distress and taking shelter from a storm, and inspections by Myanmar authorities found no suspicious cargo on board, Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. (more…)

Recent graduates of Burma’s military academies now have the option of training to hunt down cyber dissidents and disrupt anti-government Web sites, according to sources close to the military. (more…)

Zipporah Sein, a Thailand-based Karen women’s activist will receive the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award this year. Zipporah, the executive secretary of the Thai-Burmese border-based Karen Women’s Organization, works to aid women’s struggle for freedom, democracy and equality in Burma. She has documented human rights violations committed by the military government against ethnic Karen people and run safe houses in refugee camps, providing shelter and counseling to women and children facing violence. Last year, she was nominated by an international women’s organization for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Perdita Huston Human Rights Award was established in 2002 to commemorate American journalist and women’s rights activist Perdita Huston and to honor the life and work of others who are outstanding advocates for women’s rights in the Third World. This year’s recipients also included Samar Minallah of Pakistan and Bishnu Maya Pariyar of Nepal. The award ceremony will be held in Washington DC in June.

Bangkok: Thailand’s largest oil exploration firm, PTTEP, on Wednesday hailed the commercial potential of a natural gas field that it is exploring off the coast of impoverished Myanmar. (more…)

More than 60 percent of business firms in Burma do not pay tax to the government, according to a source in the tax department. (more…)

Manila: Senior ministers of Asean have side-stepped the issue of Burma, including the continued detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, during a series of meetings in the Philippines this week. (more…)

Beijing: China declined to join Southeast Asian nations urging Myanmar to release detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying Wednesday that her confinement is an internal matter for Myanmar’s government. (more…)

Phnom Penh: Myanmar is moving towards democracy, Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Nam Hong said Wednesday, adding that he hoped the reclusive state’s constitution would be finished this year. (more…)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday designated his special adviser Ibrahim Gambari, who visited Burma twice last year, to continue the UN’s efforts to pursue political reforms in military-ruled Burma. (more…)

First lady Laura Bush will join five female senators today to launch a new Women’s Caucus on Burma, focusing on the human-rights crisis in the South Asian country that continues to detain Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.” (more…)

Geneva: A group of 31 Burmese refugees left Tuesday for the United States, where they will be allowed to permanently settle after years of limbo in southeast Asia’s biggest refugee camp. (more…)

Bangkok: Myanmar’s military leaders have never made a secret of their interest in developing a domestic nuclear-energy industry. (more…)