The editor and manager of the Myanmar Nation news journal appeared in court on Friday to face charges against them under the printing law. (more…)

The International Labour Organisation has extended its cooperation agreement with the Burmese regime, but a senior ILO official said forced labour remains a concern in the country. (more…)

Residents of Irrawaddy division’s Nyaung Don township were worried after authorities made a list of people who disagreed with the national referendum during recent opinion polls, locals said. (more…)

A regional human rights group has raised the question of whether the junta’s referendum law will even count abstentions and votes cast against the draft constitution. (more…)

Three Rangoon men were arrested on Friday for casual comments they made about the Burmese referendum and general election, according to sources. (more…)

Former Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt and his family members have been allowed some limited freedom outside of their home where they have been held under house arrest since 2004, according to Rangoon sources. (more…)

The Sri Lankan navy said Monday it rescued 71 Myanmar and Bangladeshi nationals aboard a vessel found drifting in the Indian Ocean after an engine failure. (more…)

Indian and Burmese traders will meet on March 7, to discuss future cooperation in trade and business, organizers of the 15th International Guwahati Trade Fair said today. (more…)

The Myanmar livestock authorities Monday called on the country’s people to exercise a long-term precaution against the recurrence of deadly H5N1 bird flu. (more…)

At least 23 people, most of them children, have died of meningitis which has spread in an epidemic-like proportions in a remote area of Mizoram’s Saiha district since November, state health department sources said here on Monday. (more…)

A U.S. State Department report Friday said Colombia and Afghanistan remain the world’s biggest producers of illicit cocaine and opium. The annual report faults Venezuela and Burma for inadequate efforts over the past year to try to tackle the drug problem. VOA’s David Gollust has details from the State Department. (more…)

Although Burma’s military government has not made any provisions to include non-resident Burmese citizens in next May’s national referendum, many migrants say they plan to vote “no” to the junta’s recently completed constitution if they are given the chance. (more…)

Myanmar along with three neighboring countries will take part in four-nation cross-country friendship car rally in April, local media reported on Monday. (more…)

President George W. Bush recently issued an executive order, banning Americans from doing business with companies controlled by persons or institutions related to the Myanmar junta. (more…)

A lot is at stake for the United Nations and its Special Envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, who travels to Rangoon and Naypyidaw this week to hold another round of talks with ruling military junta officials and pro-democracy leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

A Shan princess reaches deep into the past to shed light on the present in a fascinating memoir full of travels, triumphs, history and heartbreakPublished on March 2, 2008. (more…)

A section leader in the Burma’s National Army ordered Knin Muang Than and six other soldiers to cover and open fire. Muang Than was so afraid to look, that he put his face in the ground and shot his gun at the sky. He was afraid the enemy bullets would hit his head. He fired two magazines, about 40 rounds. He was afraid that if he didn’t fire, the section leader would punish him later. Muang Than is 11 years old. (more…)

General Ne Win, the founder of military authoritarianism in Burma, was secretly trained during World War II by the fascist-allied military regime of Japan. Four decades later, during the 1988 popular uprising in Burma, the general warned that when Burma’s army shoots, it shoots to kill. That year, thousands of protesters were killed on the streets of Burma. Little has changed in the country during the intervening two decades. As such, it was not particularly surprising this past September when, during the massive public uprising that has since been dubbed the ‘Saffron Revolution’, Burmese soldiers shot and killed over 100 citizens. That number included members of the country’s venerated clergy. (more…)

It was a present surprised when the news flashed that China has urged an activist group in Burma to have a “correct understanding” of Beijing’s policy towards Burma with no explanation, whatsoever. Why did China suddenly turn to the Burmese pro democracy movement when Burma is not of life-and-death interest to Beijing, nor to the West, but just a little strife torn, obscure hell in the remote backwaters? It is not realistic to think that Beijing will listen to any voice from Burma, much less from the rank of the opposition, as it even view the Burmese Junta as rude, crude, rustic pipsqueak of little consequence, when every body knows that the dragon men are very pragmatic and happy with the status quo in Burma and elsewhere. The Chinese elites in Beijing do not nowadays want to change the world, but only their silk socks and satin jocks daily wrote the late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe. (more…)

Burma is on fire. Literally. This is not just a metaphor to describe the political situation in the country-reflecting the increased pressure on Burmese people to vote in the junta’s referendum in May and the consequent “flames” of dissent. Instead, the talk of the town today is about the element of fire itself. (more…)