aund the ancient and celebrated temples of Bagan, a tour guide blandly dispenses historical nuggets to tourists, his fury hidden beneath a bright smile. Myint Win, a novice monk, is taking a break from his monastery to earn some money in the town whose temples make it one of the country’s premier tourist destinations. (more…)

The Young Mizo Association (YMA), an influential students’ body in Mizoram, has served quit notices to Myanmarese migrants for allegedly harassing girls in a village, YMA leaders said Monday.”We have asked Burmese migrant workers to leave by Oct 4,” YMA leader Lalrinsanga told reporters. (more…)

A Myanmar-China border trade fair will be held in Myanmar’s border trade zone of Muse in December this year involving four other neighboring countries, the local Weekly Eleven reported Monday. (more…)

The Foreign Office has written to Lloyd’s of London chairman Lord Levene to outline its disapproval that Lloyd’s brokers are trading with the Burmese military dictatorship. (more…)

China’s grip on Burma’s natural resources has grown considerably in a short time, says a detailed investigation by a US-based human rights organization, EarthRights International (ERI). (more…)

Myanmar authorities have suspended imports of all dairy products from China amid a widening scandal over melamine-tainted milk, a newspaper reported Monday. (more…)

The Thai military’s recent refusal to use force to crack down on the current demonstrations staged by the People’s Alliance for Democracy has become the subject of an academic debate about whether this signals a real change in the Thai military, and whether it could give a positive lesson to Burma’s military rulers that could have an effect on the country’s democratic transition. (more…)

Nations concerned about Myanmar called on its military government Saturday to release all political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and to start talking with the opposition. (more…)

U Han Lin, who led the “long march to freedom and democracy” campaign in 2005 to highlight the plight of Burma, died from lung cancer on 26 September at the age of 57. (more…)

Jewellery made from jade mined in Hpakant on sale in China. Myanmar is the only in place in the world where imperial-green jade, a category of gem quality jadeite, is found. China is the largest importer of jade from Myanmar. Credit: All Kachin Students and Youth Union
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Today, the Secretary-General convened and chaired the first high-level meeting
of the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar. This was the sixth
meeting of the Group since it was established in December 2007.
The Secretary-General thanks all the Friends for their high-level participation
in a useful and constructive discussion. He also welcomes the participation
by the Ministers from several concerned countries as well as by the
Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN] and
the High Representative of the European Union [EU], in today’s meeting.
This is a clear signal of the importance that the international community
attaches to the situation in Myanmar. (more…)

Burma’s state media reported 9,002 prisoners were released this week as part of the junta’s plan for a “peaceful modern discipline-flourishing democratic nation.” Seven were political prisoners; most of the other 8,995 were petty criminals. That’s a good indication of what the junta’s plan for a “democratic nation” looks like. (more…)

About 150 Buddhist monks in Sittwe town in western Burma’s Arakan state staged a protest march on Saturday morning to observe the first anniversary of last year’s ‘Saffron Revolution’, eyewitness said. (more…)

At least 35 members of Burma’s Opposition party the National League or Democracy have begun marching towards detained party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’, residence at 9:30 a.m (local time), sources said. (more…)

A former aide to Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was re-arrested less than 24 hours after being freed by the military government in a mass amnesty, an opposition spokesman said Friday. (more…)

Two monks were forced to return to their hometowns from monasteries in Sittwe because the authorities suspected them of involvement recently in leading attempts to demonstrate in Sittwe. (more…)

The National League for Democracy will celebrate its 20th anniversary on Saturday in Rangoon with newly released political prisoners. (more…)

Myanmar’s junta put armed police and barbed wire barricades on the streets of its main city on Friday, the first anniversary of a bloody military crackdown on major anti-government protests. (more…)

In Burma’s north-west Chin state, thousands of people say they are starving. The Mara tribe say hundreds of their community have died in the past two months alone. (more…)

Rice traders in Myawaddy, opposite the Thai border town of Mae Sot, are illegally exporting hundreds of thousands of bags of rice to Thailand every week, according to sources in the local business community. (more…)