Police in north China have detained two people allegedly linked to the Myanmar-based kidnapping of at least 50 teenagers whose parents were sent ransom demands, state media reported Thursday. (more…)

Myanmar’s devastating cyclone and central China’s earthquake drove up the annual disaster death toll, causing most of the fatalities and making 2008 one of the deadliest years for natural disasters so far this decade, the United Nations said Thursday. (more…)

OF ALL the myriad groups fleeing the misery of modern Myanmar, few have suffered more than the Rohingyas, a shunned Muslim minority, concentrated in Rakhine state. Denied full citizenship at home, many end up in Bangladesh, where some 200,000 live in squalid border camps. Another 28,000 are housed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The lure of further migration is strong. Every winter thousands pay to board rickety smugglers’ boats for Thailand, whence a bus can take them to Malaysia, to seek work or asylum. (more…)

The announcement by the National Council of the Union of Burma of its plan to form a new exile government to rival the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma has met with a mixed response from political activists. (more…)

While the memory of the hardship rendered by the siege of Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports is still fresh in the minds of tens of thousands of visitors to Thailand, the country’s bruised reputation appears to have suffered a new blow over the alleged mistreatment of hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshi boat people. (more…)

A monk who was arrested following public demonstrations in September 2007 has been sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment by Mayangon township court for stealing a jade Buddha statue. (more…)

Myanmar hopes that new US president Barack Obama will change Washington’s tough policy towards its military regime and end the “misunderstandings” of the past, a senior official said Wednesday. (more…)

Family members of Nilar Thein, serving a 65-year prison term, are anxious about her health on hearing that she has peptic ulcer. (more…)

A member of the National League for Democracy, Burma’s main opposition party, was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison on charges of disturbing officials carrying out their duty at the behest of the authorities of the Township Peace and Development Council of Rangoon’s suburban township of South Dagon on Monday. (more…)

A Rangoon monk who watched the entire US presidential inauguration on TV summed up the feelings of countless Burmese when he said afterwards: “We’d like to see that happen in Burma, but we don’t know when.” (more…)

Thailand’s prime minister Wednesday refused to grant UN experts access to 126 boat people from Myanmar, following allegations that the Thai army had left them to die on the open seas. (more…)

A large number of additional security forces have been deployed around Maungdaw on the western Burmese border since yesterday, but the reason behind the deployment remains unknown, said one resident from Maungdaw. (more…)

Two cross-border fiber optic link projects, Myanmar-Thai’s and Myanmar-India’s, in addition to the already-established Myanmar-China’s to boost information link between Myanmar and the two neighbors will be operational in the next two months as work on the two projects has almost been completed, according to the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) Wednesday. (more…)

At least 50 Myanmar refugees demonstrated Wednesday outside the United Nations refugee agency office to protest alleged discrimination by the U.N. organization. (more…)

The European Commission will give €40.5 million (US $52.4 million) in humanitarian aid to Burma this year. (more…)

Australian immigration officials say it is possible two castaway fishermen rescued from a floating cooler could seek asylum rather than return to Myanmar. (more…)

The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday granted refugee status to a Myanmarese female lawyer engaged in pro-democracy activities against her country’s military junta. Revoking the Japanese government’s deportation order for the woman in her 50s, Presiding Judge Makoto Jozuka said she would likely be persecuted if she returns to Myanmar due to her pro-democracy activities. (more…)

The Burmese junta’s disgraceful nonresponse to Cyclone Nargis last year called international attention to the direct human consequences of repressive rule in the Southeast Asian country. Since then, Burma’s economic plight has only worsened. It is time for the political opposition abroad to present a broader, more coherent alternative for the Burmese people. (more…)

When the American Declaration of Independence was famously penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 that, “all men are created equal,” the black African slaves were not included as part of the men who were considered equal. Section 2 of Article I of the original Constitution of the United States defined slaves as “three-fifths” of a person for calculations of each state’s official population. And the failure to resolve the issue of slavery became a bitter factor that contributed to American Civil War which almost ended the first young liberal democracy on earth. (more…)

After Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar last year, very few in the region took notice of the continuing plight and suffering of the Myanmarese. It was overshadowed by other events in the region and in other parts of the world. (more…)