Myanmar’s military government on Friday extended the house arrest of the deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party, despite recent calls from the United Nations for the release of political prisoners. (more…)

Elected members of parliament Dr Tin Min Htut and Nyi Pu were sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment today by Insein prison court, according to Dr Tin Min Htut’s son. (more…)

A regional assessment center for natural disaster will be established in Myanmar’s former capital of Yangon to reinforce the country’s seismological facilities, a local weekly quoted Myanmar Meteorology and Hydrology Department (MHD) as reporting Friday. (more…)

Newly-built Myanmar’s largest gems museum in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw has opened to the public after seven month’s construction, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Friday. (more…)

On February 14 last year, two unknown men pulled up in a pick-up truck outside Mahn Sha’s house in Mae Sot. He was upstairs resting on the balcony at the time, family members say. The men walked into the house armed with shotguns. They marched up the stairs and a series of loud gunshots was heard. The gunmen ran downstairs and escaped. The Karen National Union (KNU) general-secretary lay dead in a pool of blood. (more…)

A two-year law programme is being run on the Thai-Burma border to provide training in international and domestic law to 25 students from Burma, according to Myint Thein of the Burma Lawyers’ Council. (more…)

Mizzima’s Bangladesh-based journalist was released on Wednesday, after being detained for a year and four months in a jail in Kolkata city. (more…)

The first award commemorating slain Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai will be presented later this month to a female reporter from Myanmar who reported about an area of the country that was devastated by a cyclone last year, the Burma Media Association said Friday. (more…)

Bangladesh Appears Ready to Boost Offshore Gas Production

Foreign companies are producing record quantities of gas in Bangladesh amid new reports of border tensions with Burma linked to offshore territorial disputes. (more…)

Driven by strong demand from Africa and Bangladesh, Burma’s rice exports have increased rapidly since the beginning of this year, according to traders in Rangoon, who say that sales in January have already nearly quadrupled the total for the first half of the current fiscal year. (more…)

Law enforcement officers in Myanmar seized more than 148 kg (326 lb) of heroin in January, state media reported on Friday, and police sources said the bulk of it came from a raid on a single cargo ship. (more…)

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Friday there is a move to pressure the Thai government to accept Rohingya boat people as refugees and give them shelter. (more…)

The Indonesian government has been urged not to deport Rohingya asylum seekers who were stranded in Aceh Province recently. (more…)

The number of ethnic Kachin in Burma seeking refugee status has gradually increased in the two neighboring countries — Malaysia and Thailand since 2005, said Kachin refugees in the two countries. (more…)

The independent United Nations expert on the situation of human rights in Myanmar will begin a six-day visit beginning tomorrow to assess developments in the South-East Asian nation since his previous mission last year. (more…)

THAILAND made headlines last week as photographs emerged of its navy towing boats filled with hundreds of Rohingya people from Burma out to sea, leaving them to wash ashore elsewhere or perish. Unfortunately, such callous treatment of asylum seekers is nothing new. In the late 1970s, the Malaysian navy towed boatloads of Vietnamese refugees out to sea, telling them to head to Indonesia. (more…)

Last week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was briefed by his special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, on the outcome of his latest visit to the country, which ended ten days ago. Ban said nothing of substance about what the trip accomplished, but through a spokesperson, reiterated a familiar diplomatic refrain: “I would again call on the government and opposition to resume substantive dialogue without preconditions and without further delay.” (more…)