A Burmese dissident just freed from prison after more than 18 years says everyone he knows is simply struggling to survive. (more…)

A Rangoon-based social welfare organization, the Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS), has been ordered by the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) not to park hearses in Rangoon municipal areas. (more…)

Six members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions who were arrested last year after helping victims of cyclone Nargis have been granted permission to have legal representation in their ongoing trial. (more…)

Forced relocation continues to devastate the lives of local villagers in Tavoy District, southern Burma according to a refugee family which just arrived on the Thai-Burma border. (more…)

The Burmese Army authorities are not providing permission to clear forests and sow rice saplings without taking tax from the people in Chin state western Myanmar. (more…)

Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPP-B), urged the international community on Tuesday, to assert more pressure on Burma’s ruling junta to release all political prisoners. (more…)

Col Ner Dah Mya, the son of the late Gen Bo Mya of the Karen National Union (KNU), has reportedly been released on bail by the Thai army, according to the London-based British Broadcasting Corporation Burmese service. He was arrested in January. (more…)

Chinese should not go to Myanmar to gamble, because of the risks of scams and kidnapping, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. (more…)

French oil firm Total SA (TOTF.PA) has discovered natural gas in an offshore field about 420 kilometres (263 miles) southeast from Dhaka, a Bangladesh official said on Wednesday. (more…)

Myanmar delegation led by Minister for Finance and Revenue Maj-Gen Hla Tun attended Special ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers’ meeting held in the resort island of Phuket, Thailand on 22 February. (more…)

Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production PCL PTTE.BK said on Wednesday it had cancelled a deal to swap stakes in Myanmar’s offshore M3 and M4 blocks for Chinese energy giant CNOOC’s (0883.HK) A4 and C1. (more…)

The United States on Wednesday called on Southeast Asian nations to push for “political progress” in military-ruled Myanmar. (more…)

The prickly issue of human rights in Burma will take a back seat to the global financial meltdown as leaders of cash-strapped Southeast Asian countries meet this weekend for an annual summit. (more…)

It was supposed to be a grand encounter. However, the meeting between representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs), Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan and Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya over the weekend, turned out to be less than spectacular for the nearly 1,000-strong audience when the two senior Asean officials opined in unison that the region’s CSOs would be held responsible in blame or shame should the Asean Charter fail. (more…)

Myanmar’s military rulers have begun releasing thousands of prisoners in an effort to deflect international pressure on them to introduce political reform. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, has welcomed the move, calling it an important first step towards democracy. (more…)

It is a rare occasion that both the ASEAN Chair and the ASEAN Secretary-General sit down to dialogue with hundreds of civil society representatives, and expectations were understandably high. However, it was a surprise that it was Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan who caused consternation by his responses to matters raised at the ASEAN Civil Society Conference dialogue session on the weekend. (more…)