Opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar has increased alarmingly in the past two years amid fears the region’s worsening economic crisis will encourage an even greater spurt in growth, the UN warns. (more…)

Thailand’s prime minister reaffirmed Friday the need for a “regional” solution to the fate of hundreds of Muslim boatpeople from Myanmar who have washed up in neighbouring nations in recent months. (more…)

Department of Special Investigation officials trying to smash the smuggling of Rohingya through Thailand to Malaysia hope to be able to seek arrest warrants for Thai traffickers in coming days. DSI staff are also questioning Rohingya who work as roti vendors in Bangkok for any clues about trafficking gangs. (more…)

France and Britain on Friday strongly criticized Myanmar’s military regime for failing to implement democratic reform and freeing political prisoners, even though that government has announced the amnesty for 6,000 prisoners. (more…)

The United Nations General Assembly president, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, urged Burma’s military junta and pro-democracy opposition leaders on Thursday to immediately start substantive dialogue without any preconditions. (more…)

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S inaugural address made the world’s tyrants a proposition. “We will extend a hand,” Mr. Obama said, “if you are willing to unclench your fist.” It now appears that Burma could be one of the first test cases for this approach. For decades, a small group of military officers has ruled the multiethnic Southeast Asian nation, crushing all political opposition and exploiting vast natural resources for personal enrichment. Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of a free election in 1990 — and still the embodiment of the Burmese people’s democratic dreams — languishes under government-imposed house arrest. There are more than 2,000 political prisoners. In response, the United States has maintained economic sanctions against Burma since the late 1990s; Congress toughened them last year, with the strong support of then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). (more…)

Watching President Barack Obama’s inauguration from my hotel room in Yangon, in Myanmar, I doubted whether his promise of change was meant for Myanmar as well. (more…)

In its continuing efforts to provide aid to the victims of Burma’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, Not On Our Watch has awarded a combined (US)$500,000 to lifesaving and humanitarian programs reaching tens of thousands of at-risk Burmese. (more…)

A U.N. envoy said on Thursday human rights in military-ruled Myanmar had not improved since his last visit seven months ago, but he hoped the regime would listen to his recommendations this time. (more…)

Locals in Chin state’s Htantalan township are being forced to work on the reconstruction of an old road and donate money towards the project in order to gain favour with authorities. (more…)

Myanmar will construct a first ever 300-mile-(480-kilometer)-long national railroad network to link the western state of Rakhine with western part of Ayeyawaddy division, local weekly journal Yangon Time reported Thursday. (more…)

Burmese spies actively gather information on Burmese ethnic groups and the exiled community along the Thai border, opposition leaders have long contended. (more…)

Business in Mongla, the headquarters of Sai Leun-led ceasefire group, opposite China’s Daluo, has gone slack since early January after Chinese authorities ordered indefinite closure of the border checkpoint, according to travelers returning from eastern Shan State. (more…)

In the Thai border town of Mae Sot, there has been an outbreak of disease in poultry farms, and afflicted chickens are dying daily, a poultry farm keeper and medics said. (more…)

Mogok, the historic center of Burma’s gems industry, is struggling to cope with the effects of US sanctions targeting the country’s military rulers and their cronies, according to industry insiders. (more…)

The recent deaths of thousands of chickens in central Burma was caused by a new disease known as Viscerotropic Velogenic (VTVN) Newcastle disease, an official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said. (more…)

The United Nations Security Council will hold a consultation session on Burma on Friday-the first since Barack Obama became US president-to take stock of the current situation in this country. (more…)

This is a city constructed out of fear. Naypyidaw reportedly was created by Burma’s brutal dictators on the advice of astrologers and built in part by forced labor. Worried they might be vulnerable to attack in Rangoon, a port city, they abruptly moved the government 250 miles to the north three years ago and modestly named the new capital “Abode of Kings.” (more…)

An election in Burma is supposedly going to be held in 2010 by the elite generals. Within the half century from 1960 to 2010, it will be the second election held by the military. (more…)

The new US administration has sent a strong signal to the military regime in Burma that it is ready to find new ways to more effectively help the Burmese people. That was the sentiment expressed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her stopover in Tokyo. She was succinct in saying that Washington is looking at the next appropriate step to take in solving the ongoing political and social quagmire inside Burma. This key policy platform will continue to echo the US administration’s desire to overcome the impasse. (more…)