A year after the devastating cyclone that laid waste large swaths of Burma, more than half a million people are still living in makeshift shacks which are unlikely to withstand the imminent monsoons, according to Save the Children. (more…)

The authorities in Myawaddy have arrested a monk for selling government land to residents, according to locals. (more…)

A human rights lawyer released earlier this week after a serving a sixth-month sentence for contempt of court has said that he was prevented from exercising and receiving medical care. (more…)

The ‘Myanmar Fishery Federation’ has imposed certain restrictions on the domestic media, on media coverage of fishery products and export figures issued by the government Fisheries Department, without getting prior approval from them. (more…)

Outbreaks of severe diarrhea have continued in several towns in Burma, with hospitals now unable to cope with the upsurge in patient numbers and several deaths being reported. (more…)

The US State Department on Wednesday paid tribute to the work of the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in helping bring relief to the victims of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis. (more…)

Burma is the worst violator of Internet freedom of speech rights in the world, says a leading media watchdog group. (more…)

World aid for Myanmar’s Cyclone Nargis has amounted to 300 million dollars, or 2.5 per cent of what was spent on the 2004 tsunami, aid agencies said Thursday as the first anniversary of the storm approaches. (more…)

IF A few small gold earrings escaped the cyclone the villagers pawn them, otherwise they pawn their clothes. They complain that moneylenders advance only a fraction of the item’s value. And, with an interest rate of 30% a month, they can rarely afford to redeem their collateral. (more…)

Traveling from Rangoon and in the south west direction, less than two hours by car is necessary to realize the extent of damage caused by Cyclone Nargis where more than 138,000 were killed or missing, one year after its passage. But it is by meeting the survivors in the Irrawaddy Delta that one can really realize to what extent the population has been completely forsaken. (more…)

Behind the UN’s all day debate Wednesday on children and armed conflict was the war in Sri Lanka. Radhika Coomaraswamy, a Sri Lankan Tamil acceptable to the Sinhala government, issued a report which in Annex Two criticized only the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam but not the government for denial of humanitarian access. Inner City Press asked Ms. Coomaraswamy if the government too wasn’t guilty of denying humanitarian access. Coomaraswamy admitted that it was, but stated that since the government no longer recruits child soldiers, it engaging in other grave violations does not get listed in the annex. (more…)