Warning that the global recession could lead to more failed states, the 2009 Failed States Index lists Burma as in critical danger of state collapse due, primarily, to the misuse of power by the country’s ruling military government. (more…)

Several senior military Burmese officials have been dismissed in recent weeks following the recent publication of photographs of secret tunnels built by North Korean experts between 2003-2006 inside Burma, sources revealed. (more…)

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi thanked supporters around the world who sent her greetings for her 64th birthday last week while she remained in prison. (more…)

Two members of Myanmar’s main opposition party have been sentenced to 18 months in prison for “insulting religion”, after they prayed for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a mass organization backed by the Burmese military junta, has expanded its micro credit projects across the country ahead of the 2010 elections. (more…)

Thousands of Burmese have donated 1,750 pounds of their hair in a campaign to repair the route to a sacred Buddhist pagoda, reports said on Sunday. (more…)

Karen refugees in Thailand are reportedly being told by Thai authorities to return to their homes in Burma, despite concerns that many villages near the border are littered with landmines. (more…)

A group of senators, activists and academics has called for Burma to be suspended from Asean in protest against the ruling junta’s oppression of pro-democracy movements, the Bangkok Post reports. (more…)

Myanmar will host the 9th meeting of senior officials of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on combating transnational crime in the country’s capital Nay Pyi Taw next month, the local Weekly Eleven journal reported Monday. (more…)

North Korea boasted of being a “proud nuclear power” and threatened Monday to harm the U.S. if attacked as tensions mounted over a possible crackdown on exports of suspected missile parts from the North. (more…)

Two New Delhi-based Burmese pro-democracy activists are participating in a five-day South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) conference, which began on Sunday in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan. (more…)

United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari is scheduled to arrive in Burma later this week to pave the way for the proposed visit of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in early July. (more…)

The Russian Foreign Ministry objects to political and economic pressure on Myanmar and hopes for an unbiased trial of opposition leader Suu Kyi, the ministry’s information and press department said on Sunday. (more…)

Several “whys” woke me up this morning on the 64th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi, who would wake up this morning to the sounds of prisoners’ iron shackles and the harsh shouts of wardens in the Insein Prison compound. (more…)

For years, John Yettaw had experienced visions that warned him of events to come. Sometimes the Missouri resident ignored them and came to regret it. This time, though, he intended to act. In early 2009, the 53-year-old told friends and family that he had seen himself as a man sent by God to protect the life of a beloved foreign leader. He arranged for his kids to stay with a friend, borrowed money to buy a plane ticket and printed new business cards, as if launching a new life. He seemed calm at first, spending hours at the local Hardee’s, where he used the free Wi-Fi to download music–Gladys Knight, Michael Bubla–and Mormon sermons from Salt Lake City. But as his flight date approached, he also showed signs of nervousness. He broke down on the shoulder of his best friend, and didn’t sleep at all on his last night at home. (more…)

Myanmar’s ruling military junta has invited U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to visit the country in early July, though it was not clear whether he would accept, Western diplomats said on Wednesday. (more…)

It cannot have pleased Myanmar’s ruling family: the collapse of a 2,300-year-old gold-domed pagoda into a pile of timbers just three weeks after the wife of the junta’s top general helped rededicate it. (more…)

Three Arakanese youth who were traveling to Thailand in search of jobs were arrested by Burmese troops in the border town of Myawaddy in Karen State and conscripted into the Burmese military. (more…)

Myanmar government forces captured three Karen rebel positions on Thursday in the latest fighting that has forced thousands of refugees to flee into neighbouring Thailand, commanders said. (more…)

Ethnic ceasefire groups were upset this year when the Burmese junta announced plans to transform them into a Border Guard Force (BGF). However, one Karen rebel splinter group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), quickly joined, seeing it as an opportunity to expand its troops and as a road to riches. (more…)