Silchar – The Mizoram government, in an attempt to establish a durable trade link with Bangladesh, inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries (IBCCI) at the end of the daylong Mizoram trade and investment conclave held yesterday in Aizawl. (more…)

Rangoon-While stocks of preventive medicines for influenza are diminishing in Rangoon, prices are soaring, with anti-seasonal flu injections costing up to 200,000 kyat (US $200) at some clinics. (more…)

Rangoon-There were over 3,700 dengue fever patients annually in Rangoon Division alone, of whom about 30 patients died, statistics released by the Burmese Ministry of Health said.
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Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva indicated that ASEAN was not willing to discharge Myanmar from the group and would not be able to force its government to release the opposition leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

The US Senate has approved a one-year renewal of sanctions banning the import of Burmese goods to the US, and will now look to Congress for an extension to the boycott.
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East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Friday urged Australia to learn from the past and push harder for reform in military-ruled Myanmar. (more…)

An article published in the US and reprinted in a Burmese state-run newspaper that appeared to criticise Aung San Suu Kyi’s political tactics has been met with alarm by Burmese politicians and exiled activists. (more…)

In politics, direct and frontal attack is rarely wise. Occupying the flank by co-opting the opponent’s game plan for one’s own purposes is a powerful ploy. (more…)

Yangon – Any recent repeat traveller to Myanmar would have noticed the change. Compared to just a few years ago, there are more paved roads, including a modern tollway connecting the central city of Mandalay to the newly built capital of Naipyidaw. On the new roadways, travelling vehicles’ license plate numbers, make and model are captured digitally and stored to a centrally maintained computer system. (more…)

United Kingdom and United States to Chair UN Body in August, September

(Washington, DC)  The U.S. Campaign for Burma today praised leaders in the U.S. Congress for passing a measure maintaining U.S. sanctions on the Southeast Asian country of Burma.  The bill passed in the Senate after 11:00 pm on Thursday, July 23rd. The House of Representatives unanimously passed a similar bill on July 21st, 2009. (more…)

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Thursday that his legislation to renew sanctions against the Burmese government has passed the Senate and is now on its way to the President’s desk for his signature.  The Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act was cosponsored by Senators McConnell and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).  McConnell made the following statement regarding passage of the legislation: (more…)

The legal team of Myanmar’s jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was given access to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Thursday, a day before her trial is to resume for final arguments, her lawyer said. (more…)

A leader of Burma’s opposition party – National League for Democracy (NLD) – said the party’s leadership has reached a ‘critical stage’ as most members of the party’s executive committee are aging and faced with worsening health. (more…)

Internally displaced persons hiding in jungles in eastern Burma are suffering from outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever with almost no medicine or medical facilities, according a Karen aid group. (more…)

US officials urged Myanmar to obey UN sanctions on North Korea and to review its treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi in a rare meeting between the two countries, a US official said Thursday. (more…)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will not consider expelling Burma over the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi because it was unlikely it would solve the problem, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thursday. (more…)

Members of the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) offered yesterday to help Burma promote democracy, human rights and well-being among its people – and avoided mentioning the controversy over pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

There is no hard evidence that two of the world’s pariah states are sharing nuclear technology, but one US expert says some of Myanmar’s activities raise suspicions of such links with North Korea. (more…)

JULY 20th marked the 20th anniversary of the day when military rulers first placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. The leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement has since spent more than 13 years detained at home or, as now, in a Yangon prison. She awaits the verdict of a sham trial in which she was charged with breaking the terms of her detention after an uninvited American, a nut, swam across to her lakeside home. Miss Suu Kyi plays a long game. But so does the military. It seized power in 1962. It has used force to put down two extraordinarily brave sets of pro-democracy protests, in 1988 and 2007. And it has ignored the result of free elections in 1990, convincingly won by Miss Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. (more…)

Two years ago a court in Burma sentenced five farmers to four years’ jail for allegedly causing a public disturbance; a sixth man received eight years for two counts of the same offence. Tomorrow, on July 24, the five will have served half of their terms. In all likelihood, they will have to serve the other half before being released. (more…)