The Burmese military regime has shown itself as an advocate of human rights by releasing the American intruder, John W Yettaw, and is promoting bilateral relations with the US by hosting Senator Jim Webb, Burma’s leading state-run newspaper said on Wednesday. (more…)

A senior member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party has undergone heart surgery following reports of poor health. (more…)

The Burmese military junta is yet to respond to the military and political demands of the major ethnic Kachin ceasefire group in the country’s north, said sources. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Serious confabulations are on in some KNLA battalions under the command of the KNU’s 6th Brigade, where ways are being explored to reunite with its breakaway faction the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). (more…)

A group of Rohingya people that was arrested trying to cross illegally into Rangnon, Thailand, remain in prison along the Thai-Burma border after Thai authorities were unable to find a location to repatriate the group. (more…)

JAKARTA – Senior Southeast Asian officials are meeting in Jakarta to debate whether to call on Myanmar to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Indonesia said on Wednesday. (more…)

China has failed to show leadership in solving the political stalemate in Myanmar, a United States senator who made a landmark visit to the military-ruled country said in Vietnam Wednesday. (more…)

BANGKOK — The US man at the centre of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial flew out of Bangkok Wednesday, a Thai official confirmed. (more…)

Myanmar’s repressive government was uncharacteristically welcoming when Senator Jim Webb visited last weekend. The junta released an American prisoner. Its leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, held talks with Mr. Webb and allowed him to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years. (more…)

Sittwe, Burma – The abbot leaned in but didn’t bother to lower his voice. Around us were sitting half a dozen local Buddhist worshippers, including one man whose aggressive curiosity about my presence made him a likely informant for the notoriously repressive Burmese junta. No matter — the abbot had no time for fear. “This is a very famous monastery,” he said, as I, the first foreign visitor to the monastery in many months, nodded. “Important people have come here throughout history: Nehru, Indira Gandhi and, of course, the Lady.” (more…)

BANGKOK — While U.S. Sen. Jim Webb’s high-profile visit to Myanmar offers an opportunity to turn around America’s policy toward the military-ruled nation, any real warming of relations is likely to be a slow and uncertain process. (more…)

My plan to spend this weekend reading was knocked out by my good lady’s strong request for a pilgrimage to Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin. Her request somehow plucked me up from my having overloaded with work for months at a stretch. Her tone and glance at me implied that I had forgotten the family affairs for a long time, so I had no choice but to fulfil her wish. (more…)

Paris – Brussels – Bangkok – In the wake of the sentencing of National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), ALTSEAN-Burma, and the Burma Lawyer’s Council (BLC) urge the European Union (EU) to support the establishment of a UN Security Council Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma. (more…)