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…)

Burma’s detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told US Senator Jim Webb on Saturday that “interaction” must first be established inside the country, according to her lawyer. (more…)

Myanmar’s government-controlled newspapers on Tuesday lauded the visit of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, who secured the high-profile release of a jailed American, as “the first step” toward improving relations with Washington. (more…)

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) authorities have been preparing a military training programme for civilians of Matupi Township, in Chin State, western Burma. (more…)

Beginning this month, Burmese government authorities in Mon State have been increasing security measures and investigating Buddhist monks who are traveling – searching through their saffron robes and requiring them to open their bags. (more…)

In a fresh repressive measure the Burmese military junta has banned Kachins, an ethnic nationality, from constructing its cultural symbols – the “Manau Pole and Manau House” in their State, said Kachin cultural leaders. (more…)

Two young Rohingya migrants have died in the past three months in a detention camp in southern Thailand, the Bangkok English-language daily newspaper, The Nation, reported on Tuesday. (more…)

The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and Thai authorities have been cooperating with each other to send internally displaced people back to their country of origin. The IDPs fled to neighbouring Thailand because of clashes in their area. (more…)

A Thai government proposal for a request by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to the Burmese junta to pardon Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to be discussed at a meeting of senior Asean officials in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday and Thursday. (more…)