Nay Pyi Taw — A Myanmar delegation led by Minister for Agriculture and Irrigation Maj-Gen Htay Oo attended the 2nd Non-Aligned Movement First Ladies Summit on 15 November, the World Summit on Food Security on 16 to 18 November and the 36th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization Conference on 19 and 20 November in Rome of Italy. (more…)

Chiang Mai – The Burmese Ministry of Electric Power (1) will commission the Ye village hydro-power project in December, billed as the biggest in the country. (more…)

Bangkok – Thai civil society leaders representing 189 organizations demanded Monday the government withdraw from the controversial Hutgyi dam project in Myanmar or face dire consequences. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar attracted 62 million U.S. dollars in foreign investment in the first eight months of this year, the local Weekly Eleven News reported Monday. (more…)

Geneva — The UN labor agency has criticized Burma for failing to abolish forced labor more than a decade after the global body first took up the issue with the Southeast Asian country, officials said Friday. (more…)

The Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) is attending a Nov 18-26 meeting of the Assembly of State Parties to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to discuss the Burmese military government’s alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes and other human rights abuses. (more…)

Australia will provide $15 million in humanitarian assistance for the Burmese people still suffering from the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis which struck Burma in May 2008. (more…)

The promised 2010 elections in Burma are the talk of the town these days.  Future uncertainties for the country’s military regime as well as the popular opposition notwithstanding, today’s election discourses may be diagnosed with a serious historical amnesia. It’s a cliché to say that those who don’t know their history are bound to repeat it. (more…)

Mizzima News – Passing a resolution on Burma in an international forum is an annual routine practice, which can embarrass the ruling military junta but as that cannot make a change in the country it does not impress the severely oppressed people of Burma. There have been over 30 resolutions already passed unanimously and later by voting at the UN bodies such as the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Commission. It is because none of them is binding and the condemned junta just says a few words of anger after the resolution is passed. (more…)

International donors meeting in Bangkok this week should pressure the Myanmar authorities to end harassment of activists trying to help survivors of Cyclone Nargis, and ensure sufficient aid reaches those affected, Amnesty International said today. (more…)

Lt-Gen Myint Swe is being widely tipped to succeed Snr-Gen Than Shwe as the Burmese army’s next commander in chief, according to several dissidents in exile and Burma observers. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar and Laos Friday signed two memorandums of understanding in Nay Pyi Taw respectively on mutual visa exemption for holders of diplomatic passport and avoidance of double taxation, the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) reported in a night broadcast. (more…)

Burmese nationals working abroad have been instructed by the ruling junta to send up to 50 percent of their salary home in remittances, via a state-owned bank. (more…)

Private schools and hospitals abolished under the former Ne Win regime in Burma are to reopen in an attempt to generate more revenue in the country and improve the struggling sectors. (more…)

Kohima — Lone Rajya Sabha member from Nagaland Khekiho Zhimomi has suggested the Myanmar Government for an administrative state for the Nagas within Myanmar. (more…)

United Nations – A special committee of the U.N. General Assembly condemned North Korea and Myanmar on Thursday for what it said were widespread human rights violations in the two Asian countries. (more…)

Freelance cameramen and camerawomen working in news and current affairs for Channel 4, CNN and Reuters were named winners at the Rory Peck Awards last night. (more…)

President Barack Obama has become personally involved with the United States’ effort to engage with the government of Burma, making a direct appeal for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. (more…)

A renewed US push seems destined to fail as the junta pursues self-interest. (more…)

The final piece in the Burmese military regimes, ‘Road Map to Democracy’, is the national elections planned for 2010. As part of their ‘Road Map’, in May 2008, the regime held a national referendum to vote on a draft constitution. (more…)