Bangkok — The highest court in Myanmar has agreed to consider an appeal by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the country’s battered democracy movement, over an 18-month extension of her longstanding house arrest, her lawyer said Friday. (more…)

Burma’s military despot Snr-Gen Than Shwe surprised and confused his fellow generals at a four-monthly military commanders’ meeting in Naypyidaw by ignoring pressing political issues and instead devoting his speech to the development of the country’s economy in the post-election era, according to military sources in the capital. (more…)

Members of the banned Indian separatist group, the United Liberation Front of Assam, have alleged that they hold strategic bases across the border in Burmese territory. (more…)

Yangon — The Saudi Development Fund (SDF) will provide an interest-free loan of 8 million U.S. dollars to Myanmar to help develop Myanmar’s irrigation sector, the local weekly Yangon Times reported Friday. (more…)

Bangkok – Two Taiwan officials posted in Thailand flew to Myanmar Friday to visit four Taiwanese nationals working on fishing vessels seized by Myamar authorities more than two weeks ago. (more…)

Yangon – The European Union will begin “sustained political dialogue” with Myanmar following the thawing of relations between the junta-led nation and the US, the regional bloc’s ambassador said Thursday. (more…)

It’s official: Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, is leaving the job that he has held since May 2007. According to recent reports, the former Nigerian foreign minister, who has occupied various high-level positions at the world body since serving as his country’s permanent representative there in the 1990s, is slated to become the head of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force in the conflict-hit Darfur region of Sudan on Jan. 1, 2010. (more…)

Kalaw, Burma –The power shuts down in Kalaw at 8 p.m. every evening. The locals rely on cooking fires or Chinese generators to reveal the muddy potholes and dead ends around town. The streets around the pine-studded hills of northern Burma are cloaked in utter darkness as I head toward the empty market. The darkness in Burma doesn’t scare me though; it’s the dogs. (more…)

Auburn Hills, Michigan – In an innovative new TV film breaking today, the Chrysler brand has joined with Lancia Automobiles and the international community in the movement to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, who has been in and out of house arrest since 1989. (more…)