Two Burmese officials have been sentenced to death for leaking details of secret government visits to North Korea and Russia, the BBC has learned. (more…)

The International Labour Organisation is looking to change its approach to dealing with issues of child soldiers and forced labour in Burma, with a top-level ILO official to visit the country next week. (more…)

Sittwe: Prominent monks from Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, have not had any religious titles conferred upon them by the Burmese military authority in 2010, said one abbot from Sittwe. (more…)

Mae Sot, Thailand – The rubbish dump outside the Thai town of Mae Sot steams with rancid rotting fish and other debris, a squalid haven for hundreds of refugees from Myanmar that aid groups say could swell in size this year. (more…)

As Burma gears up for elections to be held sometime later this year, the country’s military junta is moving ahead with plans to transfer ownership of key industries to business firms closely associated with the ruling generals. (more…)

Rangoon – Air Bagan, owned by Burma’s business tycoon Tay Za, is keen to launch new air routes. (more…)

The Burmese military regime has set up an opium factory in the Indo-Myanmar border area as of November 2009. (more…)

Washington – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that he is closely monitoring the situation in Burma, and Snr-Gen Than Shwe should set clear deadlines and dates for the 2010 election. (more…)

The Producers Guild of America, which like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences jacked up the number of best picture nominees to 10 this year, announced its picks Tuesday morning and the tea leaves are immediately being read across Hollywood. Its choices, which usually go mainstream, included the big studio releases “Avatar,” “Up in the Air,” “Up,” and “Invictus,” and the smaller fare including “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Inglourious Basterds” and “Precious.” “Star Trek” and “District 9? — two movies that picked up good reviews and good returns at the box office but are considered long shots for Oscar nominations — also made the cut. (more…)

Burmese military supremo Than Shwe’s reaffirmation in an Independence Day speech on Monday of his plan to hold a general election this year failed to clear away any of the political fog that has shrouded Burma for months past. (more…)

Reporters without Borders and the Burma Media Association are appalled by the 20-year jail sentence that a court has just imposed on Hla Hla Win, a freelance video reporter who provided material to the Burmese exile broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma. Detained since September, she was already given a seven-year sentence in October. (more…)