“I deplore the decision of Burma/Myanmar authorities on the new election laws.  These laws clearly target pro-democracy campaigners such as Aung San Suu Kyi.  They are politically motivated and restrictive. This is a move in the wrong direction.” – Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi instructed members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) to discuss the party’s Shwegondaing declaration and why the 2008 Constitution is unnacceptable, said her lawyer, Nyan Win, after a two-hour meeting with Suu Kyi on Thursday. (more…)

Kutupalong, Bangladesh — Dildar Begum has no country, no job, no food and she is fast running out of hope. (more…)

Yangon—Myanmar’s military is moving large numbers of soldiers to border areas near China and Thailand in anticipation of possible conflicts with ethnic rebels in those areas before elections this year, according to diplomats, intelligence experts and residents who are tracking the activities. (more…)

China has seen a rapid rise in drug addiction this year, particularly in its southern Yunnan province where opium from Burma’s volatile Shan state is pouring across the border. (more…)

Rangoon — Washington’s new policy of engagement with Burma’s military government appears to be failing, a senior US official indicated Friday, noting the junta’s decision to bar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections. (more…)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities have picked up 93 Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar who said they spent 30 days at sea in a crowded wooden boat, an official said Friday. (more…)

The United States criticized China’s human rights record Thursday, raising concerns about restrictions that Beijing has imposed on citizens who question its policies. (more…)

For those harbouring any hopes that the military regime in Burma was moving towards some kind of real democracy, this week’s announcement of the laws for the forthcoming elections must have come as a rude shock. Under the new rules, no one who is a member of religious order or anyone with a criminal conviction can stand. (more…)

Amid the rash of commemorations celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall last year, it was easy to feel that 1989 was a year in which freedom advanced everywhere. The Soviet empire collapsed. Two years later the Soviet Union itself disintegrated. A few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela was released. The end of the cold war unfroze deadlocked political situations all over the world. (more…)

Since 1996, military abuses have forced 1m villagers to flee their homes, according to UN draft report. (more…)

PRESIDENT OBAMA took office hoping that constructive diplomacy could yield progress on some of the thorniest foreign-policy challenges facing the United States. Among these was Burma, a Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people that has been misruled into poverty, decline and perpetual warfare by a benighted military dictatorship. Mr. Obama did not abandon economic sanctions against the regime, but he did hold out the prospect of warmer relations if Burma’s regime would show some sign of easing up on its people. (more…)