Burmese New Year is usually a raucous time, with locals setting off fireworks and splashing bucketfuls of water on each other as part of a purification ritual. But this year’s Thingyan festival took on a more sinister tone when mysterious bomb blasts hit the nation’s largest city, Rangoon, on April 15. The explosions, detonated at a lakeside pavilion where residents were celebrating the new year, killed at least eight people. The military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962 quickly blamed “terrorists” and “destructive elements” for the mayhem, without further elaboration. In 2005, a set of bombs killed 23 people in Rangoon. The regime called those deaths the work of armed ethnic minorities that have battled the ethnically Burmese junta for autonomy, a charge these groups have denied. (more…)

With elections being held in Burma later this year the country’s “forgotten people” are appealing to the rest of the world for help. (more…)

Nineteen political parties to date have submitted applications to the Union Election Commission to take part in the Burmese general election later this year. However, most of the leading parties from the previous election, in 1990, have said they will not compete. (more…)

Out of 170 people injured in three bomb explosions on Thursday at a Rangoon pavilion celebrating the Burmese New Year, 115 people remain in intensive care, a state-run newspaper said on Saturday. (more…)

Yangon – A series of bombs exploded at a controversial hydropower project site being jointly built by a Chinese company in northern Myanmar on Saturday, just two days after bombs killed eight in the former capital of Yangon. (more…)

Laiza, Myanmar – Crawling on their bellies, the recruits inch through a field, dragging wooden rifles. A whistle blows, and they scramble to their knees, pulling the pins from imaginary grenades before lobbing them. Dropping flat, they yell “Boom!” (more…)

Tokyo – Japan and Malaysia urged Myanmar on Monday to hold “free, fair and inclusive” general elections, government officials said. (more…)

Kuala Lumpur – Hunched over sewing machines, a group of Myanmar women refugees are stitching together a livelihood after fleeing persecution from the junta back home. (more…)

Every Asean summit for the last decade has been dominated by the Burma issue. Although discussions are usually on the sidelines and in confidential sessions, this year’s meeting in Hanoi was no different. The only exception was that in the chairman’s public statement at the end of the proceedings, Burma seemed to have got away unscathed. But Burma’s hopes to take the Asean chair next year were completely dashed. (more…)

It was Maha Thingyan Akyat Day, a summer afternoon on the 15th of April 2010. Yangon was lively with the beauty of the traditional water festival, the whole city reverberating with the sound of funs, laughs, songs and music of the pandals and merry-makers. (more…)

Yangon  – Myanmar state media urged revellers at annual water festivities to be on guard Friday after bomb blasts killed eight people at a park in the military-ruled country’s biggest city. (more…)

Myanmar’s official New Light reported the death toll in three explosions at a water festival unchanged at eight Friday but raised the number of injured to 170. (more…)

Ethnic Kachin leaders in northern Burma today took pains to explain to the people the impasse on the Border Guard Force (BGF) issue with the country’s ruling junta. The public meeting comes before the crucial junta-set deadline of April 22 for transforming the Kachin armed forces. (more…)

Christians, who are in a minority in Burma, have had to perforce provide ‘duty-fund’ for the Buddhist Water Festival – Thingyan, which began on April 13 and will conclude on April 16, sources among Christians said. (more…)

Parents watch their children on a merry-go-round at a pagoda festival marking the full moon of Tabaung last month.
(more…)

Singapore: Singapore has condemned the bomb attacks that took place in Yangon on Thursday. (more…)

Non-proliferation of nuclear weapons is high on the international agenda once again; Asean must play its part in the containment effort (more…)

Washington – The United States on Thursday condemned blasts in Myanmar that left nine people dead and said it was unsure about the motivations. (more…)

YANGON (Reuters) – Three bombs exploded at a water festival in the former Myanmar capital Yangon on Thursday, killing eight people and wounding 94, state TV said, blaming “destructive elements” for the attacks. (more…)

Rangoon – Three bombs exploded in quick succession at the X2O water festival pavilion in Rangoon at about 3 p.m. today near the Theinbyu driving track, Kandawgyi Lake, Mingala Taungnyunt Township. (more…)