Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be free to run in elections this year once she is released from house arrest, Burma’s foreign minister has reportedly said. (more…)

Burma’s pro-government Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is reportedly conducting its own census in an apparent effort to influence the result of the general election. (more…)

A lifetime of frustration in Burmese politics has not wearied Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein. Her years as a political prisoner have not blunted her sense of humour. (more…)

Burma’s junta has sent a team of officials to investigate allegations that militia border guards are committing extortion, rape and assault against Burmese people being deported from Thailand. (more…)

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Thursday expressed hope that the Thai-Burma checkpoint in Tak province would soon be re-opened. (more…)

Yangon – About 17,000 people out of 238,000 infected with HIV/AIDS in Myanmar died in 2009, the local Biweekly Eleven reported Thursday. (more…)

Hanoi, Vietnam — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is warning Myanmar’s military rulers against any cooperation with North Korea on a nuclear program and calling on the junta to hold free and fair elections this year. (more…)

New Delhi – The Indian government will be tight lipped regarding the upcoming 2010 Burmese general election, possibly preferring to focus on their own economic interests, according to pro-democracy activists in New Delhi. (more…)

Allegations by a Myanmar defector that the military-run country is pursuing a nuclear program are corroborated by newly available commercial satellite images, Jane’s Intelligence Review said in an article released yesterday. (more…)

They still can’t tell junk mail from essential bills, and at least one family had to be relieved of the rooster it kept in its apartment as a pet, but for nearly 200 Karenni refugees, their first year in Winston-Salem has been marked by progress. (more…)

Six years ago before an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) meeting in Hanoi, Nguyen Dy Nien, then Vietnam’s foreign minister, promised that “Asean is trying to democratize Myanmar.” This time in Hanoi, the Asean Regional Forum (ARF) will have yet another look at Burma’s newsest  problems: the planned elections and its nuclear ambitions. (more…)

Washington, DC – One week after members of the House of Representatives unanimously approved the extension of economic sanctions against generals in Burma; their fellow lawmakers in the Senate today overwhelmingly approved the measure with a vote of (99-1), and sent it to the White House for the signature of President Obama. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) voted in favor of the resolution and Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) is the only senator who voted against it. (more…)