Teknaf: An 18-hour protest was staged at Teknaf Port in Bangladesh on Monday after Bangladesh authorities arrested nine Burmese citizens in a seizure of a trawler laden with smuggled timber. (more…)

New Delhi — A top rights group criticised India Wednesday for rolling out the red carpet for Myanmar’s military leader General Than Shwe who will begin a state visit to the country next week. (more…)

Among a raft of directives issued to newly-privatised banks in Burma is a rule that central bank financiers do not loan money to their own business concerns. (more…)

Hanoi – Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met Wednesday with his Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win to ask the ruling junta to ensure the participation of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a general election slated for later this year. (more…)

Bangkok – Thanks to a loophole in the international regime to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons, military-ruled Burma could very well carry out its reported intent to go nuclear behind a veil of secrecy, free of scrutiny from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). (more…)

Burma’s 2010 election, like it or not, will end military rule and result in the emergence of a new form of military-controlled civilian government. The junta has done everything to ensure election success—a constitution in favor of military supremacy, a set of restrictive election laws and the assumption of the role of a referee in the election. (more…)

On July 19, few in Myanmar (Burma) were allowed to commemorate Martyr’s Day. On this day people usually remember the brutal assassination of Myanmar’s father of independence, Bogyoke Aung San ? also the father of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ? in 1947. (more…)

The Burmese government’s desperate attempt to stifle the emergence of a potential ethnic political force—the Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP)—will go down in history as another example of brutal suppression of the basic tenets of democracy in Burma. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Kachin State Progressive Party chairman has called “groundless” recent claims made by Burmese junta minister Aung Thaung that the party was ineligible to register with the electoral watchdog over its connections to the Kachin Independence Organisation. (more…)

Applying pressure on voters, people on the outskirts of Shan State South’s Kunhing Township have been directed to vote only for the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by Prime Minister Thein Sein, in the forthcoming general elections, local sources said. (more…)

Burma has completely shut a major border checkpoint with Thailand amid a dispute over construction of a river dyke, Thai officials said on Tuesday. (more…)

Burma’s energy ministry has reported “progress” in tests on a potential new oil field close to Rangoon. (more…)

Rice exports for the first half of this year were just over a third of the figure exported in the same period last year, marking a significant drop for the once-billed ‘ricebowl of Asia’. (more…)

Hanoi – Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbours have told the military government they are concerned over whether elections this year will be free and fair, a senior regional diplomat said on Tuesday. (more…)

Hanoi – ASEAN leaders are unsure about Myanmar’s nuclear  ambitions, a regional foreign policy  expert said Tuesday. (more…)

Hanoi – Asean foreign ministers on Tuesday proposed to send the grouping observer to monitor the Myanmar election towards being fair, free and inclusive. (more…)

The transformation of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) into the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is clear evidence that Burma’s military regime does not intend to hold a legitimate 2010 election, according to Human Right Watch (HRW). (more…)

Greeley, Colorado — BeBe offered a gap-toothed grin when she described how she and 17 other Burmese refugees got lost in Greeley. (more…)

Washington, D.C. – The military regime’s plan to hold an election in Myanmar in 2010 has attracted the international community’s attention. Many hope that this election will be a small step towards democracy and positive change. For those who live in pluralist societies, an election sounds encouraging. (more…)

That General Than Shwe, one of the world’s most brutal dictators, is visiting the world’s largest democracy, India, is ironic but unsurprising. Over the past two decades, Than Shwe has carefully developed relations with his neighbour. (more…)