Following the conclusion of the candidate registration process on Friday, Burma’s political parties expect the leaders of the junta’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to give up their positions in the government. (more…)

Senior National League for Democracy (NLD) member Win Tin is in hospital with breathing problems while his colleague, Tin Oo, may have to fly to Singapore for surgery on his eye. (more…)

Burma’s ethnic politicians in Rangoon on Saturday held the 67th anniversary birthday party of Khun Htun Oo, Chairman of the defunct Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), Burma’s second largest winning party and the winning party in Shan State in the 1990 elections, according to Sai Shwe Kyu, secretary of the defunct SNLD. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Burma is a dangerous place for the media. Foreign journalists are routinely refused entry. (more…)

New Delhi – More than 1,000 Burmese migrant workers from a fishnet factory in Khon Kaen, in northeast Thailand, enter their sixth day of a strike today, over their employer’s illegal doctoring of co-workers’ travel and work documents, and other labour abuses, labour rights workers and protest leaders say. (more…)

Mae Sot – Increasing numbers of landmine victims are crossing the Burmese border into Thailand to find a way to walk again. (more…)

Shenzhen – Myanmar’s top leader Than Shwe said here Saturday that Myanmar will learn from China’s experiences in reform and opening up and continue to cooperate with China. (more…)

The Burmese military government should accept the UN’s proposed Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma if the regime wants to prove it has transparency, said a Thai representative at an Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) on Monday. (more…)

A 17-year-old human rights campaigner from Gosforth has been chosen to speak to Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the UK. (more…)

Aung San Suu Kyi inspires us with the value of democracy, of non-violence, and of simple unbending courage. (more…)

In barely two months, elections will be held in Burma, generating significant attention worldwide. The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced on August 13th that the “multiparty elections in Burma will be held on November 7, 2010.” There have been a number of developments in the days preceding the announcement of the election date, which deserve serious attention from all democracy-supporting citizens of the world. (more…)

A Than Shwe biography confirms he’s a bully – he’s even missing the ‘heart lines’ on the palms of his hands. (more…)

Aung Lynn Htut was born in Rangoon. He became a gazetted officer in the army on Jan. 26, 1978. He was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 1999. He retired from the army in 2000. In 2005, Aung Lynn Htut sought political asylum in the United States after serving as a senior attache in the Burmese embassy in Washington D.C. Recently, an account of his personal experiences in the Christie Island massacre was widely read on the Internet. Lt-Gen Thura Myint Aung, who has been tipped for the position of chief of staff of the Tatmadaw [armed forces], is said to have been involved in the Christie Island massacre. He was a classmate of Aung Lynn Htut at the Defense Service Academy (DSA). Irrawaddy reporter Ko Htwe interviewed him about the massacre and recent officer reshuffle in the Burmese army. (more…)