Yangon — Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will be released in November just days after Myanmar’s first election in two decades, officials said Thursday. (more…)

Yangon, Myanmar — Courts in military-ruled Myanmar have given long prison sentences to 13 people, including a Buddhist monk, who were accused of planning bombings and other activities to disrupt upcoming elections, lawyers said Thursday. (more…)

Junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidates are using Cyclone Nargis rehabilitation projects in the Irrawaddy delta and other state projects across the country to campaign for the election. (more…)

Rangoon — “Where’s the patient’s relative? Where is she?” (more…)

All eyes are now turned to Indonesia as one of the few countries in the region believed to be capable of taking the lead in helping bring about change in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. (more…)

New York — Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva plans to pay a one-day visit to Burma next month to confirm cooperation between the two countries. (more…)

Pye Phyo Tay Za, the son of Tay Za, a businessman with close links to Burma’s military government, is appealing a decision taken earlier this year which maintains European Union (EU) financial sanctions and travel ban against him. (more…)

London – US Congressman Christopher Smith has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling on Burma’s military regime to immediately recognize the Rohingya people “as full and equal citizens of Burma”, and to lift all restrictions on movement, marriage and access to education. The resolution also calls for an end to the regime’s campaign of religious and ethnic persecution “amounting to crimes against humanity throughout Burma”. (more…)

Yangon, Myanmar — Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently said the world must exercise “utmost vigilance” to ensure the approaching elections in Myanmar (Burma) are free and fair. (more…)

In the run-up to Burma’s fraught polls, some of the junta’s leading cheerleaders are Western governments who are bending over backwards to justify their stance. (more…)

Websites operated by The Irrawaddy and other such independent but critical media as Mizzima and the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) were shut down this week in a high volume attack which overloaded their capacity to provide service—a so-called Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assault. (more…)

Why a sham election may be even better for the people of Burma than a legitimate one. (more…)

Paris – Brussels – Bangkok – The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) addressed today an open-letter to H.E. Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and vice-President of the European Commission calling upon the European Union to support the establishment of a United Nations commission of inquiry in Burma/Myanmar. (more…)