Mae Sot, Thailand—As Myanmar prepares for its first election in two decades, many of its residents are unlikely to participate, adding to growing doubts over the vote’s legitimacy. (more…)

At Yangon airport, Min Aung shook hands with a South Korean businessman in town to assess opportunities in the ‘Golden Land,’ Myanmar’s slightly misleading nickname. (more…)

Yangon – Chinese commodities accounted for 80 per cent of Myanmar [Burma]‘s import, varying from electronic devices, cement, paint, flour, iron and iron products to raw materials for soap, the local Biweekly Eleven quoted a trading company as reporting in this week’s issue. (more…)

Labour, human rights and political activists are expected to call on United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to look into alleged human rights abuses by the government against Burmese immigrant workers and red shirt protesters when he visits the country Tuesday. (more…)

No prize for guessing the real winners of the Nov. 7 election in Myanmar. The junta’s decision to bar foreign observers and foreign journalists from covering the polls came as no surprise. It confirmed what we knew all along: There will be an election that is anything but free and fair — and whose outcome has been decided long beforehand. (more…)

Western countries are naive to think Burma’s junta is taking steps toward a competitive democracy. (more…)

Next month’s elections won’t be free or fair, and the international community must take action to end the dictatorship in my country. (more…)

Myanmar will hold ‘elections’ on Nov. 7, but they will be neither free nor fair. The U.S. should denounce them and continue to press for real change. (more…)

Last week, the regime staged a lavish ceremony to welcome a white elephant to Naypyidaw. Snr-Gen Than Shwe himself was on hand to feed the elephant. The people in cyclone-hit Arakan State should be so luck.   (more…)

Hot air is a fact of life in most of Burma, but is the country’s first elections in 20 years anything more than hype for people around the old capital Rangoon, and elsewhere? (more…)

Just days after the Obama administration decided in August to support the prosecution of Burma’s top military rulers for war crimes, China’s U.N. ambassador, Li Baodong, paid a confidential visit to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff to make his opposition clear: The U.S. proposal, he said, was dangerous and counterproductive, and should not be allowed to proceed, three U.N.-based sources familiar with the exchange told Turtle Bay. (more…)

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the 13-year prison sentence handed down last week by a Burmese court to Nyi Nyi Tun, editor of the Kandarawaddy news publication. (more…)

Rangoon – Winds and driving rain from a strengthening Cyclone Giri are lashing Burma’s western coast as it was expected to make landfall between Sittwe and Kyaukphyu townships this afternoon, Arakan State, according to residents and a US weather warning centre today. (more…)

Burma Army soldiers based in Shan State South’s in Mongnawng were reported to have staged a mocked battle near ceasefire areas, local sources said. (more…)

As the rooftop landscape of Burma changed yesterday with the hoisting of a new flag, critics of the junta have said that the country’s identity change came too early. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar’s new capital of Naypyitaw has welcomed its fifth white elephant, adding to a growing stable of the auspicious animals that have traditionally measured the power and righteousness of an Asian kingdom, news reports said Friday. (more…)

Thailand will repatriate Burmese refugees staying on the Thai-Burmese border only when peace prevails in Burma, said Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya. (more…)

Singapore — Struggling flag carrier Myanmar Airways International is hopeful that next month’s elections will usher in a new era of growth for the country’s tourism sector, a senior executive said Friday. (more…)

Yangon — Myanmar’s jade production is up sharply in the first four months of the fiscal year 2010-11, with the output nearest to that of the whole 2009-10 fiscal year, a local weekly reported in this week’s issue. (more…)

Manila – Philippine activists Friday urged the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations to step up pressure on Myanmar to implement democratic reforms ahead of elections next month. (more…)