BANGKOK – An ongoing clash along the Thailand-Myanmar border, pitting government troops against ethnic insurgents, is raising the specter of more violence in areas that the military sees as the final frontier to putting the country under the grip of one army for the first time in over six decades. (more…)

Distrust between the Burmese military government and the ethnic ceasefire groups remains high after regime troops murdered six soldiers who belonged to the KNU/ KNLA Peace Council, also known as the Karen Peace Council (KPC). (more…)

A recently built hydropower dam on the Longjiang River in China’s Yunnan Province is causing severe disruption to thousands of villagers relying on cross-border trade in Burma’s northern Shan State, according to a new report by local Shan researchers. (more…)

Tokyo — Myanmar’s newly-released democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has vowed to remain patient in seeking dialogue with military rulers following last month’s controversial poll which has kept them in power. (more…)

Burma’s junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe began his year-end tour around the country at a military graduation ceremony in Maymyo with senior officials, while his deputy, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, played  golf with other top generals in Naypyidaw. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Burmese opposition leaders on Friday informed US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs Joseph Yun that a second Panglong conference could only be fruitful if the Burmese military supported the proceedings, National League for Democracy spokesman Ohn Kyaing told Mizzima. (more…)

Farmers in eastern Karen state’s Myawaddy township are complaining that heavy fighting over the past month has forced them to abandon crops and amass debts. (more…)

Yangon – China has signed a 2.4-billion-dollar loan agreement with Myanmar to finance the construction of a natural gas pipeline between the countries, media reports said Sunday. (more…)

Yangon – Orders for Myanmar-made garments from Germany, Japan and South Korea have surged this year due to the country’s low labour costs, media reports said Sunday. (more…)

Bangkok – Myanmar’s opium production increased 76 per cent this year, accounting for 16 per cent of the world’s current supply of the illicit crop, the United Nations revealed Monday. (more…)

Wanted posters are being placed in Bangkok bars and nightclubs advertising a $US2 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Wa druglord Wei Hsueh-kang. (more…)

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has dismissed claims in a leaked US cable that Burma is building a nuclear programme with help from North Korea. (more…)

Yangon, Myanmar — Aung San Suu Kyi has long proclaimed her love for India. (more…)

Bae Reh and his wife, Moo Pro, were raised on a five-mile-long patch of land they were not permitted to leave, except to gather leaves to fortify the bamboo huts in which they slept. The couple had no knowledge of the outside world. They had never heard of America and certainly could not find it on a map. There were no newspapers, just a magazine and a television station, both operating under strict political control. (more…)

Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer under house arrest, but the Burmese junta’s insidious co-option of “democracy” highlights that real change is still a long way off. (more…)

It was good of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to defend the Burmese government against yet another charge of secret nuclear projects. But Mr Abhisit’s attempt at rebutting the latest WikiLeaks memo on the subject was weak. He quoted statements by Burmese leaders, who hardly are good examples of openness and virtue. The six-year-old document from the US embassy in Rangoon certainly provided no proof that Burma has lied to the world about its nuclear ambitions. Neither did Mr Abhisit’s good-natured trust of propaganda statements from the military junta. (more…)

On Nov. 7, Burma went to the polls for the first time since May 1990. The previous elections were won by a landslide by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). However, the military regime, which has ruled the country in one form or another since 1962, refused to hand over power. The generals chose instead to initiate a drawn-out constitution-drafting process, which culminated in a charter consolidating the military’s leading role in politics, and guaranteeing the army 25 percent of seats in parliament. (more…)

YANGON — A senior US diplomat discussed economic sanctions with Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi Friday during the first high-level visit by a Washington envoy since her release last month. (more…)

Chiang Mai – On the heels of the largest influx of Burmese refugees to Thailand in a decade, assistance organisations are calling for a global response in ensuring a holistic system of aid is in place for those displaced. (more…)

Bangkok – The nation’s political prisoners are holding out for an amnesty. (more…)