The price of gold and the value of the US dollar have both taken a sudden leap in Burma due to speculation that the new government will increase salaries for civil servants and military personnel and put a new 10,000-kyat note into circulation. (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw – China and Myanmar Wednesday signed a supplementary contract to a memorandum of understanding on Kyaukphyu economic and technical development zone and related port and railroad development projects. (more…)

Rohingya men wait for medical treatment after being rescued, at a port in Aceh province, Indonesia The 129 men on board had been at sea for about three weeks. (more…)

A Malaysia-based Japanese multinational is lining up a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit against a lawyer who is defending a group of Burmese workers threatened with deportation. (more…)

Washington — The top US Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, said Tuesday he had spoken by telephone with Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi and was “deeply concerned” about her safety. (more…)

It has become fashionable lately in some circles to emphasize the “positive” developments in Burma and the “opportunities” for engagement  with its “new government.” The narrative goes something like this:  In 2008, the people of Burma approved a new constitution and just two years later the country held its first democratic elections in more than 20 years, which allowed for the participation and election of some pro-democracy candidates. National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from house arrest. And with the imminent transfer of power to a civilian government, there is a new generation of more outward-looking and reform-minded leaders in charge. Because of these important developments, the international community should remove sanctions, invest in Burma, and vigorously engage with these newly elected leaders and government-approved civil society organizations to take full advantage of the real opportunities this exciting transition has provided. (more…)

Since last November’s sham poll the world has focused its attention elsewhere, allowing the generals to get on with business as usual. (more…)

And the winner is … Thein Sein. (more…)

Burma’s only newspaper with foreign investment has announced that a new editor-in-chief will take over the position held by Ross Dunkley, who was detained last week in Rangoon. (more…)

BANGKOK—The anniversary of the Feb. 12, 1947 Panglong Agreement is focusing some minds on the prospects of reform in Burma, days after the meeting of the new Parliament and the emergence of Thein Sein as the new President. (more…)

Chiang Mai – The Norwegian offshore drilling firm Seadrill has come under renewed scrutiny from activists for conducting offshore drilling activities in Burma. (more…)

A group of civil society organizations, which included Thai and Burmese organizations, sent an open letter to the Thai Ministry of Labor calling for safer and better working conditions for migrant workers in Thailand—most of whom are Burmese—who are often mistreated and exploited by local authorities and their employers. (more…)

Prague – Former Czech president Vaclav Havel has called on the international community to step up the pressure on Burma to respect human rights, he said at a conference on Burma in Prague. (more…)

Washington — The United States said Monday that military-run Myanmar is “up to its old tricks” with its threats against democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi. (more…)

Oslo – A 15-per-cent drop in donor funding has forced the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) to reduce programming and cut some of its operations, the head of the Myanmar opposition broadcaster said Tuesday. (more…)

Heightened fears of foreign invasion and an obsession with saving face drove Burmese junta chief Than Shwe to block rescue efforts in the cyclone-stricken Irrawaddy delta, according to leaked US cables that shed light on the push factors behind the catastrophic death toll in 2008. (more…)

United Nations – After Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya declared victory in the UN Security Council Monday over Cambodia’s request for peacekeepers, Inner City Press asked him about Thailand expelling and denying UN refugee agency access to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. (more…)

If Burma’s newly formed parliament seems eerily familiar, that’s because most of its members are. As the new national and regional assemblies formed last week, many of the generals who have ruled the country for years assumed nominally civilian roles in the new power structure. All are from the Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won more than 77% of the votes in the November 2010 elections widely derided as completely rigged. The new president is former Prime Minister Thein Sein, also party leader of the USDP. His two vice-presidents are General Tin Aung Myint Oo, chosen from the quarter of parliamentary seats reserved for the military, and Dr Sai Mauk Kham, a party member from the upper house of parliament. (more…)

One thing apparent about the Egyptian protests and Burma’s 2007 uprising is that the men and women on the streets were not too dissimilar; it was instead the brutality of the Burmese state apparatus, the rapid appearance of guns, and the ghastly consequences therein that became the key difference. And so as Burma’s rulers sit in a comical mock-up of a parliament that is clearly not designed for adversarial discussion, what does this permit or do to the psyche of a people so hungry for reform? (more…)

POLITICIANS, businessmen and economic experts have dismissed the deregistered National League for Democracy’s (NLD) declaration that sanctions have not affected ordinary people. (more…)