Some 1,700 workers at a shoe factory in Rangoon have been on strike demanding better pay conditions since Tuesday, according to the factory workers. (more…)

Recent appointments of government ministers to cabinet positions by Burma’s president-elect contravenes domestic law, according to the National League for Democracy, which claims he cannot wield such power until he officially takes office. (more…)

Chinese authorities say an earthquake has toppled buildings and killed at least 19 people in southwestern Yunnan province, close to the border with Burma. (more…)

The illegal cultivation of poppies in the neighboring country of Myanmar has doubled during the past three years and is presenting a growing problem for those protecting China’s borders, said a senior police officer from Southwest China’s Yunnan province. (more…)

One year after first recommending that the United Nations establish a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the country, has reiterated his call in a new report. (more…)

In today’s Asia Times, longtime Burma activist Aung Din wonders whether Burma, surely one of the most repressive states in the world, could follow the example of Arab protestors in countries from Egypt to Oman to Libya. The Burmese, after all, have not been shy about standing up before, from the massive 1988 protests that eventually led to a free election in 1990 that was annulled to the “Saffron Revolution” of tens of thousands of monks in Rangoon four years ago. And, as Aung Din notes, there are some similarities between regimes like Egypt and Burma – the nepotism and venality of high levels of the government: In Burma, a video leaked to YouTube showed the wedding of Senior General Than Shwe’s daughter, an almost-royal affair in which she was showered with gifts and wore enough diamonds to shame even Naomi Campbell. (more…)

Q&A with Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwanfrom the International Campaign to Ban Landmines:

The use of anti-personnel land mines by both the Burmese army and non-state armed groups causes hundreds of casualties each year and contaminates large areas of land used by civilians. The International Committee of the Red Cross has estimated that the total number of amputees living in Burma is 12,000 people, of whom the majority are probably mine victims. (more…)

Two more European countries have expressed support for international investigations into human rights abuses in Burma, following protests in London targeting six European countries. Latvia stated it supports a UN Commission of Inquiry; ‘in principle’, while Denmark stated it; ‘supports in principle the establishment of an international investigation into human rights abuses in Burma… a Commission could be a possible model for an international investigation.”   (more…)