Yangon — Myanmar began releasing 17,000 prisoners on Tuesday, an official said, in a limited jail-term reduction slammed by critics as it leaves more than 2,000 political prisoners still languishing behind bars. (more…)

New Delhi – The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) top leader, Maung Oo, told community leaders and government employees in Pauktaw Township in Arakan State that real power was  transferred to the USDP, not to the newly elected Parliament. (more…)

Five parties representing Burma’s myriad ethnic nationalities will call on the government to lift a nominal ban on teaching young children in their respective native languages in schools. (more…)

Rangoon — Recent moves to open up Burma’s economy are not expected to bring much relief to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation because numerous obstacles to growth, including monopolistic control of key sectors by cronies of top military officials, an inconsistent taxation system, and an unrealistic official exchange rate, remain in place, according to members of the country’s business community. (more…)

Washington — The United States renewed its economic sanctions against Myanmar and urged the military-backed regime to go much further after it reduced prisoners’ terms by just one year. (more…)

Former actor and film director Kyaw Thu is a two-time winner of the Myanmar Academy Award, and during the 1980s and 1990s, one of Burmese cinema’s leading men. Since his arrest in 2007 for offering food to monks during the Saffron Revolution, he has been banned from the film world. Yet in the four years since, he has emerged as one of the Burmese government’s most outspoken critics, and now runs the Rangoon-based Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS). (more…)

The Myanmar government’s reduction of prison terms must be swiftly followed by the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, Amnesty International said today. (more…)

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) denounces the prisoner amnesty, announced 16 May by the new Thein Sein administration, as a ploy to appease the international community. (more…)