Bangkok: Sleepy, lush Dawei in Myanmar, with its narrow country lanes, crumbling colonial-era cottages and pristine white sand beaches, is set to be transformed in four years into a massive deepwater port and industrial zone connected eastwards to Bangkok by a double-lane highway. (more…)

Demonstrators have called on the New Zealand Government to take a stand against human rights abuses in Burma’s Kachin province.
(more…)

Once again, Burma’s rulers have initiated “talks” with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. On Monday, a government minister met with Suu Kyi for the first time since a new quasi-civilian government was formed at the end of March. But is this the start of a meaningful dialogue aimed at achieving national reconciliation, or just another empty gesture designed to placate international opinion? (more…)

Burmese government troops have launched a major offensive against the headquarters of the Shan State Army (SSA) in Wan Hai in a bid to dominate a strategically important junction connecting northern and southern Shan State, according to Shan sources. (more…)

Short battles between the Burmese and Kachin armies took place today, July 25, at three different locations in Kachin State, northern Burma, local sources said. (more…)

Reports this week from Kachin and Shan States confirm rape is still being used as a tactic by the Burma Army to demoralise and terrorise ethnic communities. (more…)

Chiang Mai– The KIO, a member of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an ethnic group alliance, has offered to stop fighting if the government will start negotiations for a nationwide cease-fire, but Burmese authorities said no deal in a recent e-mail, according to La Nang, a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO). (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw, 25 July-Union Minister for Labour and for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Aung Kyi and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi held a dialogue at Seinle Kantha State House in Yangon from 1 pm to 2.10 pm today. (more…)

Nay Pyi Taw, 25 July – Union Minister for Labour and for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Aung Kyi and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi held talks at Seinle Kantha State House in Yangon from 1 pm to 2.10 pm today, after which they replied to the queries raised by correspondents. The questions and answers are as follows:- (more…)

Heavy rains over the past week have caused widespread flooding in western, eastern and southern Burma, with tens of thousands of people thought to have been affected. (more…)

Rangoon — Burma’s Finance and Revenue Minister Hla Tun has told the country’s business leaders that the new government will change the official exchange rate of the national currency, which is currently set at around six kyat to the dollar. (more…)

Yangon – Myanmar hotel and tourism authorities will build over 50 hotels across the nation ahead of 2013 in preparation for accommodating foreign guests arriving for the 27th Southeast Asian Games hosted by Myanmar, a local media reported Tuesday. (more…)

Soe Yu Nwe’s journey from her home country of Burma, (also known as Myanmar) to the United States in 2009 brought her to Albion College, a liberal arts college in southern Michigan. Like many Burmese students, Nwe (who goes by the nickname Joy) came to the U.S. to study biology. She found her true calling, she says, when she took a ceramics class in her first semester. (more…)

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday praised Burma’s talks with opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi and voiced hope that the government would take further steps including freeing prisoners.
(more…)

New Delhi– Another Burmese refugee living in Australia has made claims to Australian media that he has committed war crimes. (more…)

The Lady joins Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna, Bennett Miller’s Moneyball and Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous on confirmed list (more…)

Internet attacks can come from any country in the world at any given point in time. Over the course of the first quarter of 2011, Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report found one country to be the source of more attack traffic than any other. (more…)

As many people in Europe prepare for their summer holidays, behind the scenes discussions will soon start between European governments about the contents of the next UN General Assembly Resolution on Burma, even though it probably will not be voted on until December. (more…)

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) deeply regrets a statement made by Rafendi Djamin, Indonesia’s representative to ASEAN’s Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), as reported by The Jakarta Post on July 19: “ … giving Myanmar a chance [to chair ASEAN] could encourage the country to show ASEAN and the world that it is committed to improving its national situation.” (more…)

Ban calls on Myanmar to consider ‘early action’ on release of political prisoners

New York- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed a meeting between Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and a Myanmar Government minister, and urged the Government to consider release of political prisoners, according to a statement issued by a spokesperson. (more…)