Hundreds of Burmese people led by pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi gathered at a monastery in Rangoon on Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the failed popular 88 uprising which demanded democratic change. (more…)

Yangon — Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is to make her first overtly political trip outside her home city since she was freed from house arrest, her spokesman said Sunday, defying authorities’ warnings. (more…)

THE new chief of the Union Election Commission last week promised senior members of registered political parties that future elections would be “free and fair under existing laws”, after hearing their concerns over last year’s poll. (more…)

Washington – IMF officials will travel to Myanmar in the second half of October to help unify its foreign exchange system and lift restrictions on international transactions, an IMF spokeswoman said on Monday. (more…)

A rural microloan scheme mooted by the Burmese government has been met with caution by economists who claim that conditions inside Burma, where corruption is endemic, make such initiatives highly vulnerable. (more…)

Samut Sakhon, Thailand – Ei Phyo, 18, from Myawaddy, Myanmar, arrived in Samut Sakhon four years ago to work in a fish-ball factory in the coastal city 30 kilometres west of Bangkok. (more…)

Brussels – Burmese dissidents say authorities are routinely torturing political prisioners at a time when EU diplomats and companies are exploring ways to build closer relations with the regime. (more…)

Chiang Mai – From Manila to Bangkok to London, demonstrators rallied to remember Burma’s roar of protest in 1988 before it was crushed in a wave of killings. (more…)

Washington — Even after the formation of a new government following last year’s general election, further reform in Burma is needed before the US can lift sanctions on the country, a key US lawmaker has said. (more…)

Just over two decades ago, in 1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won national elections in Burma, but the ruling military regime refused to allow them to govern. (more…)

Twenty three years ago today over 3,000 people protesting for freedom in Burma were gunned down by the country’s military regime. Thousands more were killed during previous months, as the democracy movement swept the nation. Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma after many years living abroad, and rapidly emerged as the democracy leader and a voice of hope. (more…)

If the Western world can conjure up images of Burma, it’s thanks in large part to last year’s Oscar-nominated documentary Burma VJ, which detailed the 2007 nonviolent uprising by thousands of Buddhist monks and ordinary Burmese citizens against the ruling military junta. Constructed from footage smuggled out of the country by leading dissidents, the film is a testament to the revolutionary spirit. But amidst the excitement of such a moment, it failed to show what life is really like for the average citizen when there aren’t historical protests filling the streets. (more…)

A new website is linking up HIV/AIDS advocates and groups around China and Burma (Myanmar), Hi! Asia said today. The site, Hi! Asia (HIV Information for Asia) http://hivasia.info/ is the first site to link communities with news and analysis in both languages. Its mission is to promote a better understanding of HIV/AIDS related issues impacting key affected populations in China, Burma and other Asian countries. The site is available in Chinese, Burmese, and English. (more…)