Civil servants in northwestern Burma have been threatened with salary cuts by the chief minister of Chin state unless they labour weekly on efforts to prepare parts of a town for rejuvenation. (more…)

In response to a parliamentary proposal regarding freedom of the media, Minister of Information Kyaw Hsan said on Wednesday it would bring “more disadvantages than advantages,” before he went on to astonish MPs with a half-hour recital from the Buddhist tales of the Jataka. (more…)

Two prominent members of Burma’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) completed talks this week with officials of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and an allied group aimed at preventing a breakdown of decades-old ceasefire agreements. (more…)

Chiang Mai – Derek J. Mitchell, the first U.S. special representative and policy coordinator for Burma, will meet government officials in Naypyitaw on Friday and Saturday, followed by meetings in Rangoon. (more…)

Bangkok – Thai authorities have seized illegal drugs including heroin and methamphetamine worth an estimated $33 million that are believed to have been smuggled from Burma, officials said on Thursday. (more…)

Washington — Five prominent women Nobel laureates urged US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to support the establishment of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. (more…)

Foreigners have long coveted Burma’s ample energy resources. Under British colonial rule, the Glasgow-based Burmah Oil Company (BOC) drilled in central Burma, built an oil refinery in Rangoon and reinvested its profits in Persia via the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the forerunner to British Petroleum. The BOC was forced to divest its assets in Burma (Myanmar) after a coup in 1962 by General Ne Win. (more…)

Much has been made of the flurry of initiatives by Thein Sein since he became president earlier this year, but his surprising enthusiasm for recycling seems to have gone unnoticed. (more…)

At the top of the pile of buzzwords being thrown about by NGO workers and foreign diplomats in Rangoon is “civil society”, a discourse championed by supposedly non-state “capacity builders” who claim they can educate and supply the tools for young Burmese to become more politically engaged, thus paving the way for democratic reform. The general feeling is that these new ‘teachers’ consider more hardline approaches to governmental change, such as popular protest by Burmese or sanctions from the international community, futile and naïve. (more…)

New diplomatic effort is designed to gain more economic aid, but how much longer can the regime survive as an international pariah? (more…)