Intelligence officials in Burma are reportedly building a catalogue of information on domestic journalists and foreign news correspondents, despite pledges that the country’s notoriously strict media environment is opening up. (more…)

Delegations representing the New Mon State Party (NMSP) and the Mon State government met in Ye Township on Thursday, but failed to make any progress in efforts to avert a return to hostilities, according to NMSP sources. (more…)

Burma’s pro-democracy parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), could soon be granted the opportunity to legitimatize themselves once again as the country’s Upper House discusses a bill to amend the Political Parties Registration Law—a move that many observers see as yet another positive step toward national reconciliation. (more…)

Burma is to send a vice-president to China in an effort to soothe tensions after the suspension of a $3.6bn Chinese-backed dam in the country cast a shadow over ties between the normally close allies. (more…)

Beijing – Chinese projects in Myanmar spur economic growth and guarantee environmental protection, Chinese state media said on Friday, defending infrastructure investment there from public opinion it said had been hijacked by foreign press. (more…)

Chiang Mai – During the confiscation of more than 120 acres of plantations to build the administrative office of the Dawei (Tavoy) deep seaport, authorities threatened the landowners, according to plantation owners. (more…)

Balik Pulau — Penang police detained 97 Myanmar illegal immigrants in an operation conducted at about 8am along the coast of Pulau Betong here today. (more…)

Washington — The United States is considering a significant shift in its long-strained relationship with the autocratic government of Myanmar, including relaxing restrictions on financial assistance and taking other steps to encourage what senior American officials describe as startling political changes in the country. (more…)

Reform and submission to the people’s will has Myanmar sprung up for hope, yet hardliners and China complicate matters. (more…)

For the last two decades, Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s regime devastated Burma in much the same manner that Cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta in 2008. The junta’s oppression and mismanagement was a political, economic and human rights disaster for the Burmese people, and the sham election in 2010 gave every indication that the military authoritarianism that has battered the country would not leave anytime soon. But then in August, President Thein Sein invited Aung San Suu Kyi to Naypyidaw for a face-to-face meeting, and the pro-democracy leader seemed to emerge from the conference having discovered the calm at the center of the storm. (more…)

In its new war against Kachin resistance forces, Burma’s regime has deliberately targeted civilians with killings, torture and sexual violence, displacing over 25,000 people during the past four months. (more…)