Speaking at a ceremony held in their honor, two recently released leaders of the 88 Generation Students group told their supporters in Pegu on Tuesday that they welcome recent political changes in Burma, but hope for more far-reaching reforms in the future. (more…)

A political activist who underwent spells of physical and mental illness resulting from severe torture during his decade in jail in Burma has died only 10 days after being freed. (more…)

WASHINGTON — Fewer than half of the 651 prisoners the Myanmar government announced it was releasing 10 days ago were political prisoners, according to two human rights groups that have compiled lists of those released. Petty criminals, whose sentences are being commuted, were among the rest. (more…)

YANGON — With the fighting peacock flag flying outside, Aung San Suu Kyi’s Yangon party headquarters are once again a hive of activity as her Myanmar opposition prepares for its first poll battle in two decades. (more…)

Norway’s foreign minister will head to Burma soon to continue to push for reform in the country, and says the changing landscape there could turn looming Norwegian investment into a constructive force that can integrate Burma into the global economy. (more…)

Pakistan’s president has called for stronger trade ties with Burma, while on a visit to the Southeast Asian country. (more…)

India and Myanmar discussed ways to deepen economic and political ties at a one-day meeting between their foreign ministers on Tuesday even as a home ministry statement listed several key breakthroughs in security cooperation between the two neighbours at a recent meeting of their interior ministry officials. (more…)

Support from the governments of both Thailand and Myanmar, as well as a balance of foreign partners, is critical for pushing ahead with the capital-intensive Dawei project, says Italian-Thai Development Plc. (more…)

Brussels – The European Union agreed on Monday to suspend visa bans on the president of Myanmar and other senior officials, following reforms that have included the release of hundreds of political prisoners. (more…)

Yangon – A Myanmar punk-rock band’s efforts to raise funds via a California-based website has run afoul of US sanctions, a report said Sunday. (more…)

Bangkok—The U.S. shouldn’t rush to lift sanctions against Myanmar until it sees the results of a parliamentary by-election planned for early April, U.S. Sen. John McCain said on the eve of a trip to the long-isolated nation on Sunday. (more…)

As I write this, Burmese government troops are still staging attacks on the Kachin ethnic rebel group – even as the two sides have been trying to conduct negotiations in the Chinese city of Ruili, just over the border. The new Burmese president Thein Sein, an ex-general, has publicly ordered the army to stop its offensive twice (once in mid-December, and more recently last week). But the army has kept fighting. (more…)

When Burmese President Thein Sein came to power there was a lot of speculation that he would just be a puppet, with Than Shwe following the Ne Win model of pulling strings behind the scenes. But if anyone has been pulling strings behind the scenes, even if not literally, it has been Khin Nyunt. (more…)

As Myanmar’s rapid reform programme propels it from pariah to emerging market status, a new phrase has cropped up in conversations in tea shops in the city of Yangon: “Burma burn-out”. (more…)

Among the many tantalising questions surrounding Burma’s flirtation with democracy is this: might Kim Jong-un be enticed to try something similar in North Korea? (more…)

A number of Burma’s political prisoners who were recently released told The Irrawaddy that conditions inside the prisons were deplorable until 1999 when the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) became involved. Many, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the physical environment and said that conditions varied in prisons across the country. (more…)

New York – Burma’s new government showed signs of change in 2011, but failed to seriously address the still dire human rights situation in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012 [3]. The government followed up on this progress in early 2012 by releasing several hundred political prisoners. (more…)

Burma Campaign UK today welcomed the EU suspending the application of the visa ban against senior government officials as an appropriate and proportional measure in response to changes that have taken place in Burma. (more…)