Myanmar Vice president Tin Aung Myint Oo, 61, has submitted his resignation for health reasons, the Myanmar language service of Voice of America reported on Sunday. (more…)

Yangon — While the West lauds Myanmar for its steps towards democracy and starts to roll back sanctions, hundreds of political prisoners languishing in prison are still waiting to hear their fate. (more…)

Burmese parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi said that her country needs “sustainable, sound aid” as it embarks on a tentative transition to democracy. (more…)

Myint Thwin, an attorney providing legal aid for the farmers in Pwin Oo Lwin’s Magyibin village, said the lawsuits would be filed within a few days. The attorney will also send a notification to the BAD demanding compensation be paid in the next two months. (more…)

BANGKOK: Burma’s military contains smart people who have no intention of seizing back power as the former dictatorship transitions to democracy, President Thein Sein’s top political adviser says. (more…)

The 3rd Army has issued an advisory urging local people not to cross the border into Myanmar after the leader of a Karen splinter group closed border passes to retaliate against the government’s accusation that he is involved in the narcotics trade. (more…)

In Burma, workers are building one of the most lucrative foreign-funded development projects in the country’s history. Twin oil and gas pipelines will stretch from Burma’s west coast to its northeast border and into energy-hungry China. They are expected to earn Burma about $1 billion per year, but, not everyone is a supporter. (more…)

Rangoon and Mandalay will hold a business conference combining entrepreneurs from Europe and Asia, local media reported on Thursday. (more…)

As Burma contemplates its prospects as an economic powerhouse of Southeast Asia, the government is coming to realize it has been played for a sucker by its neighbours during its decades of political isolation. (more…)

AS U.N. SECRETARY General Ban Ki-moon was urging the world last week to expand investment into Burma, the Irrawaddy, a Burmese magazine-in-exile, was publishing a story about 7,800 acres of Burmese farmland being confiscated by the government to make way for copper mining. (more…)

While Aung San Suu Kyi enjoys iconic status in Myanmar (also known as Burma), women remain invisible in this country steeped in Buddhist tradition and emerging from decades of military rule. (more…)

Not every politician’s maiden entry into parliament makes history. But then, Aung San Suu Kyi is no ordinary politician. When she took her oath as a member of Myanmar’s parliament last week, it was an extraordinary change for her and for her country. For most of the last two decades, she had been the world’s best-known political prisoner. The parliament of which she is now a member is not exactly a model for a democratic institution. It was created by a constitution which Myanmar’s erstwhile military rulers foisted on the country through a rigged referendum. The constitution’s provision for reservation of 25 per cent of the seats in each of the two houses of parliament makes the whole exercise rather spurious. Also, the first elections to parliament under the new constitution were held without Ms Suu Kyi’s party — the National League for Democracy — which stayed away from them. The only time Myanmar had a free election in 1990, the NLD swept it but the military rulers annulled it. The government that now runs the country is only nominally civilian. So long and so compete has been the army’s control of every aspect of life in Myanmar that the generals can hardly think of any other form of government. (more…)

The victory of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and several dozen of her National League for Democracy colleagues in Burma’s April 1 legislative by-elections is a major event for the country. (more…)