More than 1,000 people in Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city, have held a protest against severe power cuts, the country’s biggest public demonstration in five years. (more…)

The government’s newly formed peace committee pledged on Saturday night to prevent further fighting with the Shan State Army-South and work with the group to eradicate narcotics in the country’s western state that has been plagued by war and drugs for decades. (more…)

In the lobbies and bars of Rangoon s high scale hotels, the shady pasts of Burma s business elite do not seem to deter the hordes of Western businessmen there to seek their fortune in the resource-rich country. (more…)

Tokyo – Japan will start negotiations on an investment treaty with Myanmar on Wednesday, the trade ministry said, as corporations around the world scramble to do business in one of the last frontier markets in response to encouraging political reforms. (more…)

London – WPP (WPP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has become the first foreign advertising group to invest in Myanmar since Western sanctions were lifted, betting on a flood of demand from multinational companies wanting to market their goods and services. (more…)

Bangkok – The Thai government has approved a 33.1 billion baht ($1.1 billion) budget for infrastructure in the west of the country that will link up with a planned $50 billion port and industrial zone in Dawei over the border in Myanmar.
“We will take care of infrastructure on the Thai side and improve existing links between the Thai-Myanmar border and towns and cities in Thailand,” acting government spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard said on Monday. (more…)

Mae Sot, Thailand – Health workers carrying out malaria control activities – sometimes covertly – in conflict zones along the Thai-Burma border hope additional donor funding will help reduce infection rates that have remained almost impervious to health services. (more…)

Kengtung, Myanmar – Ethnic rebels engaged in peace talks with Myanmar’s government pledged Saturday to wipe out drugs in Shan state — where much of the country’s opium and amphetamines are produced. (more…)

Klang, Malaysia — For five years, Abdul Rahim Abdul Hashim was repeatedly press-ganged into forced labour at a Myanmar military camp, until the ethnic Rohingya teenager could take no more. (more…)

In a plan to attract tourists and boost trade with Thailand, Burma plans to restore a 150-mile section of the “Death Railway,” infamous during World War II. The occupying Japanese army used prisoners of war and Asian labourers to constructed the railway. (more…)

OSLO, Norway — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will finally get a chance to deliver her acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, nearly 21 years after winning the prestigious award. (more…)

Camp David, Maryland — G8 leaders on Saturday praised the “remarkable efforts” of President Thein Sein and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in delivering democratic reforms to Myanmar. (more…)

Camp David, Maryland – President Barack Obama, fresh from easing US sanctions on Myanmar, said at the G8 summit Saturday that world powers would do all they could to promote the country’s political reforms. (more…)

Rangoon University’s Students Union building before it was blown up by Burmese dictator Ne Win in 1962. (more…)

Chinese media last week revealed that the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) is currently conducting an “independent” inspection of the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam, being built by China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), to prove that the dam is completely safe and beneficial. (more…)