Scores of Myanmar Muslims held a rare protest in the country’s biggest city on Tuesday to demand justice for nine pilgrims killed by a Buddhist mob in an attack that has stirred communal tension. (more…)

As labour strikes increase in Rangoon, the Minister for Industry and Myanmar Investment Commission Chairman Soe Thein called for more support of trade unions and the protection of workers’ rights. (more…)

VOA Director David Ensor is in Burma seeking to negotiate terms that would allow the U.S. broadcaster to open a news bureau in the long-isolated southeast Asian nation. (more…)

They waited in the searing heat for hours, but when Burma’s pro-democracy heroine Aung San Suu Kyi finally arrived the majority barely caught a glance at her, never mind speak to her and tell her about their plight. (more…)

Total chief executive Christophe de Margerie will soon visit Myanmar, where he will meet officals and members of the civil society, the French energy giant said Tuesday. (more…)

Myanmar will build stronger ties with other countries as it moves to develop and strengthen its economy, said U Than Htay, the Union Minister for Energy. (more…)

A state committee on illegal migrant workers yesterday extended the nationality verification procedure for another six months, from June 14 to December 14. A resolution on this will be submitted to the Cabinet for consideration in two weeks. (more…)

While Myanmar’s charm offensive is everywhere in the media through the opening of the country, and the first trip of its world famous opponent Aung Sang Suu Kyi, human rights activists say flagrant abuses of ethnic minorities by authorities is still commonplace. (more…)

This week members of the Free Zargana Campaign meet the Burmese comedian and performance poet at the Free Word Centre in London.  The consortium of human rights and freedom of expression advocates, including PEN, Index on Censorship and Article 19, had campaigned for the Zargana’s release since 2008 when he was imprisoned on a series of trumped-up charges following his outspoken criticism of the government’s response to Cyclone Nargis. (more…)

Adoring throngs of expatriated Burmese nationals (and NGO staffers) lined kilometres of the airport road to welcome Aung San Suu Kyi to the border town of Mae Sot. On the last day of Miss Suu Kyi’s landmark visit to Thailand, her first trip abroad in 24 years, she was escorted by tight security provided by Thailand’s army and police. From the tarmac her convoy was whisked past the cheering supporters to Mae La, the area’s largest refugee camp. More than 45,000 shelter here, most of them ethnic Karen who have fled war and repression in neighbouring Myanmar. (more…)

Aside from the moral force of her example, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi is a practical lady who is concerned with the uncertain future of her predominantly youthful nation. (more…)

Aung San Suu Kyi has finally been allowed to win. Her by-election victory in Burma—which Asean calls Myanmar—last month brought home the scale of the political earthquake taking place there after half a century of military rule. (more…)

Preamble

First I would like to acknowledge that I wrote this article out of much anxiety only after weighing the pros and cons again and again with a feeling full of hesitation and uncertainty. Sincerely, I have the feeling of anxiety whether it may have certain impacts on the two political leaders who I am sure have vision and insight much wider and deeper than me. However, with sincere truth from the bottom of my heart I wrote this article in connection with the two leaders who in fact are our hope and who are so rare that such persons are exceptional. (more…)