Aung San Suu Kyi has held her first talks with the country’s president since becoming a member of parliament. (more…)

Representatives of 24 political parties in Burma on Friday demanded the removal of U.N. special rapporteur on human rights Tomas Quintana, calling him biased in his reporting on ethnic conflicts in the Southeast Asian nation. (more…)

Burma’s Upper House of Parliament agreed on Thursday to discuss a proposal to share natural resource revenues with the states and divisions where the resources are located. (more…)

The chairman of Myanmar National Human Rights Commission last week refused to back the proposed formation of a “truth commission” or an investigation into alleged abuses in Rakhine State. (more…)

COMMUNAL conflict in Rakhine State should be considered from a holistic perspective rather than just from the point of view of human rights, leaders of the 88 Generation student group told a press conference last week. (more…)

Boat travelers on the Zami waterways in the Three Pagoda and Kyain Seikgyi Township region of in Karen State claim they are tax targets of various armed soldiers. (more…)

Up to 6,000 people are homeless after severe flooding in Hpa-an Township in Karen State. (more…)

NEW DELHI: A 3,200-km trilateral highway linking India, Myanmar and Thailand will become a reality by 2016. India has given a $500 million loan to Myanmar, some of which will be used to fund the highway, said Anil Wadhwa, India’s ambassador to Thailand. (more…)

The opening of the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) offices in Yangon has paved the way for Myanmar to regain access to financing from official development banks and foreign governments, Moody’s Investors Service said. (more…)

THE government’s decision to discontinue a property sales tax break five years after it was introduced is likely to slow sales, particularly in the high end of the market, real estate industry sources said last week. (more…)

MYANMAR needs to be given priority support in efforts to control artemisin resistant malaria in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, a report released earlier this year recommended. (more…)

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Saturday announced it has received a green light from Myanmar to assist Muslim Rohingya displaced by sectarian violence. (more…)

Amnesty is calling for the immediate release of Burmese human rights activist U Myint Aye, who is serving a life sentence for his alleged involvement in planning a bomb attack in the Shwepyitha Township in Yangon on 1 July 2008. (more…)

THE green light from Myanmar to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to bring aid to the troubled state of Rakhine is to be welcomed. As the United Nations Food Programme estimated that 90,000 victims of the sectarian strife that broke out in June are in dire need of food, shelter and medicine, this means that cooperation with international aid organisations and not just from the OIC is needed. But as the Rohingya are Muslims, and there is understandably deep concern in the Muslim world about the plight of their brethren in Myanmar, it is of particular importance that access is given to relief missions from Muslim countries. It is also obviously an important issue for Asean as well, given Myanmar’s membership and imminent chairmanship of the regional grouping. (more…)

With politics in Myanmar rising to a new level and the military-backed new government searching for international acknowledgement, the race for energy resources in Myanmar seems to have become wide open for many powers like India and China. (more…)

MYANMAR is a country blessed with abundant natural resources. Wrapped in magnificent forests, it has a fabulous climate for growing food and significant reserves of oil and gas, as well as other precious commodities like hardwood timber, jade and rubies. Yet this abundance has not yet translated into wealth and benefits for the ordinary citizen.
(more…)