The Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) and the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) recently wrote letters to President Thein Sein informing him of fighting between Shan troops and the Myanmar government army in mid-February, according to SSPP and RCSS officers. (more…)

Myanmar President Thein Sein said he was optimistic about ending the country’s decades-old insurgencies, in a speech carried by the state-run media Friday. (more…)

Burma’s Union Parliament approved the government’s US $1.15 billion military budget on Friday with an overwhelming majority. About $700 million will be spent on military hardware, accounting for over half of the controversial budget this year, according to documents obtained by The Irrawaddy. (more…)

The fate of the Salween River in eastern Burma remains unclear, despite the government’s release of information about dams planned for the river in response to questions raised in Parliament earlier this week. (more…)

President U Thein Sein said during a March 1 radio address that low-cost SIM cards would be released to the market in April. (more…)

A delegation will arrive from the EU in Myanmar this month to assess the timber industry ahead of signing an agreement to export timber to the EU. Exporters have said that they hope timber exports will be possible by June 2013. (more…)

The 22nd World Economic Forum on East Asia will be hosted in Naypyitaw in June under the theme of “Courageous Transformation for Inclusion and Integration”. (more…)

Japan will help Myanmar develop a system to increase intellectual property protection, officials said Thursday. (more…)

Fishermen in western Indonesia rescued more than 60 ethnic Rohingya asylum-seekers from Myanmar found adrift in a wooden boat, police said Friday, in the second such arrival this week. (more…)

United Nations and international agencies for the first time in more than a year delivered badly-needed aid to hundreds of people in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state following a cease-fire and a de-escalation of violence, while warning of poor living conditions in communal shelters. (more…)

The Norwegian government has been criticised for failing to pressure the Burmese government on the statelessness of the Rohingya minority during a landmark visit by President Thein Sein to the Scandinavian country this week. (more…)

A top US official, along with several rights experts, praised Burma’s reforms in the fields of human rights and rule of law on Thursday. But some warned that the US should keep pressure on Burma to ensure that it stays on the long path to becoming a rights-respecting democracy. (more…)

Draft legislation designed to govern the media in Burma threatens to reverse fragile press freedom gains recently achieved under President Thein Sein’s democratic reform program, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. (more…)

A new report by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT) details widespread civilian casualties from recent Burma Army offensives in Kachin areas and urges international pressure to end military aggression against the Kachin people. (more…)