Burma News Archives

Bangkok a ' Myanmar Energy Domestic natural gas to triple in Myanmar in next decade =A A A Bangkok The supply of natural gas for domestic use is to triple in Myanmar over the next decade, the Myanmar Times reported Monday quoting the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise .

Political instability in Burma could lead to an increase in drug trafficking and the relocation of narcotics production facilities, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

To answer the frequently asked query - is democracy possible in Burma - is yes. But what democracy is the following question.

In the wake of a meeting attended by the all-powerful military elite, Burma's military regime is due to come under close scrutiny for concrete signs of change leading up to a promised general elections in 2010.

AFP/File EU special envoy for Myanmar, Piero Fassino answers questions from the press in 2008.

The Philippines Embassy is seeking the release of 14 Filipinos detained last week for allegedly fishing illegally in Burmese waters.

The International Labor Organizationa s a s Governing Body on Thursday said Burmaa s ruling military junta has failed to implement recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry in eliminating the use of forced labour.

International non-governmental organizations operating in Burma are likely to suspend their activities next May, according to NGO sources in Burma.

Although Burma's military regime has announced no election law nor declared the date of the poll it plans to hold in 2010, preparations appear to have begun in Naypyidaw.

" The Burmese Ministry of Electric Power will commission the Ye village hydro-power project in December, billed as the biggest in the country.

An activist whose group played a key role in sparking the September 2007 monk-led uprising in Burma has had his 10-year prison sentence extended by eight years, sources close to his family said.

Colombo a ' There has been a demonstration in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, against the visit of the Burmese head of state, General Than Shwe.

Myanmar will construct a new railroad to link Myanmar's border town of Muse with China's Jie Guo, Yunnan province to facilitate commodity flow in bilateral border trade, sources with the Rail Transportation Department said on Friday.

The final piece in the Burmese military regimes, 'Road Map to Democracy', is the national elections planned for 2010.

Burmese troops have razed huts and infrastructure belonging to illegal Burmese settlers on an island on the Thaung Yin river, which separates Burma's eastern Karen state from Thailand.

If a shocking documentary about the fate of Burma's cyclone orphans wins a prestigious video-journalism award in London tomorrow night, it will be some time before one of the men who shot it gets a chance to celebrate.

A 73-year-old mother broke into tears when she heard the message from her son, Tun Tun Oo, who is in Meik-Hitla Prison, one of thousands of political prisoners in Burmese jails.

UNB, Dhaka Further action by the UN commission concerned on Myanmar's claim on the outer-limits of the continental shelf in the Bay of Bengal has been suspended.

A ferry carrying nearly 200 passengers sank after colliding with an oil barge in a river in Burma, killing at least eight and leaving more than three dozen missing, officials said Monday.

At least 50 people are believed to have drowned in Myanmar when a wooden ferry packed with 178 people collided with a tugboat on a river in the southern Irrawaddy delta region, officials said on Tuesday.

Myanmar's opposition leader has sent a letter to the military dictatorship. In the letter, the Nobel Prize winner has said she wants to work with the government for the common good.

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has reportedly sent a letter to the head of the country's military government, calling for direct talks.

The motorized ferry "Nay Win Tun" carrying 176 people sank in the Ngawun River after the collision, 84 miles west of Yangon.

President Barack Obama on Sunday told Myanmar's junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during an unusual face-to-face interaction with a top leader of the ruling military.

The Bangladesh government has restarted tri-nation talks over a proposed 950-kilometer gas pipeline to run from western Burma to eastern India, through Bangladesh.

YANGON a ' Lawyers for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday they had lodged an appeal against her house arrest with the Supreme Court but expected no rapid decision.

" The Burmese currency - Kyat'A touched a record high in seven years with the black market exchange rate prevailing below Kyat 1,000 against the US dollar.

MYANMAR junta leader General Than Shwe was treated for a mild stomach bug hours after his arrival in Sri Lanka, a doctor from the hospital that treated him said Friday.

Lawyers for detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi filed a new appeal Friday against her 18-month house arrest sentence, asking the court to lift an order that would keep her in detention during elections next year.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi filed an appeal Friday with the country's highest court against her 18-month house arrest sentence.

Ms Clinton singled out China, Thailand and India as being in a position to encourage Rangoon to hold free and fair elections.

Wed, Nov 11, 2009, 09:56 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka. Nov 11, Colombo: The Head of State of Myanmar, Senior General Than Shwe and First Lady Daw Kyaing Kyaing will arrive in Sri Lanka tomorrow on an official visit from 12th to 14th of November, government sources said.

THE United States on Wednesday urged Asian nations to pressure Myanmar to hold free and fair elections next year, ahead of a historic summit involving President Barack Obama and the junta's premier.

Two former ethnic peace groups -- New Democratic Army-Kachin in Kachin State Special Region-1 and Kayinni Nationalities People's Liberation Front in Kayah State Special Region-2 have been re-formed into frontier forces by the government, state-run Myanmar Radio and Television reported Tuesday evening.

" Rights groups have demanded that the United Nations Security Council Working Group closely monitor the progress of work on eliminating violations against children and the use of child soldiers in military-ruled Burma.

Myanmar's military-ruled government may release pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi soon so she can play a role in next year's general elections, according to a senior Myanmar diplomat.

MYANMAR'S detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, expressed hope on Monday that US engagement with the county's military rulers could spur democratic reforms, her lawyer said.

Diplomat says jailed opposition leader will be allowed to organise her party for elections next year.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon meets again with Myanmar junta supremo on Saturday when he expects a verdict on whether he will be allowed to visit detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A delegation of senior U.S. officials, pursuing a new dialogue, met with Myanmar's military rulers on Tuesday in the highest-level talks with the reclusive junta in 14 years.

The administration of US President Barack Obama has followed up its announced policy of engagement with Burmaa TMs military regime by sending a high level delegation into Naypyidaw, the first in 14 years.

US envoys who paid a rare visit to Burma say the new dialogue will be slow and cautious, but that the junta's plans to hold elections next year could disrupt the delicate process.

President Barack Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, next month in a high-level affirmation of Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

Win Aung, foreign minister in Myanmar's military government in 1998-2004, has died in prison while serving a seven-year term for corruption.

A VETERAN soldier from Birkdale is on his way to an emotional return to the battlefields in Burma where he served with the British Army in World War Two.

Kurt Campbell, the US Assistance Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will arrive in Burma on Tuesday, accompanied by Scot Marciel, the US special envoy to Southeast Asia, for two days of talks-the highest level of US-Burma contact in a decade.

United States president Barrack Obama could cross paths for the first time with Burmese prime minister Thein Sein at a summit to be held in Singapore later this month.

ITALY Northern Italy lucrative language school consisting of four classrooms and a language laboratory for sale.

New election bill needed to avert crisis in Iraq BAGHDAD - The official charged with carrying out Iraq's crucial January polls warned Wednesday that they will be delayed if parliament doesn't approve a key electoral bill.

The visiting US delegation's talks with the Burmese regime, ethnic minority groups and the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has coincided this week with the news that the China gas pipeline project is finally under way in Arakan State.

Meetings with senior military officials in Burma are test of Obama administration's new policy of engagement with dictatorship US diplomats Kurt Campbell and Scot Marciel arrived in Burma today for meetings with senior junta officials.

WASHINGTON a " The government has agreed to pay $3 million to a former agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration who sued CIA officers for illegal eavesdropping.The proposed settlement followed a ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in July that CIA officials committed fraud to protect a former covert agent against the eavesdropping ...

The Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry has honored persons who contributed to the winning of some exhibition-related awards in the recent China-ASEAN Expo held in Nanning, capital of Southwest China' Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, sources with the UMFCCI said on Monday.

According to a a Thailand-based human rights group, the Myanmar junta arrested up to 50 people this week including journalists, political activists and university students.

Two senior United States diplomats are heading to Burma this week to meet with the military government and detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A A A' Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is aware of an upcoming visit by two American officials and supports the new U.S. policy of engaging with Myanmar's military rulers, her lawyer said Saturday.

" The Myanmar Tourism Ministry has said three tourists to Burma died of heart disease in the month of October alone.

THE DAY I was arrested was just like any other. I was having lunch with my family, when officers from the Burmese Military Intelligence came to my home and took me away.

US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell is unlikely to meet with Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe on his two-day visit to the military-ruled country this week, government sources said Monday.

TWO senior US envoys travelling to military-ruled Myanmar this week will meet detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi but are unlikely to see the reclusive junta chief, an official said Sunday.

The growing instability in eastern Burma from ongoing military conflict is forcing thousands of ethnic people to become internally displaced persons , according to a press release from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium on Thursday.

Small and thin plastic producers in Myanmar's commercial city of Yangon have been ordered to stop their production by the end of next month to pave way for creating a thin-plastic-bag-free city and bring about a clean environment, said sources with the Yangon City Development Committee Friday.