BANGKOK — Documents smuggled out of Myanmar by an army defector indicate its military regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and North Korea is probably assisting the program, an expatriate media group said Friday. The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma said the defector had been involved in the nuclear program and smuggled out extensive files and photographs describing experiments with uranium and specialized equipment needed to build a nuclear reactor and develop enrichment capabilities.

BANGKOK – A U.S. senator on Thursday postponed a trip to Myanmar, saying it is a bad time to visit because of new allegations that its military regime is collaborating with North Korea to develop a nuclear program. A statement issued by the office of Sen. Jim Webb, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs, said the allegations had not been substantiated, but there were also concerns that Myanmar had broken a U.N. embargo on buying arms from North Korea. "Until there is further clarification on these matters, I believe it would be unwise and potentially

Updated: May 30, 2010, 12:22 am / 0 comments Published: May 30, 2010, 6:41 am Story tools: LargerSmallerSave Print Email Get Alerts Newsletters NEWShare this story: Buzz up! None of the four teens stands significantly more than 5 feet tall. None has been in America for more than a year or two. They don't speak a lot of English, either. What the four boys — Pray Reh, Nga Reh, Thy Reh and Win Htoo — do possess is a desire to keep going. They keep showing up four days a week at the West Side Rowing Club for two-hour practices. And they keep their coach, Dennis Call, coming back for each practice. "I'm not really sure how much they understand me, but they've caught on. They caught on to the basics quickly," Call said of the

08:06 PDT YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- The party of detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi quietly commemorated the anniversary Thursday of its victory in elections 20 years ago and stood by its decision not to register for new polls to be held later this year. A faction of the party, however, has split off to participate in the balloting. About 70 party members gathered at the residence of party Vice Chairman Tin Oo to celebrate the party's 1990 victory. "We will continue our struggle for democracy and we will continue to carry out our political activities," Tin Win, a senior National League for Democracy leader, said at the quiet celebration. The NLD cannot officially hold gatherings at its headquarters since it was disbanded for refusing to register as a political party. It won Myanmar's last elections in 1990, but the military junta never allowed it to take power. It declined to re-register for elections planned for this year as stipulated by new election laws. The NLD says the new laws are unfair and undemocratic because Suu Kyi and other people convicted of political offenses are barred from taking part in the vote. But a faction of Suu Kyi's party applied Thursday for party registration with the Election Commission, said Than Nyein, a former senior NLD member who is expected to serve as the new party's chairman. The faction calls itself the National Democratic Force. Through her lawyer, Nyan Win, Suu Kyi expressed dissatisfaction with the new group's decision to register. The exact date of the elections has not been announced. Critics say the elections will be engineered so that military officers, many of whom have already shed their uniforms to enter politics, would be assured of victory. Read more:

AFP) – Myanmar state media urged revellers at annual water festivities to be on guard Friday after bomb blasts killed eight people at a park in the military-ruled country's biggest city. People should "remain vigilant against potential atrocities" and inform the authorities if they see anything suspicious, the English-language New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Officials had initially reported that nine people died Thursday in three explosions near Kandawgyi Lake in the former capital Yangon,
but later said they had miscounted the number of fatalities. State media said 170 people were wounded in the park, where thousands of people were gathered for water-throwing festivities to mark the Buddhist New Year. It was the worst bomb attack in Yangon since a series of blasts in May 2005 at two supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups. Thursday's blasts came as the country prepares for elections planned for this year that critics have dismissed as a sham due to the effective barring of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is a serving prisoner. The United States condemned Thursday's attacks and said it was unsure about the motivation. "We condemn any kind of violence that victimises innocent civilians," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were the victims of this bombing," he said. Washington maintains sanctions on the regime but initiated a cautious dialogue with the junta last year, concluding that the previous US policy of trying to isolate the regime had failed. Hundreds of revellers returned to the same park Friday on the final day of the Thingyan New Year festival, watched by dozens of police officers. State television said late Thursday that an investigation had begun to find the "destructionists" behind the explosions. Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to take office. The Nobel peace laureate, who advocates non-violent resistance, has been under house arrest almost constantly since. Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government along the country's eastern border, alleging they are subject to neglect and mistreatment. The regime recently stepped up its decades-long campaign against the rebels in an apparent attempt to crush them before the polls, expected before early November this year.

About 150 people demostrated prade held in Tokyo ,because
Members of the National League for Democracy said Monday that they would not register to vote after they met in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city. BANGKOK — After months of internal debate, members of the party of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the long-detained pro-democracy leader, defied Myanmar’s junta by announcing Monday that they would boycott the country’s first elections in two decades.  Photo News ( Thar Htet ... BCJP News )
The move raises questions about both the future of the Burmese opposition and the credibility of the vote. According to election laws the junta released earlier this month, the decision means that the party that has served as the mainstay of the country’s democratic movement for two decades, the National League for Democracy, will be automatically dissolved. Western governments, including the United States and Britain, had said that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s participation and that of her party were prerequisites for legitimate elections. On Monday, U Win Tin, a founding member and strategist for the party, said that more than 100 delegates were unanimous in their decision. “We will ask the people around us not to vote in the election: Please boycott,” he said in a telephone interview. He said that the party would try to continue political activities after it is disbanded. “We will work for the people,” he said. The party had been split over whether to participate in the elections, forced to choose between participation that would undercut its principles and a boycott that would dissolve it. Last week, Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi said through a spokesman that she viewed the election process as “unjust” and that she felt that the party should not take part.

The Pentagon is "very confident" that it could defend the United States against the threat of an Iranian ballistic missile strike, the Defense Department's chief spokesman said Wednesday. A recent Defense Department report to Congress concludes that Iran could develop a missile capable of striking the United States by 2015. Iran already has the largest deployed ballistic missile force in the Middle East,
 comprising about 1,000 missiles capable of hitting targets up to 1,200 miles (1930 kilometers) away, the report warns. The United States has 25 long-range interceptor missiles based in Alaska and California, as part of a system designed to defend the nation against an attack from North Korea or Iran. Eight of 14 tests of the interceptors have been successful, while the remaining tests suffered software glitches and other technical problems. But U.S. officials say the system should still work in the event of an attack. "We are confident that the system we have in place right now, the (ground-based interceptors) that are based in Alaska and California, are sufficient to protect us from such a threat coming in from Iran and North Korea," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. The United States is concerned increasingly about Iran's missile program, particularly because Washington believes that Tehran is moving toward building a nuclear weapon. Officials in particular fear that Iran could retaliate against any attack by the United States by targeting its missiles on American troops deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Michele Flournoy, a senior Pentagon policy adviser, told reporters in Singapore on Wednesday that a military strike against Iran is an option of "last resort" and "off the table in the near term" as Washington pursues economic sanctions. Morrell said Flournoy's comments should not be interpreted as a shift in strategy. "It clearly is not our preference to go to war with Iran, to engage militarily with Iran," he said. But "there is always the option at the president's disposal of taking military action." Leave a Comment Sort: Newest Sort: Oldest Subscribe to CommentsSort: Newest Sort: Oldest Email * not displayed Comment Required Comment FOX News encourages you to participate in this discussion; however, please be sure to review our Terms of Use and Privacy Statement or Leave a CommentYou must be logged in to comment. Please login or register below. Already a member of FOXNews.com? Log in now Username or Email Address Password Remember me on this computer Forgot your password? or login using a third-party account Reset Password To reset your password, please fill in your email below. A password reset link will be emailed to you. Email Address Not a member yet? Register Now On FOXNews.com It's FREE and only takes a minute! Get access to: Breaking news and access to video and infographics Exclusive FOXNews blogs and community features Channel info and more!

(AFP) – Myanmar state media urged revellers at annual water festivities to be on guard Friday after bomb blasts killed eight people at a park in the military-ruled country's biggest city. People should "remain vigilant against potential atrocities" and inform the authorities if they see anything suspicious, the English-language New Light of Myanmar newspaper said. Officials had initially reported that nine people died Thursday in three explosions
near Kandawgyi Lake in the former capital Yangon, but later said they had miscounted the number of fatalities. State media said 170 people were wounded in the park, where thousands of people were gathered for water-throwing festivities to mark the Buddhist New Year. It was the worst bomb attack in Yangon since a series of blasts in May 2005 at two supermarkets and a convention centre killed 23 people. The junta blamed those explosions on exile groups. Thursday's blasts came as the country prepares for elections planned for this year that critics have dismissed as a sham due to the effective barring of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is a serving prisoner. The United States condemned Thursday's attacks and said it was unsure about the motivation. "We condemn any kind of violence that victimises innocent civilians," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who were the victims of this bombing," he said. Washington maintains sanctions on the regime but initiated a cautious dialogue with the junta last year, concluding that the previous US policy of trying to isolate the regime had failed. Hundreds of revellers returned to the same park Friday on the final day of the Thingyan New Year festival, watched by dozens of police officers. State television said late Thursday that an investigation had begun to find the "destructionists" behind the explosions. Myanmar has been hit by several bomb blasts in recent years, which the junta has blamed on armed exile groups or ethnic rebels. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, partly justifying its grip on power by the need to fend off ethnic rebellions that have plagued remote border areas for decades. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed it to take office. The Nobel peace laureate, who advocates non-violent resistance, has been under house arrest almost constantly since. Armed minorities in Karen and Shan states continue to fight the government along the country's eastern border, alleging they are subject to neglect and mistreatment. The regime recently stepped up its decades-long campaign against the rebels in an apparent attempt to crush them before the polls, expected before early November this year.

(AFP) – Australian Andrew Dodt, who leads the Asian Tour Order of Merit after victory at the Avantha Masters, said Tuesday he hoped to carry his success in India into this week's Myanmar Open. Dodt has been in fine form this season, claiming two runner-up spots before his win in India in February and he said he was in a good position going into the 300,000-dollar tournament, which begins on Thursday. "I'm feeling fresh and ready to play again.
 It was good to have a break and recharge my batteries. I'm feeling hungry for more success and that's a good feeling to have," he said. "More people look at my results now but I'm not going to do anything differently. I keep doing the same routines and let the results talk. It worked in India so it should work in Myanmar." The Myanmar Open is returning to the Asian Tour schedule after a four-year lay-off, and while Dodt is making his first appearance at the event, Rahil Gangjee of India is looking forward to revisiting the tournament where he made his Asian Tour debut. "This was a good place to start my career as it spurred me on to win my first title. I have good memories here and hope to do better," said Gangjee. The Indian is hoping his current form, with two top-10 finishes, will help him end his six-year title drought. "I have been playing well in the last three months and I have good vibes. It used to play with my mind (not winning since 2004) but mentally I'm stronger now. Hopefully I can end my drought this week," he said. The Myanmar field includes Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jason Knutzon of the United States, Japanese Hideto Tanihara and two-time Asian Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar of India. In-form Knutzon, with two career Asian Tour victories to his name, is also hoping to continue his form in Myanmar. He has two top-10s this season and currently sits in seventh place on the Order of Merit. Veteran Mardan Mamat of Singapore is hoping to bounce back from a bad spell which included three missed cuts. He played in the 2004 and 2005 editions of the Myanmar Open, finishing in tied fourth and 13th place respectively

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) – The leader of Myanmar's military junta on Saturday warned against foreign meddling in upcoming elections and said "divisive acts" could spark anarchy and derail the transition to democracy. Addressing 13,000 troops at the country's annual Armed Forces Day parade, Senior General Than Shwe said Myanmar should oversee its own elections and urged patience and fair play. "During the transition to an unfamiliar system,
countries with greater experience usually interfere and take advantage for their own interests," the reclusive junta supremo, wearing full military garb and adorned in medals, said in a speech. "For this reason, it is an absolute necessity to avoid relying on external powers," he said in the address, which was broadcast to the nation and witnessed by foreign journalists who received a rare invitation to the isolated nation. Than Shwe did not reveal a date for the long-awaited polls, the first in two decades in the former Burma, a strategically situated but isolated country with rich natural resources from natural gas to timber and gems and a Southeast Asian port. The election has been widely dismissed as a sham to entrench nearly five decades of iron-fisted army rule. The United States and United Nations have expressed frustration about the lack of inclusiveness of the polls, which they say will be far from credible, suggesting the removal of much-criticized Western sanctions will be unlikely. Much of that centers on Myanmar's refusal to release 2,100 political prisoners, including long-detained opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. Observers at the parade noted that 77-year-old Than Shwe, who is believed to be in poor health and rarely appears in public, walked and spoke more slowly than at the same event last year. Analysts said the parade was more to remind the public that the military would remain the dominant political force long into the future. "ANARCHIC PHENOMENA" The lavish parade is expected to be the last attended by Than Shwe and his top generals as the country's rulers. However, few doubt the junta strongman and his loyal army proteges will relinquish power when a civilian-led government is formed. Than Shwe saluted the troops while he was driven in a convertible limousine in the newly built capital Naypyitaw before delivering a long speech in front of a backdrop of lush green mountains and statues of three ancient kings. He said the election was just the start of a long process of democratic reform and urged discipline and patience by the country's 48 million people. Than Shwe said political parties should avoid slander and dirty tricks to advance their own agendas. "The improper practice of democracy often leads to anarchic phenomena," he said. "Improper or inappropriate campaigning has to be avoided," he said, warning parties against "engaging in divisive acts that lead to disunity." Analysts say the elections will create a parliament with only limited powers. The constitution stipulates that the armed forces commander-in-chief will remain the country's most powerful figure, more senior than the president and able to intervene "at times of crisis." The military will retain control of key ministries and has a quota of 25 percent of parliamentary seats. Many more are expected to be taken by junta proxies, rendering elected opponents powerless in a tightly managed democratic system. However, it is highly likely the arrangement will be accepted by its neighbors and regional allies, especially China, which relies on resource-rich Myanmar for its huge energy needs. If the generals come good on their pledge to hand power to the people and Myanmar becomes a thriving market economy, it will not be any time soon, analysts said. "The military and its allies will remain in charge, with only an element of civilian rule," said Burmese academic Aung Naing Oo. "If Myanmar does become truly democratic, it will be a very slow transition."

Reported By Thar Htet ( BCJP News)

By Matthew Campbell March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Alcatel-Lucent SA, France’s biggest telecommunications equipment supplier, denied a magazine report suggesting it provided the military government of Myanmar with equipment that could be used for surveillance. The Paris-based company is providing normal telecommunication infrastructure to Myanmar and not “any solution dedicated to the control of conversations”, Alcatel said in a statement.
 Nouvel Observateur, a French magazine, today published a letter from non-governmental organizations that said Alcatel products could help Myanmar censor communications. Myanmar, the south-east Asian country formerly known as Burma, is preparing for its first elections since 1990. Earlier this month, the country’s rulers announced election laws that will ban political prisoners including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating. “Alcatel-Lucent understands and shares concerns about the situation in Myanmar,” the company said. “We are nevertheless convinced that the improvement of communications infrastructure can promote the economic and cultural development of a country and equally contribute to its evolution toward democracy.” To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Campbell in London at mcampbell39@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: March 26, 2010 09:35 EDT

By Matthew Campbell March 26 (Bloomberg) -- Alcatel-Lucent SA, France’s biggest telecommunications equipment supplier, denied a magazine report suggesting it provided the military government of Myanmar with equipment that could be used for surveillance. The Paris-based company is providing normal telecommunication infrastructure to Myanmar and not “any solution dedicated to the control of conversations”, Alcatel said in a statement.
 Nouvel Observateur, a French magazine, today published a letter from non-governmental organizations that said Alcatel products could help Myanmar censor communications. Myanmar, the south-east Asian country formerly known as Burma, is preparing for its first elections since 1990. Earlier this month, the country’s rulers announced election laws that will ban political prisoners including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating. “Alcatel-Lucent understands and shares concerns about the situation in Myanmar,” the company said. “We are nevertheless convinced that the improvement of communications infrastructure can promote the economic and cultural development of a country and equally contribute to its evolution toward democracy.” To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Campbell in London at mcampbell39@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: March 26, 2010 09:35 EDT

India's largest vehicle maker Tata Motors said on Monday it signed a contract with Myanmar Automobile and Diesel Industries to set up a heavy truck plant in the military-ruled country. The new plant would be set up at Magwe, nearly 480 kilometres (300 miles) from Yangon, and will be operational in the last quarter of the financial year ending March 2011, it said in a statement. Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962,
 is under economic sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record and long-running detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours such as China, India and Thailand invest billions of dollars, particularly in its oil and gas industry. Tata Motors, which owns the formerly British brands Jaguar and LandRover, said the plant would have a capacity of 1,000 vehicles per year, which could be expanded to 5,000 vehicles. No financial details were given, but the plant will be funded by a line of credit from the government of India. Myanmar's military government held talks with an Indian delegation on March 1 in its remote capital Naypyidaw.

Washington – When Aye Chan attends the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, it will be for his role as a director – not of a movie but of the exiled Burmese news agency that is the subject of one of this year’s Best Documentary nominees. Mr. Chan is executive director and chief editor at Democratic Voice of Burma, the Oslo-based news organization that disseminates news
 and images of Burma provided by underground journalist-citizens it trains to use small, hand-held video cameras. "Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country" is the story of DVB journalists who risked their lives to show the world the brutal repression wrought by the ruling generals during the uprising of September 2007. In a broader sense, the documentary by Danish film director Anders Ostergaard shows how new technologies – from cellphones and video cameras to wireless communications and satellites – have transformed not only the act of newsgathering, but also the age-old confrontation between the politically oppressed and their oppressors. Chan, who now lives in Norway, is the embodiment of an evolving political opposition movement in Burma (also known as Myanmar). First a student protester while studying dentistry, Chan went underground and briefly became a guerrilla fighter before switching permanently to “showing the world the truth of what is happening in Burma,” as he says. Parallels to Iran?Currently in the US to tell DVB’s story – and then to attend the Oscar presentations – Chan says anyone who views “Burma VJ” will see parallels to Iran, where government opposition has blossomed since last June's disputed presidential elections. Actor Richard Gere, in a Web video in which he encourages Britons to view the documentary at a series of British screenings, calls "Burma VJ" a "very important" movie with timely echoes in Iran. Indeed, those fresh parallels may be one reason the documentary is considered a favorite to win its category Sunday night. (Read about the lineup of Academy Award nominees here.) “This film is about journalists, but it is also about people just trying to get information out when the military is determined to stop them from doing that,” Chan says. “In that sense, it’s not just the story of Burma but of other countries, too. We’ve seen it recently in Iran,” he adds, “with students and other protesters using cellphones to get the information out.” Just as Iranian protesters and opposition figures have been arrested – and some killed – several of DVB’s journalists were arrested and face long prison terms. Iran’s demonstrations followed alleged election irregularities; in Burma, Buddhist monks sparked what became a broader challenge to the ruling junta. But in both cases, the protesters took the same risk: informing the outside world of the regime’s brutal repression. “Burma VJ” relies heavily on the shaky, jumbled, occasionally obscured footage of the amateur journalists. It includes a horrifying scene of a Japanese journalist shot and killed point blank as he records the demonstration unraveling around him. “That scene that records how the first person being killed [in the 2007 protests] was a Japanese journalist, it tells you what the military is most frightened about,” Chan says. “They target how the information is getting out.” DVB started in 1992 as an exile shortwave radio station. The Norwegian government hosted the station – perhaps recalling how Norway’s king and queen, exiled to London during World War II, had set up a radio broadcast to reach their Nazi-occupied homeland. Additional funding followed from other foreign sources, including the National Endowment for Democracy, a congressionally funded pro-democracy foundation in Washington. The power of videoIn 2005 DVB moved into video transmission. “We realized in 2005 that there are a lot of satellite dishes in Burma, maybe 1.5 [million] to 2 million,” says Chan. “If you figure about 10 people per dish, we knew we’d have good coverage with images.” Burma's population is about 50 million. To train its radio journalists in Burma to use video, DVB clandestinely transferred them outside the country, generally into Thailand. Two years later, the hand-held cameras were ready when Burma’s generals suddenly quintupled gasoline prices and set the stage for 2007’s protests. "Burma VJ" pays homage to Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with brief, grainy footage of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate appearing to bless the protesters from the gate of the home where she has been under house arrest almost permanently since the 1988 elections. (To read a Monitor editorial on how to free Aung San Suu Kyi, click here.) Chan says he, too, cannot help but be a pro-democracy activist, though he strives for objectivity as DVB’s director. At this stage in Burma’s struggle, he says, his work requires him to do both. “We’re not saying we’re not working for democracy and human rights in Burma, we are,” Chan says. “We want press freedom in Burma.” But he also recognizes that DVB’s power lies in its credibility – with the Burmese people, the outside world, and the ruling junta. “We think that’s our survival, to be credible in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of the regime,” Chan says. “We can be objective while also supporting changes in Burma at the same time. That’s our role in the country.”

The Obama administration, concerned that Burma is expanding its military relationship with North Korea, has launched an aggressive campaign to persuade Burma's junta to stop buying North Korean military technology, U.S. officials said. Concerns about the relationship -- which encompass the sale of small arms, missile components and technology possibly related to nuclear weapons -- in part prompted the Obama administration in October to end the George W. Bush-era policy of isolating the military junta, said a senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Senior U.S. officials have since had four meetings with their Burmese counterparts, with a fifth expected soon. "Our most decisive interactions have been around North Korea," the official said. "We've been very clear to Burma. We'll see over time if it's been heard." Congress and human rights organizations are increasingly criticizing and questioning the administration's new policy toward the Southeast Asian nation, which is also known as Myanmar. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and generally a supporter of the administration's foreign policy, recently called for the administration to increase the pressure on Burma, including tightening sanctions on the regime. "Recent events have raised the profile of humanitarian issues there," Berman said Friday. "Support is growing for more action in addition to ongoing efforts." Thus far, the engagement policy has not yielded any change in Burma's treatment of domestic opponents. On Friday, Burma's supreme court rejected opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest bid to end more than a decade of house arrest. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate's National League for Democracy won elections in 1990, but the military, which has ruled Burma since 1962, did not cede power. In recent months, the junta has also ramped up repression against political dissidents and ethnic groups, although it has released one aging dissident -- U Tin Oo -- after almost seven years in detention. Thousands of people have fled Burmese military assaults, escaping to China, Bangladesh and Thailand, in the months after the U.S. opening. A report issued this week by the Karen Women's Organization alleged that Burmese troops have gang-raped, killed and even crucified Karen women in an attempt to root out a 60-year-old insurgency by guerrillas from that ethnic minority. On Feb. 10, a Burmese court sentenced a naturalized Burmese American political activist from Montgomery County to three years of hard labor; he was allegedly beaten, denied food and water, and placed in isolation in a tiny cell with no toilet. Burma recently snubbed the United Nations' special envoy on human rights, Tomás Ojea Quintana, denying him a meeting with Suu Kyi and access to Burma's senior leadership. "The bad behavior has increased," said Ernest Bower, an expert on Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Nevertheless, U.S. officials argue -- and Bower and others agree -- that talking with Burma remains the best way forward, especially given the concerns about its deepening military relationship with North Korea. It is also important to keep talking with Burma, said Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), because China is more than willing to replace U.S. influence in that country and throughout Southeast Asia. Webb's trip to Burma in August -- the first by a member of Congress in a decade -- has been credited with giving the Obama administration the political cover to open up talks with the junta. Underlining the administration's concerns about Burma is a desire to avoid a repeat of events that unfolded in Syria in 2007. North Korea is thought to have helped Syria secretly build a nuclear reactor there capable of producing plutonium. The facility was reportedly only weeks or months away from being functional when Israeli warplanes bombed it in September of that year. "The lesson here is the Syrian one," said David Albright, president of the nongovernmental Institute for Science and International Security and an expert on nuclear proliferation. "That was such a massive intelligence failure. You can't be sure that North Korea isn't doing it someplace else. The U.S. government can't afford to be blindsided again." Burma is thought to have started a military relationship with North Korea in 2007. But with the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution last June banning all weapons exports from North Korea, Burma has emerged "as a much bigger player than it was," the senior U.S. official said. In a report Albright co-wrote in January, titled "Burma: A Nuclear Wannabe," he outlined the case for concern about Burma's relations with North Korea. First, Burma has signed a deal with Russia for the supply of a 10-megawatt thermal research reactor, although construction of the facility had not started as of September. Second, although many claims from dissident groups about covert nuclear sites in Burma are still unverified, the report said that "there remain legitimate reasons to suspect the existence of undeclared nuclear activities in Burma, particularly in the context of North Korean cooperation."

 The verdict comes ahead of elections which have raised deep suspicions among the opposition and overseas.
  "We condemn the Supreme Court's decision," a State Department official said, saying that Aung San Suu Kyi was being held under house arrest "for purely political reasons." The official, who by protocol could not be named, said that the United States "strongly" urged Myanmar to free other political prisoners and allow them to participate fully in the political process. Representative Joe Crowley, a Democrat who has long championed Aung San Suu Kyi, said the time had come for the United States to implement tighter sanctions that target military leader Than Shwe's regime. "Aung San Suu Kyi's 14-year imprisonment has been a sham from day one," Crowley said. "The cruel military junta must face consequences for violating the human rights of the Burmese people," he said, using Myanmar's former name of Burma. The United States last year opened dialogue with Myanmar as part of the Obama administration's policy of reaching out to adversarial regimes. The Obama administration argued that the previous tactic of isolating Myanmar had failed, although it said it would only ease sanctions in return for progress on democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the past two decades since her National League for Democracy swept 1990 elections. The junta plans to hold fresh elections later this year. The opposition leader had her incarceration lengthened by 18 months in August after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home.

The highest court in military-ruled Myanmar dismissed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest bid for freedom Friday, turning down an appeal to end 14 years of house arrest, her lawyer said. The Supreme Court's decision had been expected since legal rulings in Myanmar rarely favor opposition activists, and the junta appears determined to keep Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, detained through elections planned later this year. Defense lawyer Nyan Win told reporters he would launch one final "special appeal" before the court after determining why the recent appeal had been rejected.
 "The court order did not mention any reasons," he said. "Although the decision comes as no surprise, it is deeply disappointing," said British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who attended the court session along with diplomats from Australia, France and the United States. "We continue to believe that (Suu Kyi) should be released immediately along with the other 2,000 and more other prisoners of conscience." French Ambassador Jean Pierre Lafosse said Suu Kyi was "the victim of a sham trial." Suu Kyi's lawyers appealed to the court last November after a lower court a month earlier upheld a decision to sentence her to 18 months of house arrest. She was convicted last August of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home. The 64-year-old democracy icon was initially sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor in a trial that drew global condemnation, but that sentence was commuted to 18 months of house arrest by junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe. Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 years. Her National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 by a landslide, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to cede power. The junta has announced it will hold elections some time this year under a constitution that allows the military to maintain substantial power. It effectively bars Suu Kyi from participating in the polls, the first general elections since 1990. Suu Kyi's party has not announced whether it will contest the elections. If the vote goes ahead as planned and Suu Kyi serves out her latest 18-month sentence, she would still be in detention during the elections. The court ruling also denied freedom to two female companions who share Suu Kyi's house arrest. It comes nearly two weeks after the junta released Tin Oo, the 82-year-old deputy leader of Suu Kyi's party, from nearly seven years in detention. Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been widely criticized for its continued violation of human rights, including atrocities committed by its military against ethnic minority groups. Human rights groups say the junta holds 2,100 political prisoners. The Singapore government, which normally refrains from criticizing the junta, said "it is of course very disappointing that her appeal did not succeed." It said a dialogue among the junta, Suu Kyi and all other political groups ahead of this year's elections "offers the best prospects for national reconciliation and the long-term political stability of Myanmar." "We thus hope that the Myanmar authorities will, in their own interests, allow her to participate in the political process in a meaningful way as soon as possible," it said in a statement. During a meeting with her lawyers Thursday, Suu Kyi jokingly asked them if she had been behaving well, as junta chief Than Shwe had said she could receive amnesty if she serves her time according to the prescribed regulations. "Than Shwe already made the verdict for (Suu Kyi) and no judge will have the nerve to change it," said Aung Din, executive director of the U.S.-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, a lobby group. "The judiciary system in Burma is just a part of the regime's oppressive mechanism," he said. "The only way to make the release of (Suu Kyi) and all political prisoners in Burma is to keep putting maximum pressure on Than Shwe and his cronies until they feel the heat."

Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court in military-ruled Myanmar Friday rejected opposition and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her house detention. A diplomat who attended the court hearing told CNN the appeal was unsuccessful. The report said she still has one more appeal left to a special court in Naypyidaw, or Abode of Kings, the new capital of the country formerly called Burma. The capital is being built about 300 miles north of the current capital Yangon, formerly called Rangoon. Suu Kyi, 64, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent most of the past 20 years in detention.
 In August, another 18 months were added to her house arrest after the military junta accused her of violating her detention rules in an incident involving John Yettaw, an American who stayed at her lakeside home without her invitation. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a huge victory in elections in 1990 but the military rulers never accepted the results. New elections were promised for this year but the junta but no dates have been set. Suu Kyi, however, won't be allowed to contest in the elections on grounds she had married a foreigner, CNN reported.

(AFP) – Hyundai Heavy Industries said it signed a 1.4 billion dollar deal Tuesday with another South Korean firm to develop a huge natural gasfield in military-ruled Myanmar. Hyundai Heavy, the world's largest shipyard, signed the contract with trading company Daewoo International to build offshore and onshore plant at the Shwe project off northwest Myanmar by March 2013. Daewoo International has agreed to supply gas from the field from May of the same year through
a pipeline to China. The project will produce 500 million cubic feet (15 million cubic metres) of gas per day for between 25 and 30 years. The field is estimated to hold between 4.5 trillion and 7.7 trillion cubic feet of gas. Hyundai Heavy will build a 40,000-ton offshore gas platform, a subsea production system, pipelines, an onshore gas terminal, a jetty and a supply base. "The project will help to enhance the partnership between Hyundai Heavy and Daewooo International," Hyundai Heavy CEO Oh Byung-Wook said in a statement, adding his company expects additional orders in Myanmar. Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is under economic sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record and long-running detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But their impact has been weakened as neighbours such as China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of its oil and gas reserves. A report by rights groups last June said South Korea's government was failing to hold its corporations to account for abuses linked to natural gas development in Myanmar. The report, by EarthRights International and the Shwe Gas Movement, said the gas project had already been linked to forced relocations and other human rights violations. Local people who criticised the work faced arbitrary arrest and detention, it said.

(AFP) – Hyundai Heavy Industries said it signed a 1.4 billion dollar deal Tuesday with another South Korean firm to develop a huge natural gasfield in military-ruled Myanmar.
Hyundai Heavy, the world's largest shipyard, signed the contract with trading company Daewoo International to build offshore and onshore plant at the Shwe project off northwest Myanmar by March 2013. Daewoo International has agreed to supply gas from the field from May of the same year through a pipeline to China. The project will produce 500 million cubic feet (15 million cubic metres) of gas per day for between 25 and 30 years. The field is estimated to hold between 4.5 trillion and 7.7 trillion cubic feet of gas. Hyundai Heavy will build a 40,000-ton offshore gas platform, a subsea production system, pipelines, an onshore gas terminal, a jetty and a supply base. "The project will help to enhance the partnership between Hyundai Heavy and Daewooo International," Hyundai Heavy CEO Oh Byung-Wook said in a statement, adding his company expects additional orders in Myanmar. Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is under economic sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights record and long-running detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But their impact has been weakened as neighbours such as China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for a share of its oil and gas reserves. A report by rights groups last June said South Korea's government was failing to hold its corporations to account for abuses linked to natural gas development in Myanmar. The report, by EarthRights International and the Shwe Gas Movement, said the gas project had already been linked to forced relocations and other human rights violations. Local people who criticised the work faced arbitrary arrest and detention, it said.

Sun Feb 21, 2:12 pm ET Bangkok, Thailand – A United Nations special envoy to military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) ended a five-day visit Friday to monitor human rights there without being allowed to meet its most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tomas Ojea Quintana said he “deeply regretted” not being allowed to see the detained opposition leader. He also said the junta had given him no indication on the timing or framework of parliamentary elections that it plans to hold this year, the first since a 1990 poll won by Ms. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and annulled by the military. Observers swiftly criticized the snub of a UN envoy, the first to visit since two senior US diplomats traveled there in November. The US mission was part of a shift by the Obama administration towards engagement with Burma after decades of sanctions and arms-length diplomacy. But human rights activists and Western diplomats argue that Mr. Quintana wasn’t expected to wrest major political concessions from the prickly junta. Instead, he went to meet prisoners of conscience, whose ranks swelled after a violent 2007 suppression of Buddhist monk-led protests. On the eve of his visit, Tin Oo, a senior NLD leader, was released after seven years of house arrest, an apparent sop to the UN visit. However, the NLD has argued that any elections won’t be credible unless the junta releases Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 other political detainees and restores freedom of speech and assembly. In addition, Quintana also tried to shine a spotlight on human rights in Burma’s ethnic minority areas, which have been largely overshadowed by the international focus on Suu Kyi. He traveled to Rakhine in western Burma to investigate the treatment of detainees held there, including minorities. Rakhine is home to the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, whom Burma doesn’t recognize as citizens, leaving them effectively stateless. Getting access to Rakhine “is a bit of a coup because [Quintana] has requested access before and been denied,” says Benjamin Zawacki, a researcher in Bangkok for Amnesty International. “It’s a high-value visit.” The Argentine diplomat has previously raised the issue of the Rohingya at the UN Human Rights Council. He is due to address the council again in March. Activists say a firsthand report should strengthen the UN’s hand in advocating for increased protection for this and other ethnicities in Burma, where about one-third of the roughly 50 million population belong to 135 recognized minorities. The Rohingya, who aren’t in this category, are estimated to number about 700,000, though no reliable census exists. Over the past two decades, many have sought sanctuary across the border in neighboring Bangladesh and in other parts of Southeast Asia. On Thursday, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh faced sickness and even starvation after being driven out of their homes in recent months. Most have moved to slums on the outskirts of UN-run refugee camps but aren’t eligible for food aid and run the risk of being forced back to Burma, the medical charity said. Paul Critchley, MSF chief in Bangladesh, said more than 6,000 refugees had arrived since October at an unofficial camp of nearly 30,000 where the charity runs a clinic. Many reported harassment and beatings by security forces and neighbors, part of an apparent political campaign against an estimated 200,000 Rohingya who live illegally in Bangladesh. The abuses meted out to refugees included being pushed into a river separating the two countries and told to swim back to Burma, say MSF officials. Those who make it to the camps have no means of making a living, and women who go outside to collect firewood have been raped. “The only thing that they can legally do in Bangladesh is starve. This is not acceptable,” Mr. Critchley told a press conference in Bangkok. Last year Thailand’s military was accused of forcing hundreds of Rohingya boatpeople back out to sea after they arrived from Bangladesh and Burma. Some later drowned or were rescued in neighboring countries. This crackdown led to a drop in sailings, says Chris Lewa, who runs The Arakan Project, a human rights group focused on Rohingya. But the renewed harassment in Bangladesh is spurring more refugees to consider fleeing by boat, despite the hazardous journey and risk of reprisals. Ms. Lewa says the anti-Rohingya campaign seems aimed at deterring new arrivals from Burma. But the upcoming election could be the trigger for another exodus, if the tensions aren’t handled properly by authorities. “There is mounting tension that could develop into communal violence,” she warns. --- Follow us in Twitter and Facebook.

(AFP) – The freed deputy of Aung San Suu Kyi's party met a UN rights envoy in military-ruled Myanmar Thursday and said the release of the Nobel Peace laureate was vital before elections, the opposition said.UN special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana held talks in the former capital Yangon with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), and six other leading party members.

Myanmar's ruling junta freed 83-year-old Tin Oo from house arrest at the weekend. He was detained along with Suu Kyi in 2003 after a pro-regime mob attacked their motorcade, killing dozens of people."We had a free discussion with him for one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," Khin Maung Swe, one of those who attended the meeting with Quintana, told AFP. Daw is a Burmese-language term of respect.
"We also said that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be involved in the future politics and pointed out that (she) should participate in national reconciliation," he said.
Quintana told the NLD members that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had had no answer yet from the junta, Khin Maung Swe said.
"He asked us about the election and we said that there was no election law and we haven't met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi so we haven't decided anything yet," he added.
Myanmar's generals have promised to hold elections this year but have not yet set a date, adding to international fears that the polls are a sham designed to legitimise the regime's hold on power.The NLD won by a landslide in Myanmar's last national polls in 1990 but the military prevented them from taking power. The latest elections are part of a "roadmap to democracy" announced by the junta.
Suu Kyi has been detained for mostof the last two decades and her house arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house.
Among the other NLD members who also attended the meeting with Quintana was Win Tin,a dissident journalist who was Myanmar's longest serving prisoner until his release in September 2008.



The Argentinian diplomat arrived in Yangon Thursday from the northwestern town of Sittwe and went to the notorious Insein Prison, where dozens of dissidents are held.



On Wednesday, Quintana travelled to a prison in Rakhine state on the northwestern border with Bangladesh and met several political prisoners, sources said.



They included Htay Kywe, a prominent student activist serving a 65-year jail sentence for his role in mass protests led by Buddhist monks against the regime in 2007
Myanmar's generals have also continued a crackdown on dissent launed after the protests three years ago. The United Nations says there are around 2,100 political detainees in the country.Quintana is set to travel to the remote new capital Naypyidaw on Friday, the final day of his five-day trip, to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win and other officials.
The UN envoy is not, however, scheduled to meet reclusive junta leader Than Shwe.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Myanmar Videos - Myanmar Video Clips, Countries Videos, Burma Videos : searchforvideo

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations sent its human rights envoy to Myanmar for talks on elections scheduled for this year that would be the first in two decades as the military government released an opposition leader from house arrest.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special envoy for human rights in the country formerly known as Burma, begins a four-day visit today and says he wants to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, who remains in detention.
The junta two days ago freed Tin Oo, the 82-year-old vice chairman of the NLD, ago after seven years in detention. “It is not enough to release me alone,” Agence France-Presse cited him as saying in Yangon yesterday when he visited a Buddhist temple.
Myanmar’s military, which has ruled the country since 1962, plans to hold elections this year under a new constitution. The U.S. and UN are leading calls on the junta to make progress toward democracy and ensure the ballot is not used as a way for the military to maintain power.
This year is “a critical time for the people of Myanmar,” Quintana said last week. “These elections should be fair and transparent. Freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed” and all prisoners of conscience should be released before the ballot, he said. The U.S. says an estimated 2,100 political prisoners in Maynmar should be released before the election.
Suu Kyi, 64, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, had her house arrest order extended for 18 months in August after a court found her guilty of violating her detention terms, a decision that would ensure her being excluded from this year’s elections.
Myanmar’s Supreme Court is currently considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling in October that upheld the extension order.
The authorities allowed Suu Kyi to meet with three senior members of the NLD in December to discuss the elections, the party said at the time. The NLD hasn’t decided whether to take part in the ballot, AFP reported yesterday.
U.S. President Barack Obama is pursuing a policy of engaging with the military leaders while maintaining trade and financial sanctions that are aimed at pressing the junta to make democratic changes in the country of more than 48 million people.
Myanmar has turned to China as an economic partner in recent years with trade between the countries increasing in 2008 by 28 percent to $2.6 billion, 240 times more than the $10.8 million with the U.S. China National Petroleum Corp., the nation’s largest oil company, has started building a 771- kilometer (480 miles) pipeline from Myanmar to Southwest China. Cnooc Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil producer, is exploring for oil in Myanmar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 14, 2010 19:21 EST

YANGON (AFP) – A UN envoy arrived in military-ruled Myanmar Monday to examine its progress on human rights ahead of elections, days after the junta freed a key aide to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tomas Ojea Quintana expects to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win but not reclusive junta head Than Shwe during his five-day trip, the third he has made to the isolated Southeast Asian nation since his appointment in 2008.
Quintana has said he also wants to meet Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has been detained for most of the past 20 years, but the ruling generals have not said if they will allow the Argentine diplomat to do so.
He arrived by commercial flight at Yangon airport and was taken to his hotel before meeting with UN staff, a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.
The junta has so far agreed to a meeting between Quintana and four lawyers from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, according to an official and NLD party spokesman, also called Nyan Win.
"We four lawyers will meet with Mr Quintana this evening.... We do not know the reason. It's their proposal. I still do not know yet whether the envoy will meet with the NLD party," Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Yangon but the junta on Saturday freed Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of her National League for Democracy party, who had been detained for the past seven years.
In a statement issued last week ahead of his five-day visit, Quintana said 2010 was "a critical time for the people of Myanmar."
"It would be important for me to meet with political party leaders in the context of this year's landmark elections," he said. "I hope that my request to the government to meet with... Aung San Suu Kyi will be granted this time."
Myanmar officials said Quintana would go outside the former capital Yangon and fly Monday to Sittwe, in Western Rakhine state, near the country's border with Bangladesh.
Quintana had meant to visit Myanmar back in November but his visit was repeatedly pushed back. He was appointed to his human rights role in May 2008 in the wake of a cyclone that left around 138,000 people dead.
On Thursday the envoy is due to return to Yangon to visit the country's notorious Insein prison where dozens of political dissidents are held, and later meet with representatives of ethnic groups.
Some ethnic groups along Myanmar's eastern border continue to wage armed opposition to the government.Quintana will go to the remote capital Naypyidaw to meet with senior government officials on Friday before leaving the country.
His trip comes as the junta sends out mixed signals to the international community, by responding to US efforts at engagement while at the same time continuing a crackdown on dissent ahead of this year's promised polls.
The junta has in the recent past exercised strict controls on all UN officials visiting the country, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last year, who was refused access to Suu Kyi.
US officials have by contrast received a warm welcome since President Barack Obama's administration announced that it would pursue a dual track of engagement alongside sanctions.
Tin Oo, 83, said his release from seven years of detention at the weekend meant nothing without the freedom of Suu Kyi and the other 2,100 political detainees that the UN says are behind bars in Myanmar.
NLD leaders are yet to decide whether the party will take part in the elections.
The junta has not yet announced a date or issued laws for the polls, the first in Myanmar since elections in 1990 that were won by the NLD in a landslide but not recognised by the military government.
Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended in August by 18 months when she was convicted over an incident in which an American man swam to her house, effectively ruling her out of participation in the polls and sparking international outrage.

(AFP) – Myanmar's junta freed the deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party from house arrest Saturday, prompting him to vow to resume his political activities ahead of elections later this year.

Myanmar's ruling junta released the deputy leader of the country's pro-democracy party from nearly seven years in detention, but offered no indication that he or still-detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be allowed to take part in this year's elections.

Australia (AP) -- Australia will inject more humanitarian aid into Myanmar but maintain sanctions until the Southeast Asian nation's military junta significantly improves how it treats its people, a top official said Monday.

BANGKOK — At last count there were more than 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to human rights groups that track the opaque workings of the penal system in that country, formerly known as Burma. Among them is Nyi Nyi Aung, who spent years campaigning for Burmese democracy in exile before obtaining American citizenship.

(AP) -- The Philippine foreign secretary says Myanmar should free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as a sign that the military-ruled country is serious about holding credible elections this year.

Yangon - Ghana's rejection last month of 15,000 bags of "unwholesome" rice from Myanmar has sparked calls for improved quality controls for the commodity, one of the country's key export items, media reports said Sunday. Ghana's Food and Drugs Board last month rejected a shipment of Myanmar rice "for being unwholesome for human consumption," as it was infested with weevils and gave off an offensive smell, the Myanmar Times reported.

(UPI) -- A naturalized U.S. citizen who returned to his native Myanmar faces 12 years imprisonment if convicted by a Myanmar court, said human rights activists.

(AFP) – Myanmar is likely to hold elections around September but they are shaping up to be a "farce" with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi unable to run, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Friday.

(AFP) – Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed during the national elections in Myanmar, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Tuesday, predicting the polls could be held during the second half of 2010.

Richmond District diner Eats reopened last week under the management of the folks behind nearby Burma Superstar. When the takeover was first hinted at late last year by the Richmond District of San Francisco blog

The Thai government and military on Friday insisted that 1,700 refugees from the Karen ethnic minority would only be repatriated to neighbouring Myanmar on a voluntary basis. Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307644,thailand-says-karens-to-be-returned-to-myanmar-on-voluntary-basis.html#ixzz0efw6ajgX

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association, run by exiled Myanmar journalists based in Thailand, said the 13-year jail sentence passed on Ngwe Soe Lin shows the junta's "phobia of uncontrolled video reporting."

(Reuters) – The Myanmar Open will return to this season's Asian Tour schedule in April following a four-year absence, officials said Tuesday.

(AFP) – Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed during the national elections in Myanmar, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Tuesday, predicting the polls could be held during the second half of 2010.

Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has accused a minister of making remarks that could prejudice her appeal against an extension of her house arrest, her lawyer said

(AFP) – Myanmar's state media on Wednesday blamed ethnic separatists for two explosions in a town in the heart of the military-ruled country.

The pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed when her house arrest ends in November, according to a government minister quoted by witnesses on Monday, but critics said that may be too late for this year’s elections.

YANGON, Myanmar – Reports that a top Myanmar leader said detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released in November, when her house arrest ends, have only served to lower hopes that she might be freed ahead of this year's elections, her party said Monday.

YANGON (AFP) – The political party of Myanmar's detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has heard that the military regime could set her free in November, a spokesman said on Monday.

YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar's detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will be released from house arrest in November, a government minister told a recent gathering of local officials, according to two people who attended the meeting

RUILI, China (Reuters) – The giant red poster staring over China's Wanding border crossing with Myanmar proclaims that their "brotherly feelings will last forever."

(RTTNews) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed when her house arrest ends in November, unconfirmed reports said.

Yangon, Myanmar (AHN) – Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be released in November, when her house arrest expires, according to a government official.

by Aung Hla Tun YANGON - Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed when her house arrest ends in November, according to a government minister quoted by witnesses on Monday, but critics said that may be too late for this year's elections.

YANGON, Myanmar, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, will be released in November when her house arrest sentence ends, a minister said

(AFP) – Aid groups on Sunday expressed concern for more than 2,000 ethnic Karen villagers hiding in the eastern Myanmar jungle after they fled their homes to escape attacks by government soldiers.

Govind Acharya, January 24, 2010 at 5:14 PM

India should use it's democratic cred and influence as a rising global power to help Aung San Suu Kyi and other Prisoners of Conscience (POC) in Myanmar.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_re_as/as_myanmar_opposition_leader_1;_ylt=ApBhy9wBhY.aoye9OtNduvwBS5Z4

Reports that a top Myanmar leader said detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released in November, when her house arrest ends, have only served to lower hopes that she might be freed ahead of this year's elections, her party said Monday.