Aung San Suu Kyi could be given a job in Burma’s nominally civilian government if she is elected to parliament in the April by-elections.
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/ 29 December 2011
An explosion at a warehouse in Burma’s biggest city has killed at least 17 people and injured dozens — but was not caused by a bomb, officials say.
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/ 11 October 2011
A state-appointed body in Burma has urged officials to release "prisoners of conscience", in a sign the country may soon free political prisoners.
South Africa has handed an offshore petroleum exploration right to a company reportedly tied to the military junta of Burma.
The party of Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi recommended on Monday maintaining Western sanctions on the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi was due to be freed from house arrest on Saturday, but there was still no sign the country’s army rulers were ready to release her.
Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has lodged a new appeal with the Supreme Court against her house arrest in a final attempt to win freedom.
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/ 25 January 2010
The giant red poster staring over China’s Wanding border crossing with Burma proclaims that their "brotherly feelings will last forever".
Burma’s top court agreed on Wednesday to hear an appeal by Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers to reinstate two witnesses at her trial.
Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi will go to court on Friday to challenge the barring of three defence witnesses from testifying at her trial.
Aung San Suu Kyi told a court on Tuesday she didn’t think she was violating the terms of her house arrest when she gave shelter to a visitor.
Burma’s junta chief Than Shwe urged parties to shun foreign ideologies if they want democracy as the military put on a show of might on Friday.
Burma’s military junta angrily dismissed two recent US government reports critical of its human rights record as unfounded and politically motivated.
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/ 2 February 2009
Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Monday.
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/ 21 November 2008
A secret court in military-ruled Burma sentenced popular comedian and activist Zarganar to 45 years in prison on Friday.
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/ 11 November 2008
Burna’s military junta sentenced at least 11 dissidents involved in monk-led protests last year to 65 years in jail on Tuesday.
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/ 9 September 2008
With a population of more than 50-million, the country has become the world’s biggest prison camp. Pressure is building on the UN to act.
Pro-junta thugs broke up a birthday rally by supporters of Burma democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday.
Burma’s junta said on Wednesday that detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi deserved to be beaten for threatening national security.
Foreign aid groups pressed Burma on Tuesday to stop closing cyclone relief camps as international experts kicked off a mission to pin down the scale of the devastation a month after the storm. Cyclone Nargis is officially thought to have left 134 000 people dead or missing and 2,4-million destitute.
A large ”Happy World” sign hangs above a dilapidated food market in Rangoon, Burma, but on the streets shoppers are far from content. A month after Cyclone Nargis scythed a path of destruction through Burma’s former capital and Irrawaddy Delta, leaving 134 000 dead or missing, those spared by the storm are struggling to cope.
Burma’s junta on Saturday came under renewed international pressure from rights groups and the United States defence chief, who said its slow response to the cyclone disaster had cost "tens of thousands of lives". US Defence Secretary Robert Gates criticised the delay in allowing in foreign aid, saying US ships could have swiftly brought relief.
Western governments lashed out at the extension of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest, but the outrage at Burma’s generals was tempered by concern over disrupting aid flows to desperate cyclone victims. Burma has been promised millions of dollars in Western aid after Cyclone Nargis, but this cut no ice with the junta regarding the opposition leader.
Burma’s junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a move likely to dismay Western nations who promised millions of dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis. Officials drove to the Nobel laureate’s lakeside Rangoon home to read out a six-month extension order in person.
Foreign aid workers on Tuesday pressed into Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, testing the junta’s pledge to open up areas where one million people have yet to receive aid three weeks after the cyclone. Six foreign staff based in Rangoon with the United Nations Children’s Fund were allowed to join teams of mainly Burma workers.
Foreign aid workers saddled up for the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy Delta on Monday to see whether army-ruled Burma will honour a promise made by its top general to give them freedom of movement. ”We’re going to head out today and test the boundaries,” said an official from a major Western relief agency.
While big international donors try to persuade Burma’s military rulers to open their doors wider to aid, small groups of volunteers are getting past army checkpoints to reach desperate survivors of Cyclone Nargis. Among them were Catholics and Buddhists seeking to fulfil a charitable mission under extreme circumstances three weeks after the devastating storm left 2,5-million people destitute.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon flew to Burma on Thursday to press the ruling generals to allow a full-blown international aid effort for 2,4-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis. The government’s official toll is 77 738 people killed and 55 917 missing, and it also estimates the damage to the economy at -billion.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon headed to south-east Asia on Wednesday on a mission to secure more help for cyclone victims in Burma, whose military rulers have finally granted an aid agency the use of helicopters to deliver supplies. The UN says up to 2,4-million people are struggling to survive.
Aid was trickling in on Sunday to an estimated 2,5-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis in Burma’s Irrawaddy delta as more foreign envoys tried to get the junta to admit large-scale international relief. The junta’s official toll from the disaster stands at 77 738 dead and 55 917 missing.
Burma’s ruling military junta took diplomats on a tour of the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy delta on Saturday as its toll of dead and missing soared above 133 000 people, making Cyclone Nargis one of the most devastating ever to hit Asia. An estimated 2,5-million people are clinging to survival in the delta.
Burma said on Friday that more than 133 000 people were dead or missing in the cyclone disaster, nearly doubling the toll from the worst disaster in the country’s history, which hit two weeks ago. State television said 77 738 were dead and 55 917 missing — with 19 359 people injured — according to the latest figures.