Power vs. freedom Oct 24, 2009
In Burma, the clear majority of the Burmese people want freedom from an oppressive, brutal and murderous military dictatorship. This week 10,000 monks and more than 100,000 Burmese have been peacefully protesting on the streets of Rangoon risking their lives for freedom. (Fresno Bee -- Opinion)
Rudd's regional vision granted a soapbox Oct 24, 2009
The 10 leaders of Association of South-East Asian Nations Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Cambodia are already in Hua Hin for the 15th ASEAN summit. They will be joined by leaders from China, Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia for the East Asia Summit. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
UN slams Myanmar, N.Korea, Palestinian rights ills Oct 23, 2009
Myanmar also reprimanded the United States and Britain during the meeting for referring to the country by its former name, Burma, while North Korea admonished the United States for not calling it DPRK -- Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "PERVASIVE REPRESSION". (AlertNet)
Sydney up on the valuation runway Oct 22, 2009
"The last thing we want is the people of Burma to be disadvantaged," he said, noting Australia and the US had recently adopted policies of engagement with the state ... Costello, who had a recent phone hook-up with Joyce over the issue, later told CBD he considered airline flights, even into Burma, an "essential service" ... World Vision, he said, had 800 staff in Burma and had the blessing of the imprisoned pro-democracy campaigner Aung Sang Su Kyi to continue its work in the country. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Rivals China, India in escalating war of words Oct 21, 2009
Most obviously such efforts include Beijing's intimate alliance with India's old enemy, Pakistan; New Delhi is also nervous about China's military aid to its other neighbors such as Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. (Read about strategic competition in the Indian Ocean. (Christian Science Monitor -- World)
Timeline: Japan Oct 8, 2009
1942 - Japan occupies a succession of countries, including the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Burma and Malaya. In June, US aircraft carriers defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Suu Kyi detention appeal rejected Oct 2, 2009
Observers believe Burma's military authorities want to keep the pro-democracy leader in detention until after polls scheduled for next year. The court ruling comes days after the US said it would pursue greater engagement with Burma's generals in a bid to advance democratic reform there ... BURMA: BATTLE FOR DEMOCRACY. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Burma-US meeting held in New York Sep 30, 2009
A senior US diplomatic official has reportedly met with a delegation from Burma on the margins of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. Kurt Campbell, assistant US secretary of state for Asia, is thought to have met Burma's science minister U Thaung ... Meanwhile US Senator Mitch O'Connell restated Washington's demand that Burma must release its political prisoners and hold fair elections. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
UN Chief's 11th Hour Climate Jihad Sep 30, 2009
Highlighting the UN s more recent policy failures over Burma, the war in Sri Lanka, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe and the Congo, the memo zeros in on Ban s lack of engagement and interest in studying well enough the problems. he is supposed to handle. (Human Events Online)
* Transcending change with trust Sep 30, 2009
There is also room for increasing US-Japan coordination on North Korea, Iran, and Burma. For Japans new government, there is an opportunity in offering continuity with the Security Consultative Committee statements and taking steps forward rather than back on international cooperation in the upcoming revision of Japans National Defense Program Guidelines. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World Business)
US extends diplomatic hand to Burma junta Sep 25, 2009
NEW YORK: The US will adopt a new approach to Burma that includes engaging directly with its military leaders because sanctions have not worked ... By themselves, sanctions had not produced the results the US wanted, she said after a meeting of foreign ministers from the Friends of Myanmar (Burma) group ... The lack of democracy in Burma and the authorities' abysmal record on human rights are at the heart of the country's problems,'' Mrs Clinton said in her prepared remarks. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
Obama to world: New U.S. needs your help Sep 24, 2009
Ban chided Myanmar, also known as Burma, for failing to release detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. And he said that issues of "justice and accountability" during Israel's invasion of Gaza last winter need to be addressed. (AZCentral -- News)
US changes tack on Myanmar Sep 24, 2009
The country, also known as Burma, has been ruled by military juntas since 1962 ... "We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma," Clinton told reporters, using the country's traditional name. (Fresno Bee -- Nation)
'Millions at risk' as deltas sink Sep 22, 2009
"Hurricane Katrina may be the best example in the US, but flooding in the Asian deltas of the Irrawaddy in Burma and the Ganges-Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh have recently claimed thousands of lives as well.". The team identifies the Mekong and the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong as places where similar disasters are likely in future. (BBC News -- Americas)
Saving the penny Sep 16, 2009
One wonders how much money Moore would make and how much artistic freedom he would have in the dictatorships that are controlled by the above-named despots or in China, Burma, Saudi Arabia or any other of the countries with communist/totalitarian governments that they so admire. If Moore hates America and the system that has made it great, then he is free to leave and let the rest of us suffer with what we have, freedom. (Longview Daily News, WA)
FOREIGN MATTERS Will Iran's reform movement persist? Sep 6, 2009
North Korea, Burma, Syria - those nations are unattractive dictatorships that are hostile to the United States and mistreat their own citizens ... Or were the street demonstrations simply the Iranian version of China's Tiananmen Square revolt of 1989, or Burma's monk uprising in 2007 - protest movements that were quashed, not to be revived ... Unlike Tiananmen Square and Burma, Abbas noted, the Iranian protests were "cross-class and cross-regional. These events are of a different magnitude. And... (San Francisco Chronicle -- Politics)
Can you imagine healthcare town halls in North Korea? Sep 3, 2009
I hope North Korea's Kim Jong-il, Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei, and Gen. Than Shwe in Burma (Myanmar) are paying attention to this ... Jim Webb (D) of Virginia flew to Burma to secure the release of an eccentric American sentenced to seven years of prison and hard labor for violating the house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi ... While these North Korea and Burma humanitarian missions were cast as nongovernmental, they could not have taken place without some fairly intensive... (Christian Science Monitor)
Country profile: India Sep 3, 2009
The vast and diverse Indian sub-continent - from the mountainous Afghan frontier to the jungles of Burma - was under foreign rule from the early 1800s until the demise of the British Raj in 1947. AT-A-GLANCE. (BBC News -- South Asia)
China tents dismantled as refugees return to Myanmar Sep 1, 2009
"We urge the Burmese authorities to cease their military campaign and develop a genuine dialogue with the ethnic minority groups as well as with Burma's democratic opposition," he said ... Analysts say the aim was to neutralise the threat the militias posed an election next year, the first to be held by the junta that rules the former Burma in two decades. (The Star Online, Malaysia -- News)
Why Violence Erupted on the China-Burma Border Sep 1, 2009
China's border with Burma is a porous demarcation, with everything from tropical timber and rubies to heroin slipping across with little oversight. But August brought a more unusual Burmese import: thousands of Kokang hill-tribe members fleeing violence in their small enclave in Burma's northeastern Shan state ... Since taking power in 1962, the exclusively ethnic Burman, or Burmese, junta has largely tamed an unruly patchwork of 100-plus ethnic groups, in part by signing cease-fire accords and... (Time.com)
Cheney: CIA Abuse Probe a Political Act Aug 31, 2009
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30, 2009. Says Justice Dept's Effort to Investigate Torture of Detainees 'Offends the Hell Out of Me. (CBS News)
Italian TV bins reality shows Aug 30, 2009
----------------- ----------------- RELATED BBC SITES. Last Updated: Tuesday, 3 April 2007, 10:18 GMT 11:18 UK. (Yahoo News -- Reality TV)
Terracotta army's new UK formation Aug 30, 2009
----------------- ----------------- RELATED BBC SITES. Last Updated: Wednesday, 5 September 2007, 15:19 GMT 16:19 UK. (Yahoo News -- Art and Museums)
Search site aims to rival Google Aug 30, 2009
How do you apply pressure on Burma. Hundreds attend soldier's funeral. (Yahoo News -- Internet and WWW)
'Safer here' Aug 30, 2009
On the other side it is Burma ... BURMA: BATTLE FOR DEMOCRACY. (BBC News)
Algerian suicide bomb kills four Aug 30, 2009
How do you apply pressure on Burma. Pakistan blast 'kills 14 cadets. (Yahoo News -- Algeria)
British actors dominate TV Globes Aug 30, 2009
----------------- ----------------- RELATED BBC SITES. Last Updated: Tuesday, 16 January 2007, 10:47 GMT. (Yahoo News -- Golden Globe Awards)
Brain 'can beat early blindness' Aug 30, 2009
----------------- ----------------- RELATED BBC SITES. Last Updated: Saturday, 17 February 2007, 00:33 GMT. (Yahoo News -- Brain Research)
Miss Ireland upstages lady in red Aug 30, 2009
Beijing China has called on Burma to maintain stability after tens of thousands of tribespeople in Shan state, in the remote north-east, fled into China as a result of fighting between Burmese troops and an armed ethnic group. Friday, 28 August 2009. (Yahoo News -- Beauty Pageants)
Ethnic Group In Myanmar Said To Break Cease-fire Aug 28, 2009
Fighters for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army _ representing the Kokang minority _ on Thursday attacked a police post along the border with China near the town of Laogai, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma ... According to the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Peng issued a statement Thursday calling for talks with the government and for newly deployed troops to withdraw from the area. (CBS News -- World)
Oil firms win Bangladesh rights Aug 26, 2009
The firms have been given the right to explore for gas, despite ownership claims on some of the territory by neighbouring India and Burma. The oil firms will spend $160. (BBC News -- Business)
PERSPECTIVE: Risky rescue missions can complicate US diplomacy Aug 20, 2009
Webb's visit to Myanmar, also called Burma, secured the freedom of John Yettaw, 53, of Missouri, who was apprehended after swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where she is being held on house arrest. Stephen Flanagan, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Webb's mission provides an opening for the Obama administration to begin a dialogue with Myanmar, which does not now have diplomatic relations with the U.S.. (Jefferson City News Tribune, MO)
American Freed From Burma Heads Home Aug 19, 2009
American Man Jailed in Burma Heads Home ... BANGKOK An American man imprisoned in Burma for sneaking into the opposition leader's compound but released with the help of a visiting U.S. senator headed home on a flight Tuesday after two days of health checks in Thailand ... John Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, was detained in Burma for three months after he swam across a lake and made an unauthorized visit to the home of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. (Fox News)
Rescue Missions Complicate U.S. Diplomacy Aug 18, 2009
Learn about the people, economy and history of Burma (aka Myanmar) ... Webb's visit to Myanmar, also called Burma, secured the freedom of John Yettaw, 53, of Missouri, who was apprehended after swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside residence, where she is being held on house arrest ... Neither of the women rescued from N.K. nor the man in Burma engendered sympathy from me. (CBS News -- World)
Don’t relax Burma sanctions Aug 18, 2009
Don t relax Burma sanctions - The Boston Globe ... Don t relax Burma sanctions ... SENATOR JIM WEBB of Virginia was acting as an advocate for a more accommodating US policy toward Burma s despotic junta during his weekend visit to that country. (Boston Globe)
American released from Burmese prison Aug 18, 2009
Burma freed an ailing American whom it had sentenced to seven years of hard labor and handed him to an influential U.S. senator on Sunday, a move that could help persuade the United States to soften its hard-line policy against the military regime ... He declined to speculate on what the Obama administration - which is reviewing its policy toward Burma, or Myanmar - would do. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Sen. Jim Webb breaks the ice in Burma Aug 18, 2009
Jim Webb breaks the ice in Burma. The reclusive regime in Burma (Myanmar) is touting its newfound openness, but skeptics wonder whether Webb's rare visit will bring any democratic reform ... Jim Webb (D) of Virginia this weekend secured face time with both Burma's top leader, Gen. Than Shwe, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy figurehead mostly locked up under house arrest since her 1990 election to the premiership a victory rescinded by the military. (Christian Science Monitor)
American Gets Tests After Burma Jailing Aug 17, 2009
(BANGKOK) An ailing American who was spared a seven-year prison sentence in Burma underwent medical testing in Bangkok on Monday, while the U.S. senator who secured his release called for a "new approach" in dealing with the military-ruled country. John Yettaw's family in the United States said the 53-year-old was hospitalized in the Thai capital and not in good health after three months in a Burma prison, where he was held for sneaking into the home of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu... (Time.com)
Myanmar release of US man could thaw relations Aug 17, 2009
Aung Din of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, said Yettaw's release was a gift to Webb from Than Shwe for opposing sanctions, and promoting engagement and increased U.S. business activities there. "This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," he wrote in an e-mail "They will think that Americans are easy to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back.". (WSVN-TV Miami, FL)
Senator secures American’s release from Burma Aug 17, 2009
Senator secures American s release from Burma - The Boston Globe ... Burma frees American, boosts image ... John Yettaw arrived in Bangkok on a US government plane yesterday after being released from a Burma prison. (Boston Globe)
Iran appoints new judiciary head Aug 16, 2009
Burma deports Suu Kyi US 'guest. Thai elephant gets artificial leg. (BBC News)
African odyssey Aug 15, 2009
Page last updated at 16:34 GMT, Friday, 14 August 2009 17:34 UK. Clinton wraps up African tour. (BBC News -- Africa)
Is Obama's 'let's talk' diplomacy failing? Aug 14, 2009
Whether the issue is key security threats, as with Iran and North Korea, or lower-profile matters, as with Cuba or Burma (Myanmar), Obama's critics and even some backers of the "talk to the enemy" approach are starting to speak of the policy's limits ... Considering a list of lower-profile adversaries ranging from Burma to Zimbabwe she says, "I don't see any dividends at all.". (Christian Science Monitor -- USA)
Sanctions stopping change in Burma Aug 13, 2009
Burma became a military dictatorship in 1962, and was kept isolated for many years by its xenophobic leader, General Ne Win ... The reason is that Burma enjoys lively trading relations with its neighbours ... China is hungry for natural resources and for the strategic access Burma offers to the Indian Ocean. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
Burma Court Finds Aung San Suu Kyi Guilty Aug 12, 2009
Filipino protesters light candles and wear posters of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration of support outside the Edsa Shrine in Ortigas, eastern Manila, Philippines on May 31, 2009 Alanah Torralba / EOA / Corbis ... Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will spend another 18 months as a prisoner of Burma's military junta, a Rangoon court decreed today ... The verdict was delayed, apparently while Burma's generals calculated the likely domestic and global response to... (Time.com)
Aung San Suu Kyi verdict draws international ire Aug 12, 2009
A court in Burma (Myanmar) sentenced the opposition leader to 18 more months of house arrest for violating the terms of her detention ... Beijing - A court in military-ruled Burma (Myanmar) has ordered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to spend a further 18 months under house arrest, dashing hopes of clemency ... By convicting her of a crime and extending her detention, Burma's rulers can ensure that she doesn't campaign in national elections expected next year the first held since a 1990... (Christian Science Monitor)
UK criticises Burmese court Aug 12, 2009
Brown and UN chief discuss Burma ... UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called Aung San Suu Kyi's conviction in Burma "profoundly disappointing" ... Next year's elections in Burma "would not be credible" without her inclusion, a Downing Street spokesman said. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
How to free Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Aug 12, 2009
A second reminder of an Asian woman rallying the masses came Tuesday with a harsh verdict against Burma's democracy champion, Aung San Suu Kyi ... The verdict against Ms. Suu Kyi has set off a renewed debate in the West about how to influence Burma (also known as Myanmar) ... Such sanctions have allowed China a large opening to dominate Burma and its economy, providing wealth to the regime in Rangoon even as common Burmese suffer. (Christian Science Monitor)
Newsweek: Sentence shows junta's desperation Aug 12, 2009
The conviction of Burma's opposition leader doesn't show clemency or compromise; it's a sign of the regime's desperation ... Some people are saying that Aung San Suu Kyi's verdict today18 months of house arrest, commuted down from three years of hard laboris a sign that Burma's junta leader Than Shwe really is beginning to show more flexibility ... The generals who rule Burma are trying to take a page from Beijing's playbook, hoping that the worldand their own citizenswill tolerate... (MSNBC -- International)
Burmese views on the verdict Aug 12, 2009
BBC News Website readers in Burma have been reacting to the verdict of 18 months' house arrest that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has received ... The BBC is unable to verify all of the information it receives from Burma ... All names have been changed to protect website readers in Burma. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Nobel Peace laureate sentenced in Burma Aug 12, 2009
BANGKOK - A court in Burma sentenced the pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months of additional house arrest yesterday, ensuring that she would remain in detention, with limited communications, through a parliamentary election scheduled for next year. The sentencing stoked the anger outside Burma over the continued detention of a woman who has become a symbol of nonviolent resistance around the world ... Sanctions have been largely symbolic over the years as Burma has continued to... (Boston Globe)
Corazon Aquino 1933-2009: The Saint of Democracy Aug 9, 2009
Even the extinguished idealism of student protesters in Tiananmen or the monks in Burma drew succor from the example of a certain Filipino homemaker's bravery a woman who herself almost inadvertently assumed the mantle of Mohandas Gandhi after the assassination of her political-dissident husband in 1983. "Cory Aquino's struggle for and success at fortifying constitutional democracy in the Philippines," says Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader, "was one of the signal battles in the... (Time.com)
Housewife to People Power, Aquino kept faith Aug 2, 2009
Cory - which everyone called her despite her own sense of reserve and formality - would go on to be a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the founding figurehead of "people power" uprisings in Burma and Seoul, Tiananmen Square and Tehran. But it was her personal transformation in the lead-up to the 1986 Philippine presidential elections that informed her place in history. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Burma court delays verdict in prodemocracy leader’s trial, cites legal reasons Aug 1, 2009
Burma court delays verdict in prodemocracy leader s trial, cites legal reasons - The Boston Globe ... Burma court delays verdict in prodemocracy leader s trial, cites legal reasons ... Activists with the support group Free Burma Coalition held up masks of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi as they stood next to mock prison cell bars during a protest yesterday in Manila. (Boston Globe)
The junta's choice Aug 1, 2009
The choices facing Burma's military ... Burma's Senior General Than Shwe faces a dilemma ... Most court hearings in Burma last a few days at most, but this one has been going on for more than two months. (BBC News)
Guilty of spreading freedom Jul 29, 2009
If you're wondering where today's Gandhi is, she's in a little-discussed country that used to be called Burma. Her name is Aung San Suu Kyi, and, like Nelson Mandela, she has been under arrest for several decades now for having the gall to press for freedom in the country now known as Myanmar. (The Augusta Chronicle)
US Man Who Swam To Suu Kyi Said Driven To Do Good Jul 29, 2009
In Thailand, he visited Mae Sot, on the border with Myanmar, also known as Burma ... According to police in Myanmar, Yettaw said that in Thailand he met with Bo Kyi of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) and made 10 visits to a clinic that serves refugees from Myanmar. (CBS News -- World)
Closing arguments in Burma trial Jul 27, 2009
Burma's rulers have refused to heed global calls for Ms Suu Kyi's release ... Burma's ruling generals fear her popularity, and do not want her to play any role in next year's election ... BURMA: BATTLE FOR DEMOCRACY. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Stocks Close at Highest Level of 2009 Jul 24, 2009
From Iran to Zimbabwe to Myamar (Burma) to Tibet to the People's Republic of China (China), the world is filled with closed, dictatorial regimes jealous and fearful of the truth-- and understandably hostile to public discussion. In such countries, the freedom and the right of the political opposition to speak out is often brutally denied. (CBS News)
Banyan: The Lady should be for turning Jul 24, 2009
Lastly, depicting Myanmar as a kind of velvet revolution gone wrong, as Thant Myint-U, a historian of Burma, points out, is to ignore a big part of the picture ... But independent Burma did not emerge as a unified state and, under early democratic rule, insurgencies flourished. (The Economist)
Burma trial reaches final stages Jul 24, 2009
Burma's rulers have refused to heed global calls for Ms Suu Kyi's release ... Burma's ruling generals fear her popularity, and do not want her to play any role in the election they are planning next year ... When UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Burma earlier this month, he was denied a meeting with Ms Suu Kyi. (BBC News -- Asia-Pacific)
Clinton stresses US commitment at ASEAN forum Jul 24, 2009
It also comes at a delicate juncture for Burma (Myanmar), a longstanding irritant ... On Friday, the trial of Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due to resume ... The trial has prompted the US to put on hold a mooted policy rethink toward Burma. (Christian Science Monitor -- World)
Obama Pitches Health Reform Jul 24, 2009
Clinton also continued to express concern over the possible "transfer of nuclear technology" from North Korea to Burma and called on foreign ministers to work together to achieve North Korea's "irreversible denuclearization.". The LAT fronts news that a team of federal drug agents and police officers searched the Houston office of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's , and took away documents and computer files. (Slate)
Liberia's Taylor trial adjourned Jul 24, 2009
Burma trial reaches final stages. UK economy continues to contract. (Yahoo News -- Liberia)
Policy on Burma shouldn't pivot on Aung San Suu Kyi Jul 23, 2009
- As Aung San Suu Kyi rounds out 5,000 days as a political prisoner, the Nobel Peace laureate and leader of what remains the opposition movement in Burma (Myanmar) continues to be an extraordinary champion of democracy ... But her release should no longer be the primary focal point of US foreign policy toward Burma's junta ... So as the Obama administration extends its open hand to "clenched fists" around the world, it should add Burma to the list. (Christian Science Monitor)
