BURMA: Junta Exposed by Information Technology

As public protests in Burma enter a second week, Burmese journalists living in exile and other expatriates are finding new appreciation for the marvels of modern communication and information technology.

ECONOMY-BURMA: A People Running on Empty

For over a week, Burmese civilians in and around Rangoon have been forced to make a tough choice - stay at home and starve or go to work and labour on near-empty stomachs.

BURMA: For Pro-Junta Militia, Migrant Workers Are Useful Cash Cows

On a recent morning, two trucks packed with about 120 Burmese drove up to a pier on the Thai side of the Moe River, which separates north-western Thailand from Burma. One, with a black exterior and with grills on the side, is often used to transport prisoners. The other, a Toyota truck, had sturdy bars and looked like a cage on wheels.

SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Regional Human Rights Body with Teeth or a Paper Tiger?

At first glance, it appeared that South-east Asian governments were determined to strengthen the language of human rights across the region. A meeting of foreign ministers in Manila declared that a regional rights body would be part of a new charter for the 10-member bloc to be approved at a summit in November.

BURMA: New Constitution in Two Months – Junta

Burma’s military rulers had a surprise in store for the over 1,000 delegates who had gathered for the latest session to draft the country’s new constitution.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Junta Will Stop Recruiting Child Soldiers – Analysts

Talks between a senior United Nations envoy and Burma’s acting prime minister Thein Sein in Rangoon, last week, may actually see an end to the recruitment of children into the armed forces, say observers.

BURMA: Generals Deviate on Roadmap to Democracy

Burma’s top generals have just finished their quarterly meeting in the country’s new capital of Naypidaw. As usual there was no official announcement following the meeting, but there are signs that the regime is about to ditch its roadmap to democracy in favour of a Chinese-style system of government.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Psychological Woes Haunt Refugees

As the United Nations marks International Day of Support for Victims of Torture Wednesday, Burmese refugees who have fled violence in their own country are facing another kind of torture - not physical, but mental and psychological.

RIGHTS-MALAYSIA: Human Trafficking Charges Stick – Activists

Nothing could be more intolerable for Malaysia than to be lumped together with Burma, North Korea and Iran. But the United States has done precisely that, naming Malaysia among "worst offenders" in human trafficking, bonded labour, sex trade and child prostitution.

POLITICS: Democracy Recession in South-east Asia

The coup in Thailand, extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, limitations on religious freedom in Malaysia - South-east Asian democracies are not exactly flourishing these days.

POLITICS-BURMA: &#39Discipline-Flourishing Democracy&#39 Promised

Burma's acting prime minister, Thein Sein, has summed up in four words the political direction his country is headed for once a new constitution is approved. It will be a ‘'developed discipline-flourishing democratic state,'' he says.

BURMA: Pro-Democracy Activists Break New Ground

Burmese political exiles in Thailand are relishing the thrust made by some 500 pro-democracy activists on the streets of Rangoon, the former capital. On Sunday, they stared down the country's military dictatorship by staging a public rally for freedom.

BURMA: Freedom for Suu Kyi Haunts Junta

One date, May 27, has come to haunt Burma's military rulers. It marks the occasion when the junta customarily extends the current detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

BURMA: Asian Highway to Disaster?

A regional U.N. body that claims to care about Asia's economically weak and marginalised is being taken to task for helping pave the way to achieve the opposite - strengthening a military dictatorship with development projects on the back of people under its oppressive grip.

BURMA: Junta Puts Political Reform Plan on Hold

Burma's military rulers have put the country's political reform process on hold amid divisions and uncertainty on how to move forward on ‘national reconciliation' as the junta calls its programme for political change.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Christians Pay for Junta&#39s Insecurities

Burma's persecuted Christian minority is receiving a long overdue hearing in the Western capitals of the world, a turn that could invite more international pressure on the country's military regime, already under fire for a litany of human rights abuses.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Red Cross Considers Pull Out

Hopes that Burma's military regime will change and begin caring for its people soon have been dashed now that a respected international humanitarian agency has revealed that the junta is not serious about easing the hardships of its long-suffering citizens.

RIGHTS-BURMA: Food Prices Spark Open Dissidence

Crippling economic realities in military-ruled Burma may pose a more formidable threat to the junta than the simmering political front, say analysts in the wake of a rare public protest in Rangoon over a range of domestic problems.

POLITICS: Western View of U.N. Vote on Burma a Hogwash

As the only politically-influential U.N. organ with powers of enforcement, the 15-member U.N. Security Council is considered the final arbiter in the world body.

BURMA: Defiant Public Blitzes Junta with Letters

A handwritten letter to a military dictator may sound like an ineffective and risky way of conveying defiance especially in this Internet age, where e-mails, blogs and websites have combined to threaten political authority in a number of countries.

BURMA: Karen Leader Dead – Struggle Lives On

If Burma's military regime was hoping that the death of a long-time adversary - one they have called a ‘'murderer'' and a ‘'village burner'' - is going to change the outlook of the rebel movement he led, it could not have been more mistaken.