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The introduction of a slew of economic reforms and political initiatives by the Burmese government in the second half of 2011 have significant implications for the carriage of Burmese foreign policy. Indeed, the surprise announcement in September suspending construction of a major Chinese-funded hydroelectric dam is an indication that China’s privileged place in the hierarchy of Burma’s foreign relations―a position it has greatly benefited from since the West shunned Burma in 1988—can no longer be taken for granted. Nevertheless, even as these changes unfold, the two neighbors will seek to maintain close and cordial relations in recognition of inescapable geographical...

YANGON, Myanmar — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said during a landmark visit to Myanmar on Thursday that the U.S. would ease aid restrictions and consider further steps to improving relations with the country's autocratic rulers if they continued down a path of political and economic reform. Clinton described her meeting with Thein Sein, Myanmar's president, as "candid, productive," but cautioned that while the "measures already taken may be unprecedented and welcomed, they are just the beginning." She said Thein Sein told her during a private 45-minute meeting that he "hopes to build on" a flurry of political overhauls...

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — Detecting "flickers of progress" in the long-shunned nation of Myanmar, President Barack Obama announced Friday that he will send Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the repressed country next month, the first official in her position to visit in more than 50 years. "We want to seize what could be an historic opportunity for progress and make it clear that if Burma continues to travel down the road of democratic reform, it can forge a new relationship with the United States of America," Obama said Friday during his diplomatic mission to southeast Asia.

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with their Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state, a diplomatic source said Sunday. The revelation lends credence to long-held suspicions that North Korea was helping Iran with a secret nuclear and missile program. It also represents a new security challenge to the international community as it seeks to curb the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang and Tehran, and thwart trading of nuclear and missile technology. North Korea has long been suspected of being behind nuclear and missile proliferation in Iran,...

ECRI Recession Watch: Growth Index Declines Further By Doug Short October 7, 2011 Last week, September 30th, the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) publicly announced that the U.S. is tipping into a recession, a call the Institute had announced to its private clients on September 21st. Early last week, ECRI notified clients that the U.S. economy is indeed tipping into a new recession. And there's nothing that policy makers can do to head it off. ECRI's recession call isn't based on just one or two leading indexes, but on dozens of specialized leading indexes, including the U.S. Long Leading Index,...

Myanmar's government invited pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a meeting Friday with the new president, an official said, in the clearest step toward a political dialogue since she was released from house arrest in November.

Russia closing deal over 20 fighter jets By FRANCIS WADE Published: 4 August 2011 Russia is believed to be close to finalising a deal over the sale of 20 advanced fighter jets to the Burmese military, which has sought to expand its air power in tandem with ground forces. The MiG-29 planes have been purchased directly from the Russian state exporter, Rosoboronexport, in a deal estimated at more than $US570 million. The additional planes, due to shipped before the end of next year, will double Burma’s fighter jet fleet, and becomes one of the biggest sales of its kind by...

This week deadly armed clashes near Burma’s border with China ended a nearly two-decade-old ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Burma’s government. About 10,000 people have fled to refugee camps along the Chinese border and 215 Chinese workers from the Datang United Hydropower Developing Co. returned home after the KIA captured a Chinese-built and operated hydropower plant last week. A KIA spokesperson told the Thailand-based Irrawaddy that the uprising began when the government reneged on an agreement to share electricity generated from the region’s Chinese-built hydropower plants with local people. “This electricity is now going to China, not...

SEOUL (AFP) – The US Navy intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missiles or other weapons to Myanmar and made it turn back, a senior US official said Monday. The comments by Gary Samore, special assistant to President Barack Obama on weapons of mass destruction, confirmed reports of the incident, which happened last month, in The New York Times and South Korean media. The New York Times said the ship was intercepted south of the Chinese city of Shanghai by a US destroyer on May 26.

YANGON, Myanmar, June 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says Myanmar's new military-backed government could face the kind of revolution sweeping through Arab nations. McCain said unless Myanmar, formerly Burma, is willing to make pro-democracy changes peacefully, it could be wracked by the kind of unrest leaders in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East are experiencing, CNN reported Friday. "The winds of change are now blowing, and they will not be confined to the Arab world," McCain told reporters in the former capital, Yangon, formerly Rangoon. "Governments that shun evolutionary reforms now will eventually face revolutionary...

BANGKOK — Ending a three-day visit to Myanmar, Senator John McCain warned the country’s leaders that “the winds of change” now blowing in the Middle East could spread if governments do not listen to the needs of their people. “Governments that shun evolutionary reforms now will eventually face revolutionary change later,” he told reporters at a news conference in the main city, Yangon, according to wire service reports. He urged the government to free political prisoners and to assure the safety of the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who said recently that she was planning to travel through...

Visits to Beijing this week by top officials from North Korea, Myanmar, and Iran are spotlighting China's cozy ties with nations widely shunned for human rights abuses and threatening behavior.

His name is Clemente Vismara. He spent his life in the missions. He planted the Church where Christianity had never come before. An ordinary sanctity, that simply put into practice the Sermon on the MountROME, May 23, 2011 – The beatification of John Paul II has rocked the whole world like a hurricane. "But there are also other exemplary witnesses of Christ, much less known, whom the Church joyfully points out for the veneration of the faithful": this is what Benedict XVI said at the "Regina Cæli" two Sundays ago. Humble, ordinary saints – including those who will never get...

Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency By GINGER THOMPSON and SCOTT SHANE WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables. In far greater detail than previously seen, the cables, from the cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to some news organizations, offer glimpses of drug agents balancing diplomacy and law enforcement in places where it can be...

Fr. Alexander Cho Salina, Kan., Dec 4, 2010 / 07:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Alexander Cho goes where he's needed. The Burmese priest came to Kansas in 2007 to help fill a shortage of priests, but he'll soon be returning home to become the Bishop of Pyay, Myanmar. Pope Benedict XVI announced the new appointment of the bishop-designate on Dec. 3. He will leave behind his two parishes in Kansas and return to the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar –also known as Burma– after Christmas. There, he expects to be consecrated as a bishop next spring.While his adopted country...

A senior U.S. official arrived Tuesday in Yangon on an unannounced trip to continue Washington's new policy of engaging the military government, in the first visit since the country's recent elections. The trip by Joseph Y. Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific, comes after widely criticized Nov. 7 elections that were overwhelmingly won by a military-backed party. Yun's visit also will allow the U.S. to review its humanitarian assistance to Myanmar, embassy spokeswoman Adrienne Nutzman said. Yun was scheduled to stay through Friday for a visit that will include talks with senior government officials, ethnic...

Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be rapidly gaining military support against the regime...Released from 15 years of house arrest earlier this month, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi seems to be rapidly gaining support against the regime as she and her party attempt to be re-instated and challenge recent dubious elections... While worldwide leaders celebrated the brave -and attractive- 65-year-old's release, now infantrymen from two Burmese army divisions confirmed reports that several hundred soldiers travelled to Rangoon to witness Ms Suu Kyi regaining her freedom. This is the first time we've heard of such a split in the military......

The United Nations, which is quietly planning a major aid program to North Korea despite U.N. sanctions against the regime, also intends to ship hundreds of millions of dollars to Burma, another brutal Asian dictatorship, despite allegations that the country also known as Myanmar is trying to acquire nuclear weapons technology. [snip] The Burmese bomb-making program was allegedly developed with help from nearby North Korea — whose own nuclear weapons program became enmeshed in scandals involving U.N. aid programs. Just three years ago, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) closed its offices in North Korea amid allegations — later confirmed...

BANGKOK (AP) -- 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.

The United States is concerned over Myanmar's "growing military ties" with North Korea and will work to ensure a UN ban on arm exports from Pyongyang is enforced, a Pentagon spokesman said on Friday. US defense secretary Robert Gates's press secretary said the United States was closely monitoring Myanmar's cooperation with North Korea in light of UN Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from exporting weapons or nuclear technology. "We are concerned with growing military ties with the DPRK (North Korea) and are following it closely to ensure that the multiple UNSCRs (UN Security Council resolutions) are enforced," press secretary Geoff...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "Three explosions have ripped through Burma's former capital Rangoon, killing nine people and injuring dozens others. The blasts in Rangoon are the worst to have hit the city since 2005 The triple blast was reported alongside Kandawgyi Lake, where hundreds of people had gathered for the country's New Year celebrations. A fourth bomb was later found and defused, according to official sources. Witnesses said people fled and ambulances rushed to help casualties. One Red Cross official said: "I saw blood on many people. The rush to help the injured So far it is unclear who is...

Burma: Not My Backyard “The world needs to know about the genocide that is happening today in Burma.” — Patrick Klein, Vision Beyond Borders The Burmese army is carrying out a massive killing campaign against its people, and the world is unaware, Patrick Klein of Vision Beyond Borders told VOM staff.

Myanmar sentences two to death for N.Korea leak 1 hr 25 mins ago YANGON (AFP) – A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced two officials to death for leaking information, sources said Friday, in a case reportedly involving secret ties between the ruling junta and North Korea. The men, along with a third who was jailed for 15 years, were arrested last year after details and photos about a trip to nuclear-armed North Korea by the Myanmar regime's third-in-command were leaked to exiled media, reports said. "Two officials got the death sentence and another one was jailed for 15 years...

Russia has signed a contract to deliver 20 MiG-29 fighter planes to military-run Myanmar, the daily Kommersant reported Wednesday. The contract was signed a few weeks ago and came to nearly 400 million euros (570 million dollars), according to a source close to Russian arms sales company Rosoboronexport quoted by the paper. The Southeast Asian country is under Western sanctions but human-rights campaigners complain that its ruling junta has received a steady supply of arms from neighbours China and India, as well as from Russia. A source close to Rosoboronexport said the Russian offer beat one by China which offered...

According to a Washington Times report, President Obama is preparing to meet with members of the junta military regime currently ruling Burma (known locally as Myanmar), a stark departure from decades of American policy. To say that this a surprising move is sever understatement, not just because of the sea change (after all, it wouldn't be the first sea change of this administration), but this move would have consequences far beyond mere diplomatic ones. To put it simply, beginning a dialogue with this regime may carry with it disastrous national security implications.

Obama To Meet With Myanmar Rulers By Matthew Mosk and Simon Roughneen THE WASHINGTON TIMES SINGAPORE | President Obama on Sunday will become the first American president in more than 40 years to attend a meeting with the repressive rulers of Myanmar, marking a dramatic shift in the U.S. approach to bringing change to a regime that responds brutally to dissent, locks up journalists and political opponents, and has kept itself largely walled off from the Western world. Formerly known as Burma, Myanmar has for years played the role of skunk in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as...

Myanmar Army Routs Ethnic Chinese Rebels in the North By THOMAS FULLER BANGKOK — The Myanmar military has overwhelmed rebels from an ethnic Chinese minority in the northern reaches of the country, the junta’s second victory over armed opponents in three months. The routing over the weekend of the forces of the small, Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group gives Myanmar’s governing generals momentum in their campaign to quell armed opposition before elections and the adoption of a new Constitution next year. Several well-armed groups, notably the Wa and Kachin, still stand in the way of the junta’s goal of complete control...

[SNIP] IS THE SITUATION LIKELY TO ESCALATE? There are concerns that if the fighting intensifies, other members of the alliance could enter the fray and provide a serious challenge to the Myanmar army, resulting in fierce fighting and heightening the risk of a refugee crisis for China. The Wa are widely regarded as a formidable fighting force, with at least 15,000 armed members, but they are not involved, yet. The Shan State Army, which is outside of the alliance, might also seek to capitalize on the instability and strengthen its own position in the region. Analysts say a lot is...

BANGKOK — After two decades of relative calm in northern Myanmar, fighting has broken out between the central government and upland ethnic groups, sending tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into China and threatening a fragile patchwork of cease-fire agreements that ended decades of civil war. Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: MyanmarThe fighting began between soldiers from the Kokang minority group and government troops, but it broadened to involve at least two more groups, the Wa and the Kachin. All three groups oppose the central government. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that refugees were fleeing...

BEIJING, Aug 28 (Reuters) - [SNIP] WHY IS CHINA UNWILLING TO CRITICISE MYANMAR? China has a longstanding policy of non-interference in other countries' affairs, especially over human rights issues, in part because it does not want the United States and Europe criticising Beijing's own record. [ID:nBKK197002] Beyond that, China's overriding concern is a stable Myanmar. Drugs and HIV/AIDS pour across the border into the southwestern province of Yunnan and China is desperate to control that flow. Any action that might place unbearable pressure on the generals and force a government collapse could have dire consequences for China. Ethnic minorities in...

BEIJING (Reuters) - Fresh fighting has erupted between Myanmar forces and an armed ethnic group in the remote northeast, forcing tens of thousands to flee across the border into China, activists and state media said on Friday. China called on Myanmar to maintain stability in the border region, even as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 civilians had fled the conflict. "We also urge Myanmar to protect the security and legal rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar," said the statement by spokeswoman Jiang Yu, on the ministry's website (www.fmprc.gov.cn) The fighting could raise tension...

Myanmar 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 Washington to soften its hardline policy against the military regime. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who secured John Yettaw's freedom, said he believes years of sanctions have failed to move the Southeast Asian country toward democratic reforms or talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

US Senator Jim Webb has said jailed American John Yettaw is to be released by Burma's military leaders and will leave the country with him on Sunday. The announcement came shortly after Mr Webb held talks with Burmese military ruler Than Shwe in Burma. Mr Webb also met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, days after she was given house arrest for 18 more months. Mr Yettaw's uninvited visit to Ms Suu Kyi's home led to her trial. He was himself given seven years' hard labour. Mr Webb's office said Mr Yettaw would be officially deported on Sunday morning and...

Yangon - US Senator Jim Webb arrived in Myanmar's military capital Naypyitaw Friday for high-level talks with the country's ruling junta that are expected to include a meeting with Senior General Than Shwe, government sources confirmed. Webb, a Democrat from Virginia who is chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, flew direct to Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of Yangon, in a chartered plane from Vientiane, Laos. He is scheduled to meet with junta chief Than Shwe at 11 am (0430 GMT) Saturday , a foreign ministry source said. Webb's trip to Myanmar, part of a five-nation tour of...

John William Yettaw thought he was on a mission from God to save Aung San Suu Kyi. But the American ended up inadvertently extending her house arrest. It started with his now infamous swim in May. Overweight, asthmatic and suffering from borderline diabetes, he arrived at the back door of the Nobel Peace laureate's home and lay down exhausted, with cramps in both legs. Suu Kyi's two companions heard him moaning but let him in only after dawn. Then Suu Kyi herself told him to get out, allowing him to stay two nights when he complained of ill health instead...

So you thought Iran was the most frightening nuclear madhouse? With North Korea playing catch-up? You forgot Syria. Its hidden nuke reactor was bombed by Israel in 2007. But nobody knows what else they have. You forgot Libya. Qaddafi got scared by Dubya and gave up nukes in 2003. But it's a big country, and they could be hiding stuff. And today we have Myanmar, which used to be called Burma. It follows the Burmese Way to Socialism, which means that Obama has to be nice to them. They are officially the Wretched of the Earth, even the tyrants who...

N.Korea 'helping Myanmar build nuclear plant': report Sat Aug 1, 11:03 am ET SYDNEY (AFP) – North Korea is helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant to build an atomic bomb within five years, a report said on Saturday, citing the evidence of defectors. The nuclear complex is hidden inside a mountain at Naung Laing, in Myanmar's north, and runs parallel to a civil reactor being built at another site by Russia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The revelations come just weeks after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concerns that Pyongyang was transferring...

BANGKOK – The recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the world's poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club — with help from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Myanmar, also known as Burma, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have the Southeast Asian nation on their radar screen. "There's suspicion that something is going on, and increasingly that cooperation with North Korea may have a nuclear undercurrent. We are very much looking into it,"...

BANGKOK (AP) - The recent aborted voyage of a North Korean ship, photographs of massive tunnels and a top secret meeting have raised alarm bells that one of the world's poorest nations may be aspiring to join the nuclear club—with help from its friends in Pyongyang. No one expects military-run Myanmar, also known as Burma, to obtain an atomic bomb anytime soon, but experts have the Southeast Asian nation on their radar screen. "There's suspicion that something is going on, and increasingly that cooperation with North Korea may have a nuclear undercurrent. We are very much looking into it," says...

After being closely followed by the U.S.S. John McCain, a vessel on its way to Burma believed to be carrying missile parts turned back to return to North Korea. The ties between the two dictatorships are worrisome, as Burma’s purchases help sustain the DPRK regime and their close military cooperation will make the Southeast Asian country the North Korea of its region. A secret Burmese government report has leaked out revealing that 17 officials visited North Korea from November 22-29, 2008, including the chief of staff of the armed forces. An agreement for close military cooperation was signed on November...

N. Korea using Malaysian bank to deal weapons with Myanmar: source By Sam Kim SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for its suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar that is being carried on a freighter tracked by the U.S. Navy, a source said Saturday. The visit by a U.S. envoy to Malaysia this weekend will focus on ways to cut off the payment transaction for the cargo from the bank in Malaysia to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the source said. "Kim will have a hard time collecting his money," the high-level...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons cruised through waters off Shanghai on Tuesday en route to Myanmar, a news report said, as regional military officials and a U.S. destroyer kept a close eye on the vessel. Washington's top military commander in South Korea, meanwhile, warned that the communist regime is bolstering its guerrilla warfare capacity. Gen. Walter Sharp, who commands the 28,500 U.S. troops positioned in South Korea, said the North could employ roadside bombs and other guerrilla tactics if fighting breaks out again on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas technically...

A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Any chance for an armed skirmish between the two ships is low, analysts say, though the North Korean crew is possibly armed with rifles.

Seoul: A North Korean ship being tracked by the US is believed to be sailing toward Myanmar, South Korea's television network YTN has quoted an unidentified South Korean intelligence source as saying. In what would be the first test case for new UN Security Council agreed sanctions, US officials said on Thursday the American Navy had begun tracking a North Korean-flagged ship which may be carrying illicit weapons. The officials said the ship left a port in North Korea on Wednesday and was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of China on Thursday. Seoul's Defence Ministry and Unification Ministry...

A U.S. Vietnam veteran imprisoned for trespassing at the Myanmar home of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was on a spiritual quest, his wife says. Betty Yettaw of Missouri says it wasn't the first time her husband, John William Yettaw, 53, visited Suu Kyi. "He probably thought he would be in and out and no one would know, because that's what happened before," Yettaw told The Daily Telegraph. "He just wanted to get some comments from her." Instead, he was arrested as he swam away from the house wearing a pair of flippers he had fashioned from a...

Remarks made by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about a review of US policy towards Myanmar have stirred new debate about the effectiveness of Washington's long-held sanctions regime and what course possible engagement with the hardline military junta should follow. Some analysts have even interpreted Clinton's comments as a tacit admission that past policies towards Myanmar have largely failed. But Clinton may not have had a full-blown policy review in mind after her comments at a February 17 "town hall" meeting at Tokyo University in response to a question from a Myanmar student about policy alternatives to economic...

Recent excavations have found more evidences on both Bronze Age and Iron Age in Thazi township, central Mandalay division, Myanmar, proving that the country passed through both Bronze Age and Iron Age in the ancient time. The Archaeology, Natural Museum and Libraries Department under the Ministry of Culture, in cooperation with the CNRC of France, excavated the areas around Ywagongyi village in the township for 20 days from Jan. 10 to 30, finding out the site where 44 bodies were buried along with two small bundles of bronze sheets, two iron objects, 14 stone beads of different colors, a fine...

Russia plans to supply air-defense missile systems valued at $250 million to seven countries including Syria, Libya and Venezuela, Vedomosti reported, citing an unidentified Russian Technologies Corp official. The Moscow-based newspaper reported that Russia had started fulfilling orders of 200 S-125 systems that were due to be delivered during the next three years. Russia will ship about 70 missile systems to Egypt, and will also supply Myanmar, Vietnam and Turkmenistan with the systems, the paper said.

China to Build $2.5B O&G Pipeline through Myanmar United Press International Friday, November 21, 2008 China plans to proceed with a $2.5 billion oil and gas pipeline through Myanmar to connect its Yunnan province, with construction set to start next year. Mi Gongsheng, director of the province's reform and development commission, told the official Xinhua news agency the pipeline is one of a series of large energy projects in which the province plans to invest about $10.5 billion. China is a major trading partner of Myanmar, formerly called Burma, which has been under military rule since the 1960s. The junta...

A popular comedian active in Burma's democracy movement has been sentenced to 45 years in jail by a Burmese court. Zarganar was found to have violated the Electronics Act, which regulates electronic communications. He is the latest in a string of opposition activists to be given long jail terms by the military government. He was detained earlier this year for criticising the government's slow response to Cyclone Nargis in interviews with foreign news groups.