There’s been a steady decline in the cultivation of opium poppy in recent years.
From 2015 to 2017, the production of poppy has decreased from 54,000 hectares to 41,000 hectares, so what’s behind this trend. . .
A landslide at a jade mine in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township over the weekend has claimed at least 17 lives and injured dozens of others, with many more feared dead as search and rescue efforts continue.
The rise of robots in manufacturing in Southeast Asia is likely to fuel modern slavery as workers who end up unemployed due to automation face abuses competing for a shrinking pool of low-paid jobs in a “race to the bottom,” analysts said on Thursday.
2017 by-elections Lead Story News Politics
A total of 69 people have filed for candidature to contest Burma’s upcoming by-election, a Union Election Commission (UEC) official has told DVB.
Labour Issues Lead Story Migrants Issues News
A court in Bangkok dismisses criminal defamation charges against workers from Burma who accused a chicken farm of abuses, in a landmark ruling seen as a rare victory for migrant workers’ rights in Thailand.
Negotiators gathered on Wednesday to kick off Burma’s latest round of high-level peace talks, ostensibly furthering a process that has bogged down amid ongoing conflict in the country’s border regions.
Bridges over major rivers can transform local, as well as national, economies. But not everyone is in favour of building a $168 million bridge linking the congested downtown of Yangon with the poor and rural township of Dala to the south.
Apparently bowing to popular pressure, organisers of an aspirant political party have dropped a contentious effort to affix their brand to numerology that has been a symbol of Burma’s pro-democracy movement for years.
A Yangon court will proceed with prosecuting two Reuters journalists accused of violating Burma’s Official Secrets Act, a ruling that will heighten concerns of press freedom advocates who see the case as a seminal indicator of progress in a country long-known for censorship and antagonism toward the Fourth Estate.
Burma’s drinkers currently prefer beer or spirits, but wine producers are hopeful that wine enjoyment will keep growing steadily from its low base. as supermarkets in larger cities are stocking an increasing number of locally made wines.
Foreign Affairs Lead Story News
The Thai Supreme Court issues another arrest warrant for fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the case in which he is accused of malfeasance over the Export-Import Bank of Thailand’s 4 billion baht ($120 million) loan to Burma that favoured his family business.
Ethnic issues Karenni Lead Story News
Hundreds of people turned out Tuesday to protest a statue of General Aung San in the Karenni State capital Loikaw, the latest effort to commemorate a man widely regarded as Burma’s founding father that has run up against local resentment.
A man charged with throwing a petrol bomb into the compound of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi earlier this year has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Win Naing, 48, was found guilty by a court in Yangon’s Bahan Township.
A judge in Burma says he will decide next week whether to proceed with prosecution or bring an end to the high-profile trial of two Reuters journalists who have been accused of possessing state secrets.
Economic development and “trust-building” were two key topics of a DVB Business Debate held earlier this year in Thandwe, Rakhine State, where panelists discussed the fraught inter-communal dynamics still bedeviling the state.
International Relations Lead Story News Refugees Rohingya
China believes that Burma is now ready to take back hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh who have fled violence in the former Burma, the Chinese government’s top diplomat tells his Bangladeshi counterpart.
Human Trafficking International Relations Lead Story News
The United States on Thursday placed Burma on its list of worst offenders of human trafficking and accused it of using child soldiers amid global criticism over human rights abuses by the country’s military against the minority Rohingya Muslims.
A barrage of heavy weapons fire struck a village in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State, on Thursday morning, killing a child and injuring seven other people, the News and Information Department of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army has announced.
Labour Issues Lead Story Migrants Issues News
Thousands of Muslim migrant workers from Burma risk being fined and deported from Thailand after June 30, under a new law that campaigners say may increase abuse and trafficking.
Lead Story News Politics Rohingya
The UN and Bangladesh have started formally registering hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled a military crackdown in Burma.
Lead Story News Politics Rohingya
A Burmese national security advisor told diplomats in Copenhagen that a proposal to review the 1982 Citizenship Law, that effectively renders the Rohingya stateless, could not be implemented.
Lead Story News Politics Rohingya
The European Union and Canada have announced a new set of sanctions against seven members of the Burmese military, two of whom have been sacked for underperformance.
Drugs worth approximately 1.6 billion kyat ($1.15 million USD) were seized in Shan State over the weekend.
Europeans diplomat say the EU will impose sanctions on seven of Burma’s security officials.
A taxi driver accused of the high profile rape and murder of young women in Rangoon was handed the death penalty.
The ICC has issued Burma a 27 July deadline to respond to a request to exercise jurisdiction over the alleged crimes in Arakan State.
Lead Story News Politics Rohingya
With 1.2 million refugees originating from Burma and tens of thousands more uprooted inside the country, the Southeast Asian nation was the source of the fourth-largest population of displaced people worldwide at the end of 2017, a new report by the UN refugee agency.
Lead Story News Politics Rohingya
Aung San Suu Kyi has told the UN “time and patience” is needed to resolve divisions between Muslim and Buddhist communities in Arakan State.
Lead Story News Politics Rohingya
Young Rohingya women and girls are trapped inside refugee camps in Cox’s Bazaar due to fears they’ll be targeted by human traffickers.
Human Rights International Relations Lead Story News
The outgoing UN human rights chief kept Burma under the microscope in parting remarks to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, noting the government’s failure to cooperate with multiple probes into alleged rights abuses.
