In an effort to encourage democratic reform, the United States on Thursday eased a ban on investment in Burma and named its first ambassador to the country in 22 years. Sanctions on members of the former junta and wider restrictions remain in place.
A new book reveals the true horrors of life in a North Korean gulag. We meet the author behind "Escape from Camp 14," one of the few people born in a prison camp to have escaped and survived. Next, it’s a new political era for Burma as Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi takes up her seat in parliament. Finally, help is at hand for Malaysia's heroin addicts - from a very unexpected direction.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sworn in to Burma's parliament for the first time on Wednesday, cementing a risky detente between her party and the country's military rulers.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Burmese president Thein Sein to continue democratic reforms on Monday, ahead of talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party has agreed to end a parliamentary boycott and pledge to protect the constitution.
Burma's president on Monday ruled out changing the parliamentary oath, under which parliamentarians swear to safeguard the constitution. Democracy leader Aung Sung Suu Kyi has threatened a parliamentary boycott over its wording.
The newly elected Burmese lawmakers of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party will not attend the opening session of parliament on Monday due to a disagreement over the wording of the oath of office, which says they must "safeguard" the constitution.
Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first trip abroad since 1988 when she visits Oslo in June, Norway's foreign ministry said Wednesday. Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in 1991.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, who arrived in Burma Friday for talks with the country's leaders, issued a joint call alongside opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to suspend sanctions against the former pariah state.
In just five years Burma seems to have gone from brutal repression to apparently free and fair elections. In 2007, a revolt led by the country's revered monks was stamped out by the army - hundreds died and many disappeared and were jailed without trial. Pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi will take her seat in parliament later this month but despite a wave of amnesties, many monks remain sceptical about whether the country is indeed at a crossroads.
Burmese pro-democracy icon and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will take her seat in parliament for the first time on April 23, along with 37 of her fellow National League for Democracy members who won by-elections last month.
