WARTIME IN BURMA: A Diary, January to June 1942, by Theippan Maung Wa . Translated by L.E. Bagshawe and Anna J. Allott.

Burma will go to the polls this year for the first time in 20 years, however controversial election laws will mean that the country's most prominent democracy activist will be banned from taking part.

A pro-democracy activist jailed for months in Myanmar after trying to visit his sick mother in prison arrived home in the United States on Friday, capping weeks of discussions between the ruling military junta and the U.S. State Department.

So far, March has been a bad month for those countries and so-called Burma experts who advocate for a softer line with Burmaa TMs generals.A First were the admissions by the US that its engagement policy was going nowhere; then came the publication of election laws in Burma that dona TMt give the slightest concession to calls that elections this ...

Ethnic rebels killed 20 Burmese troops in an ambush aimed at deterring the military government from launching an offensive against them ahead of elections this year, a rebel spokesman claimed today.

Many Burmese admirers of George Orwell like to say that the 20th century's greatest literary commentator on totalitarianism could never have written his masterpiece ' 1984 ' if he had not spent his formative years in Burma.

The United States has welcomed the release of one of its citizens in Myanmar but downplayed its significance as Washington presses the junta ahead of elections widely feared to be a sham.

" Officials from the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association said the industry, affected by the global economic downturn, is still struggling to achieve its previous position.

The Report states that in 2009, the government of Burma "continued its egregious human rights violations and abuses." Burmese military address a protest in this file photo from 2007.

HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn graciously presided over the Tuesday opening ceremony of a 16bed hospital constructed by the Thai Red Cross Society's funding in Myanmar's Pyapon City.

A U.S. citizen accused of subversion was released from prison in his native Myanmar and deported Thursday after serving part of a three-year prison sentence.

The Burmese junta is using the 2010 elections to smother the opposition and its democratic activities to cement and legitimize military rule in the guise of elections and democracy, said Dr Sein Win, Prime Minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma in exile.

This year's poll will lack credibility, but may still herald a major shift. BURMA goes to the polls this year in the first national elections since 1990, when the ruling generals were taken by surprise after the National League for Democracy and its charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory.

Rangoon a ' Washington's new policy of engagement with Burma's military government appears to be failing, a senior US official indicated Friday, noting the junta's decision to bar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN expert on human rights in Myanmar, during a press conference at UN headquarters in Geneva, 15 Mar 2010 U.N. Investigator Tomas Ojea Quintana has just returned from his third mission to Burma since assuming his post in 2008.

Philippine supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is detained by the military junta in Myanmar, hold her portrait and placards calling for the release of women prisoners to mark International Women's Day at a rally near the Presidential Palace in Manila on March 8, 2010.

A day before the Burmese military junta announced electoral laws and plans about the general election later this year, Vijay Nambiar, a key confident of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is believed to have made an unannounced trip to Burma early this month.

New laws barring people with criminal convictions from running in Myanmar's upcoming elections amount to "a double punishment," the country's leading democracy advocate said.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, photographed with supporters in Yangon in 2002.

The prices of prepaid GSM phone cards manufactured by Burmese tycoon Tay Za's Htoo Trading Co Ltd have shot up on Yangon's black market, according to mobile phone shops and users in Rangoon.