• Boys killed in school dorm fire mourned in Myanmar

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Muslim people gather as the bodies of victims of a fire are brought for their funeral at Yaeway cemetery in Yangon on April 2, 2013. Thousands of Muslims attended the funeral for the 13 victims of the fire that broke out in a dormitory of an Islamic school in the central, multi-ethnic Botataung district of the former capital. The fire caused by faulty electrical equipment killed 13 boys at the school in Yangon on Tuesday, the fire service said.

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    People carry a coffin during the funeral for victims of a fire at Yaeway cemetery in Yangon on April 2, 2013.

    Gemunu Amarasinghe / AP

    Muslim women cry during burials of victims of a mosque fire on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, on April 2, 2013. A fire engulfed a mosque housing Muslim schoolchildren in Myanmar's largest city on Tuesday, killing at least 13. Police, anxious over sectarian violence that has shaken the nation, blamed an electrical short circuit for the blaze and said they were investigating mosque authorities for possible negligence.

    By Reuters

    A fire caused by faulty electrical equipment killed 13 boys at an Islamic school in Myanmar on Tuesday, the fire service said, although some Muslims voiced concern since it followed a wave of anti-Muslim violence in the Buddhist-majority country.

    The boys suffocated after the fire broke out in a dormitory of the school in the central, multi-ethnic Botataung district of the former capital of Yangon at about 2:40 a.m. (2010 GMT on Monday).

    Yangon Region Fire Service said it was setting up a team to investigate the fire with the police, the electricity company and representatives of Muslim groups.

    "The fire, caused by the overheating of the transformer placed under the staircase, spread, trapping the boys sleeping in the attic. As a result, 13 twelve-year-old boys died of suffocation after inhaling smoke," a fire service officer said, reading from a statement.

    About 70 boys were thought to have been sleeping in the dormitory, which is in a mosque compound. Most managed to escape when fire officers broke open the double-locked doors to the building, Colonel Win Naing, chief of Yangon Division police, told reporters.

    Continue reading.

     

    Minzayar / Reuters

    People carry a coffin during a funeral for the victims of a fire at Yaeway cemetery in Yangon on April 2, 2013.

     

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  • Myanmar prepares for Obama visit

    Minzayar / Reuters

    A woman sews the edges of newly made U.S flags at a shop in Yangon on Nov. 16. U.S. President Barack Obama leaves on Saturday for a trip to Asia that will include a historic stop in Myanmar.

     AP reports -- White House officials cautioned Thursday that President Barack Obama's historic trip to Myanmar, a onetime U.S. adversary, should not be viewed as a "victory celebration."

    Obama aides, seeking to assuage critics who say such a visit to the former pariah state is premature, said urgent action was still needed in Myanmar, most notably freeing political prisoners and ending ethnic tension in the western state of Rakhine.

    But Danny Russel, Obama's top Asia adviser, said the president's personal appeal to leaders in the nation also known as Burma would be an effective tool in pressing for further democratic reforms.

    "This is a moment when we believe the Burmese leaders have put their feet on the right path and that it's critical to us that we not miss the moment to influence them to keep going," Russel said.

    Continue reading.

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    A store manager stands surrounded by American flags in a flag shop as the city gets prepares for the forthcoming visit of US President Barack Obama, on Nov. 16, in Yangon, Myanmar. Barack Obama will become the first US President to visit Myanmar during his four-day tour of Southeast Asia that will also include visits to Thailand and Cambodia.

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  • Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    People pray during a protest against the shortage of electricity, at the Sule Pagoda in central Yangon, Myanmar on May 24. People staged another peaceful protest at the heart of the commercial city of Yangon against power blackouts across the country.

    Prayers at a protest against electricity shortage

    Reuters reports -- Myanmar police broke up a demonstration against power cuts by hundreds of people in the town of Pyi on Thursday and briefly held five people for questioning as protesters tested the limits of democratic changes for a fifth day.

    Among those detained in Pyi was a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National league for Democracy (NLD) party and four activists from a human rights organization, who were later freed, NLD officials and members said.

    Several NLD members were also detained in the early hours in the city of Mandalay, where protests over electricity outages started on Sunday before spreading to several urban centers, including the commercial capital, Yangon.

    The protests come as citizens, including some workers on strike over pay in industrial zones in Yangon, test the boundaries of broad changes that have taken place in the past year in Myanmar.

    Until now, security forces have allowed the peaceful demonstrations to go ahead and the civilian government, which took over from a repressive junta in March last year and has eased restrictions on demonstrations, has promised emergency measures to increase the electricity supply.

    Continue reading.

  • Abundance of seafood for Burmese fishing industry

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    Burmese women take a break while working at the Annawa fish market and seaport on April 4 inYangon, Myanmar.

    Myanmar has nearly 1900 miles of coastline with an abundance of seafood, much of it is exported. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just announced the United States is ready to relax sanctions on Burma, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, allowing the country to move forward with democratic transition. Washington would ease the ban on U.S. companies investing in or offering financial services to the country.

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    A Burmese man sits at the front of a fishing boat as it arrives with a full load of seafood to the Annawa seaport on April 5 in Yangon, Myanmar.

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    A Burmese fishermen takes a bucket shower on board the fishing boat after it arrived at the Annawa fish market and seaport after days at sea.

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    Burmese fishermen hold tubes loading shaved ice into the lower deck of the fishing boat to keep the fish cold while the boat is at sea.

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    Fishermen unload their stock of fish while docked at the Annawa fish market and seaport.

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    Fish sit ready to be weighed and sorted at the Annawa fish market and seaport on April 4 in Yangon, Myanmar.

    Read more about recent elections in Myanmar

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  • Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

    Myanmar people try to catch money thrown by wellwishers during the Pagoda Festival in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 8. According to Buddhist tradition, the month-long festival, which falls in January every year, symbolizes the boundless wisdom of Buddha.

    Money up for grabs in Myanmar during Pagoda Festival

    By Katie Cannon, Senior Multimedia Editor

    Wow, people are throwing caution to the wind when getting involved in this sort of activity considering how nuts people get these days over special edition Air Jordans, XBox 360s and $2 waffle makers.

  • Myanmar blast kills, injures dozens

    Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

    People walk at the scene of an explosion in Yangon early Dec. 29, 2011. Dozens of people were killed in a strong explosion that rocked eastern suburb of commercial city Yangon at about 2 a.m., witnesses and officials said.

    YANGON — Dozens of people were killed and injured early Thursday in a large unexplained explosion and fire in Myanmar's commercial hub and former capital Yangon early Thursday, officials and witnesses said.

    Myanmar police told Reuters that 17 people were confirmed dead, 80 were injured.

    Residents in several areas of the city were woken by the 2 a.m. blast at a state-owned medical warehouse in the eastern township of Mingalar Taung Nyunt. The explosion caused neighboring houses, many of which were wooden, to collapse and burn, The Associated Press reported.

    Fire was spread to a nearby shipyard and factories, Reuters said.

    A security official at the scene said the dead included 10 men, including three firefighters, and five women, while at least 65 people were injured, including some 30 firemen.

    "We are still trying to make the list. We are also trying to find out the cause of the explosion and the fire," he told AFP, the French news agency.

    Soe Than Win / AFP - Getty Images

    Myanmar rescue workers carry a dead body from a large unexplained explosion and fire in Yangon on Dec. 29, 2011. At least 15 people were killed and dozens more injured in an explosion and fire in Myanmar's commercial hub and former capital Yangon early on Thursday, officials and witnesses said.

    Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

    Rescue workers help an Buddhist monk after an explosion at a warehouse in Mingalar TaungNyunt township, Yangon, Myanmar, 29 December 2011. The loud explosions occurred early morning around 2:00 am at a warehouse killing at least 10 people.

  • Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

    A woman waters flowers on the balcony of her apartment in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov. 26. Myanmar's former capital and biggest city, Yangon, is a crumbling monument to almost half a century of isolation and mismanagement at the hands of generals who took power in a 1962 coup and ruled with an iron fist until a nominally civilian parliament opened in March this year. Picture received Nov. 27.

    Nearly half a century of isolation leaves Yangon in tatters

    Reuters reports:

    Yellow and orange diesel generators, some as big as buses, are ubiquitous, symbols of a failing power grid behind the city of about 5 million people that accounts for a quarter of Myanmar's economic activity.

    "Sometimes the power is cut and sometimes it's regular. We're used to it," said 71-year-old Abdullah Mingala, an ethnic Indian Burmese who was born and raised in Yangon and who makes a living renting out a pickup truck and a sedan as taxis.

    "The best thing about the city is its weather and people. The weather is not too hot and everyone is simple and friendly and open."

    Read more from Reuters here.

  • Aung San Suu Kyi welcomes release of Myanmar prisoners

    Soe Than Win / AFP - Getty Images

    Family members of prisoners wait for their release outside the Insein central prison in Yangon, Myanmar, on October 12, as the authorities began releasing 6,359 prisoners as part of an amnesty.

    Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

    A released prisoner hugs his crying mother in front of Insein Prison in Yangon on October 12.

    Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, gives a speech to family members of political prisoners as Tin Oo, left, vice chairman of the National League for Democracy Party (NLD) and Win Tin, right, senior member of the NLD, attend a ceremony in Yangon on October 12. October 12 is the full moon day of Thidingyut (end of Buddhist Lent), a day when people traditionally pay homage to their elders.

     

    Reuters reports from YANGON, Myanmar:

    "I'm really thankful for the release of political prisoners," Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, herself freed from 15 years of house arrest last year, told supporters.

    A senior prison official told Reuters a total of about 300 dissidents were freed on Wednesday.

    After weeks of rare overtures, including a loosening of some media controls and more dialogue with Suu Kyi, the number was less than many had expected, raising questions over how soon and how fast the former British colony, also known as Burma, is willing to open up.

    "It is disappointing," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Myanmar researcher based in Bangkok. "We had reason to expect, given the rather fast and qualitative steps that have taken place over the past several months, that today's release would be more substantial numerically than these preliminary reports are telling us." Read the full report.

    Earlier on PhotoBlog:

    Myanmar begins to open up after half a century of iron-fisted rule and releases 300 political prisoners. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

  • Myanmar eases iron-fisted rule, begins releasing political prisoners

    Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

    Women prisoners react as they are released from the notorious Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, on October 12. Myanmar's state media said the government was going to release 6,359 prisoners 'for the sake of the nation,' with some prisoners of conscience expected to be among those amnestied.

    Khin Maung Win / AP

    Male prisoners walk out of Insein Prison in Yangon on Oct. 12. The releases began around the country Wednesday morning after President Thein Sein issued an amnesty for 6,359 prisoners a day earlier.

    Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

    A man welcomes his friend, just released from the notorious Insein prison in Yangon on Oct. 12.

    Reuters reports from YANGON, Myanmar:

    Myanmar freed at least 300 political prisoners including several prominent dissidents on Wednesday, leaving as many as 2,000 behind bars, as one of the world's most reclusive states begins to open up after half a century of iron-fisted rule.

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking to Reuters before a general amnesty for 6,359 prisoners including political detainees, said she was encouraged by "promising signals" of reform but that it was too early to announce steps Washington might take in response.

    The United States, Europe and Australia have said freeing Myanmar's estimated 2,100 political prisoners is essential to even considering lifting sanctions that have crippled the pariah state and, over years, driven it closer to China. Continue reading.

  • Myanmar frees 14,600, but few political prisoners

    AP reports: Myanmar is releasing more than 14,600 prisoners under a clemency program that will include very few political prisoners.

    Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

    Female prisoners listen to the briefing of U Zaw Win, director general of the prison department, at the central Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar on 17 May.

    Prison Department Director General Zaw Win said most of the convicts, including 2,166 women, were being freed Tuesday from jails around the country.

    The limited nature of the program — commuting death sentences to life imprisonment and cutting one year from convicts' prison terms — has drawn criticism from many who had expected more generous terms, similar to broader amnesties that have been announced in the past.

    Nyein Chan Naing / EPA

    Prisoners line up in front of the main gate of Insein central prison as security officers stand guard, in Yangon on 17 May.

    Most of the country's political prisoners, both from the pro-democracy movement and from out-of-favor factions in the government, are serving long prison terms that will keep them locked up.

    "My hopes are shattered. I thought my husband would be released in a general amnesty," said Moe Moe, 33, the wife of a former military intelligence officer sentenced in 2005 to 15 years in prison, after the measure was announced Monday night.

    Asked how many political prisoners were among those to be released, Zaw Win repeated the government's position that the country has no political detainees. Continue reading.

    Khin Maung Win / AP

    Prisoners walk out of Insein Prison after they were released as the new government cut one year from their prison terms under a "general amnesty" on May 17.