UN Chief Meets Junta Leader in Burma

Even worse is yet to come, fears Ban Ki-Moon

(NEWSER) - As Syrian forces continue to bombard civilians in Homs , a desperate Arab League is considering reviving a monitoring mission with the help of the United Nations in a bid to stem the violence. UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said the "disastrous" failure to agree on a UN resolution on Syria has encouraged Damascus "to step up its war on its own people," adding: "I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighborhoods, is a grim harbinger of worse to come." Arab League chief Nabil el-Arabi hopes to revive a monitoring mission in Syria, which collapsed last month amid escalating violence, and is seeking UN help to do so, reports the BBC. More»

Freed Burmese opposition leader talks with Washington Post

(NEWSER) - Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi sat down with the Washington Post this week to discuss her hopes for political change in Burma. Now a free citizen, a political star, and a registered candidate for parliamentary elections , Suu Kyi spoke in the same living room where she endured house arrest for 15 years:

• On President Thein Sein: "I believe he sincerely wants reform. But he is not the only one in government. Our present constitution gives the military far too much power."

Ban Ki-moon says 'old order is crumbling'

(AP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon demanded today that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stop the slaughter of his own people, and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East. In a keynote address at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Ban said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show that people will no longer accept tyranny: "Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people." More»

Famous dissidents, ethnic leaders released

(NEWSER) - Burma is continuing to move toward meeting the West's demands with surprising speed. Dozens of its best known political prisoners were freed today in the country's most sweeping prisoner release yet, reports the New York Times . Those freed include leaders of 1988's failed pro-democracy uprising, ethnic minority leaders, monks arrested in the 2007 protests, journalists, and former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was jailed in 2005 after falling out of favor with the ruling junta. More»

Move meets a key condition for establishing better ties with West

(AP) - Burma's government signed a cease-fire today with ethnic Karen rebels in a major step toward ending one of the world's longest-running insurgencies and meeting a key condition for better ties with the West. The Karen group has been fighting for greater autonomy for more than 60 years in a guerrilla campaign in eastern jungles that dates to before Burma's independence from Britain. It has been the only one of the country's major ethnic groups never to have reached a peace agreement with the government. More»