Cyclone Disaster in Burma

(Newser) - One of Myanmar's top rebel leaders was shot dead in his home in Thailand today, Reuters reports. Mahn Sha Lar Phan was the secretary-general of the Karen National Unit, the largest rebel group in the former Burma. His son, another senior leader, immediately blamed the attack on a splinter group allied with Burma's ruling junta. More »

(Newser) - Never shy about censorship, Burma has cracked down even more since September's monk uprising—no small event in a country that ranks 164th out of 168 on the Press Freedom Index. But information-starved citizens are finding creative ways to circumvent an extreme government that bans even benign news about soccer team losses, the Christian Science Monitor reports. More »

(Newser) - The military junta in Burma said today the nation will have multiparty, democratic elections in 2010, Reuters reports. Opposition leaders greeted the decision with a heavy dose of skepticism and charged that even if the vote goes through, the military will not release its grip on power. The regime has been under heavy international pressure for reform since its violent crackdown on protesters in the fall. More »

(Newser) - Sylvester Stallone's latest, and last, film about Vietnam vet/mercenary John Rambo isn't short on violence. "Body parts go flying, blood gets applied with a fire hose, spleens decorate the trees," writes Andrew Wright of the Portland-Mercury. Unfortunately, the movie is short on everything else. "One would be hard-pressed to imagine a conventional narrative being any thinner than the one in Rambo ," says Dustin Putnam of MovieBoy.com. More »

(Newser) - Tensions have eased in Burma's cities since the September crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, but aid groups and rebels say brutal atrocities continue in remote areas far from media scrutiny, AP reports. Government forces are murdering, raping and burning th