Mandalay, Burma News

Myanmar needs a new nationalism By Matthew J Walton Many outside observers have been shocked to see Buddhists in Myanmar leading recent violent actions against Muslims.

Buddhists and Muslims are clashing with increasing ferocity in Myanmar , Thailand and Sri Lanka , where minority Islamic ethnic groups blame racism by majority Buddhists more than religious intolerance.

Former Thai prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has quietly visited Myanmar and met with Vice President Sai Mauk Kham in the country's capital of Naypyidaw, according to the Myanmar President Office.

From George Orwell to Aung San Suu Kyi, author Rory MacLean looks at 10 books that chart the country's tumultuous history Burma is three lands for the British reader.

A boy carries a plastic container filled with water on his shoulder as he walks across a dried creek in Thaunglay Village of the Irrawaddy Delta in 2010.

The Irrawaddy magazine was sold on Tuesday in Burma for the first time since the once-banned journal was founded more than 20 years ago.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi speaks to Muslim men in Rangoon amid tensions fueled by attacks on Muslims in Arakan State in June 2012.

A Thai cultural village is set to be built near the Burmese city of Mandalay, reflecting the ancient Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya in a joint project Burma and neighboring Thailand.

More than two centuries after Ayutthaya villagers were captured by the Burmese and taken to Mandalay, some artistic traits are still evident in the township of Amarapura.

In this March 28, 2013 photo, visitors to the Ma Soe Yein monastery gather to look at posters displaying the "969" logo, right, photos of dead bodies - allegedly Buddhists killed by Muslims, center, and detained illegal Bangladeshi nationals, left, outside the office of Buddhist monk Wirathu in Mandalay, Myanmar.

China's Sinopec Group, Asia's largest oil refiner, said on Thursday it agreed to sell a stake of 30 percent in an oil and gas block in Burma to Taiwan's CPC Corp.

The town of Meiktila in central Myanmar presents a tranquil scene on a hot April day: A woman presses juice from sugar cane while customers loll around in the midday heat.

A boy shows the torn pages of a Quran at his home after sectarian violence spread through Zeegone, about 90 miles north of Yangon, in late March.

The video was largely filmed by police in the city of Meiktila during intense clashes between a gang of Buddhists known as the '969 squad' and Muslims last month which left 43 people dead.

Flying in the face of the Western stereotypes about Buddhists, a highly popular monk in Myanmar is using his position to call for persecution of the country's Muslims, going so far as to deem himself the "Burmese Bin Laden." Wirathu is a 45-year old monk, dressing in traditional saffron-colored robes, living in a monastery in Mandalay where he ... (more)