By Kelly Macnamara (AFP)

YANGON — From political activists freed after years in Myanmar’s jails to stricken and impoverished families, all are welcome at Yangon’s Muslim Free Hospital — a symbol of unity in a country riven by religious unrest.

There is barely a space left unoccupied in the bustling medical centre. From the soot-smeared front steps, through dusty stairwells and into sweltering wards, people wait for treatments that would be beyond their reach elsewhere in Myanmar’s desperately underfunded health system.

By Zak Rose

During the period of strict economic sanctions and export bans that Western countries levied against Myanmar through the 1990s and 2000s, the military government had little choice but to turn to China. China, with its deep pockets and a strategic focus on the periphery, was more than happy to invest in the isolated state, increasing Myanmar’s dependence and furthering Beijing’s own military and economic interests by tapping into the poorer state’s promising energy reserves and vying for coastal access to the Indian Ocean.

By SAMANTHA MICHAELS / THE IRRAWADDY

Growing up in southeast Myanmar’s Mon State, Min Yarzar Mon listened to his parents tell stories of ethnic Mon kingdoms that ruled centuries ago, and of decades-long conflicts more recently between Mon armed groups and the national government.

His teachers taught a different version of the region’s past.

“When we went to school, the history was very different,” says the student, now 24, who attended a government primary school near the state capital, Mawlamyine. “We were always confused about history when we were young.”

Reuters

VIENNA (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog will gain wider inspection powers in Myanmar under an agreement to be signed this week, in a further sign of the formerly army-ruled Asian state opening up to the outside world.

Myanmar will sign the so-called Additional Protocol – which allows unannounced inspections outside of declared nuclear sites – with the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday, the Vienna-based IAEA said.

The move will help to ease any lingering concern about Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions.

By KO HTWE

The weather is often misty and cold in the mountainous jungle surrounding Koung Jor, the Shan refugee camp located a stone’s throw from the Burmese border in Thailand’s Wiang Haeng district.

Koung Jor means “happy hill”, and dozens of Shan families were smiling widely last Sunday morning when a donation of mosquito nets arrived from the International Office for Migration.