Yangon, Jan 8 : A court in Insein Prison sentenced two officials to death and a businessman to 15 years in jail for revealing state secrets, officials said Friday.

Army Major Win Naing Kyaw and Foreign Ministry official Thura Kyaw were sentenced to death by the prison court Thursday for leaking information last year about a trip to Pyongyang by a senior general, said the source who asked anonymity.

Myanmar businessman Pyan Sein was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for his involvement in the case.

Yangon, Jan 3 - Myanmar's junta raised the salaries of civil servants and military staff Jan 1, ahead of a general election planned this year, official sources confirmed Sunday.

"We have obtained information for the raise of our salaries from Nay Pyi Taw (the military's capital) and I think we can draw the new salary at the end of January," a senior official who requested anonymity told DPA.

For most civil servants, special increments of 20,000 kyats (about $20) will be added to their monthly salaries.

Yangon, Dec 20 - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's legal team Monday asked the Supreme Court to accept her appeal against an 18-month sentence of house detention that would make it impossible for the democracy icon to participate in next year's planned election.

"My client Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi is not guilty," Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's attorneys, said before he entered the court.

Yangon, Dec 14 - Nobel laureate and former chief economist at the World Bank Joseph Stiglitz is due to visit Myanmar this week to advise the government on its development policies, media reports said Monday.

On Tuesday the renowned economist is to attend a seminar in Nay Pyi Taw, the military's new capital, which will also be attended by Myanmar Minister for National Planning and Economic Development Soe Tha and Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation U Htay Oo, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) said in a statement.

Yangoon, Dec. 4 : The Burmese Supreme Court has decided to hear detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal against the 18-month extension of her house arrest.

The Nobel peace prize laureate was found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest after she allowed an American citizen to stay when he swam across a lake to her villa.

Yangon  - The National Geographic Channel is due in Myanmar this month to shoot a documentary on the country's hard-working elephants, sources close to the project said Thursday.

"They will come here this month to document the state of Myanmar's domesticated elephants - how to catch wild elephants, how to tame and train them," said an official from the politically well-connected Htoo Trading Company, which will facilitate the production.

Yangon  - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has asked to meet the leader of the ruling military junta in a possible sign of easing political tension.

Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, told General Than Shwe that she would like to meet the senior generals with the aim of working together to help the country. The message was conveyed in a letter seen Monday by the German Press Agency dpa.

She also asked to meet the executive committee of her National League for Democracy in her own house. The letter did not mention the possibility of political talks, but stressed the need to "cooperate."

Yangon  - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi filed an appeal Friday with the country's highest court against her 18-month house arrest sentence.

Her detention in her Yangon family home was extended by a special Insein prison court in August after she was found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an uninvited American eccentric, John William Yettaw.

Yangon  - Myanmar exported 670,000 tons of rice in the fiscal year that ended March 31 despite the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis and expected to export up to 1 million tons this fiscal year, media reports said Sunday.

"The export volume of rice is expected to increase this year, maybe reaching a million metric tons by the end of the 2009-2010 financial year," an official from the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Association told the English-language Myanmar Times.

Yangon  - Former Myanmar foreign minister Win Aung died in Insein Prison where he was serving a seven-year sentence for corruption, police and personal friends confirmed on Thursday.

Win Aung, 65, died Wednesday morning from a cerebral hemorrhage, close friends of the former minister said.

Bespeckled and fluent in English, Win Aung served as foreign minister and the civilized face for Myanmar's pariah military regime from 1998 to 2004.

Yangon  - Myanmar's former capital of Yangon has banned the manufacture and import of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic bags for environmental reasons, media reports said Monday.

Businesses will be banned from manufacturing, importing, trading in or distributing HDPE plastic bags from November 30, the Myanmar Times English-language weekly reported.

The ban, announced by the Yangon branch of the ruling junta, does not apply to low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) plastic bags, which disintegrate more quickly.

Yangon  - Myanmar's ruling military junta gave the green light to the use of mobile phones in the capital, Naypyitaw, beginning Thursday, four years after the country's administration and military headquarters moved there.

"CDMA mobiles are allowed for communication from today," an official from Naypyitaw who requested anonymity said Thursday, referring to a technology used to transmit mobile phone signals. "Other mobile systems are being tested."

The use of mobile phones in Naypyitaw, 320 kilometres north of Yangon, had been banned since the junta moved its capital there from Yangon in November 2005. The reason for the prohibition was unknown, but there was speculation that it was because of security concerns.

Yangon  - Myanmar's military supremo has confirmed that a general election is scheduled for 2010, state media reported Saturday.

"Elections will be systematically held in 2010 for Hluttaws [parliaments] that will emerge in accordance with the constitution," Senior General Than Shwe said Friday in a speech to the Myanmar War Veterans Organization, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

Yangon  - Myanmar pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday held a rare meeting with foreign diplomats, presumably to discuss Western sanctions imposed on the pariah state, sources said.

Suu Kyi was escorted from her home-cum-prison Friday morning to the state-owned Seinle Kantha Guesthouse where she met with US Deputy Head of Mission Thomas Vajta, British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who represented the European Union, and Australian Deputy Head of Mission Simon Christopher Starr, government sources said.

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Wednesday with a representative of the ruling junta to discuss her proposals to get sanctions dropped against the regime that has kept her under house arrest for 14 years, sources said.

Relations Minister Aung Kyi met the Nobel laureate at the Seinle Kantha Guesthouse for about 25 minutes Wednesday afternoon, government sources confirmed. The two also met on Saturday.

Yangon  - A Myanmar court on Friday rejected an appeal lodged by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi against an 18-month detention sentence, government sources said.

Suu Kyi's lawyers had opened the appeal case at the Yangon Divisional Court in a bid to overturn a court verdict in August that found Suu Kyi guilty and placed her under house detention for another 18 months.

Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers, has promised to appeal the case up to the Supreme Court level.

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has requested permission from the ruling junta to talk about lifting economic sanctions with the Australian, US and European embassies, opposition sources said Monday.

Suu Kyi, who is currently under house detention, made the request in a letter sent to junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party revealed.

Yangon  - Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein left for New York on Saturday afternoon to attend the 64th session of United Nations General Assembly, an official source confirmed.

"Prime Minister General Thein Sein left from Nay Pyi Taw via Yangon international airport on Saturday afternoon. He will be heading to New York via Bangkok," an official who requested anonymity said.

Yangon  - Myanmar's central bank has issued a new 5,000-kyat bill that is to go into circulation Thursday, state media reported.

The bank's announcement Friday of its release of Myanmar's highest denomination note came at a time when inflation has been rather stable in Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries.

The black market rate for the kyat is now 1,100 to the US dollar, compared with 1,200 kyat to the dollar two years ago.

Yangon - Myanmar's military junta this month arrested a US national of Myanmar decent and two ethnic Rakhine dissidents on suspicion of involvement in sabotage acts, a media report said Thursday.

Myanmar authorities arrested Nyi Nyi Aung, a former Myanmar student activist and naturalized US citizen, September 3 at Yangon International Airport on charges of entering the country "to create unrest," the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.