The Burmese government denied on Friday that a Buddhist mob ripped through a town in an isolated strife-torn corner of the country this week, attacking Muslim women and children. Villagers and a rights group said more than a dozen people may have been killed, and that hundreds have fled.

The Karen National Union has urged the various ethnic sub-groups within Karen state to register in next year’s nationwide census as “Karen” when identifying their ethnicity in the questionnaire.

Reuters has uncovered what they say is confirmation that illegal camps are maintained in the southern Thai jungle as holding centres for Rohingya boatpeople who are sold on to human smuggling outfits.

In the final episode of the season, DVB Debate discusses how to end religious violence.

Representatives of Burma's main political parties, though not the USDP, sit for talks with officials of ethnic armed groups at a historic meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where they are due to discuss the peace process, the ceasefire agreement and federalism.

Burma’s armed forces, known nationally as the Tatmadaw, will for the first time in over 50 years open recruitment for females at the Defence Services Academy.