Welcome soft breezes cool the night air as small waves lap the sands near Maung-Ma-Kan Beach, at Dawei, on the Adaman Sea, in the Taninthari region of southern Burma. The area, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the region, is being enjoyed on this evening in February by many people. Some are sitting, some walking in the sand near the surf and some even painting the idyllic scene.

It was cool and crisp in the early morning on Saturday June 11, 2011. The smells brought in by the monsoon winds were very pleasant. As I lay on my bed, I could hear the slow patter of a light drizzle outside. My younger was already stirring about and talking on his cell phone. This was unusual. He never liked to get up early but that day he evidently had.

(Feature) Kyu Kyu waits for customers in the parlor room of the brothel house after she finishes putting on her make-up in the afternoon. She talks with a friend on her mobile phone.

(Feature) Sometimes, when relatives and friends come to visit children at Baanunurak Orphanage, in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, near the Burma border, 13 year-old Parama watches them with curiosity.

Lu Lu, who lives in Huaymalai village in Sangkhlaburi Township, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, has been taking care of orphans, old people (who are not cared for by their children ), physically disabled people, blind people, HIV infected patients, and mentally disturbed people. She has been taking care of Mon, Karen, Burman, Arakanese, Shan, Lahu as well as foreigners including Malayian, Cambodian, Chinese, Indian, and Bangladeshi.

(Feature) Ban Don Yan refugee camp is located in the mountains about 20 miles away from the town of Sangkhlaburi, in Kanchanaburi Province in Thailand.

It’s just past 8 o’clock on a cool and cloudy morning. It looks like another dry day. I’m hoping it will be a hot one.

Thingyin (water festival) is near but there is training in our office. I’m disappointed because some of my friends have already returned home and others are starting their holidays early. We have to attend the training, however.

“Dad, I will give a Mon traditional shirt and sarong as a present to Mu Dave and Kyi Dave, who live in Australia,” my oldest daughter told me.

He leans back in his chair with a book on his lap and lights a cigarette; his crossed leg starts to jiggle. He is a tall man....

“The period of ceasefire is gone,” the General Secretary of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) quoted an SPDC general as saying in his article, written in Mon, recently posted on the KaoWao website,....