Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Burma. Show all posts

Friday, July 1, 2011

Burma convicts Australian editor

30 June 2011 Last updated at 10:57 GMT Ross Dunkley leaves court in Burma on 30 June 2011 Ross Dunkley called the verdict "ridiculous" and said he would appeal An Australian newspaper editor has been convicted of assault and immigration offences after a trial in Burma.

Ross Dunkley was sentenced to one month in jail, but was set free because of the time he had already served.

The 55-year-old editor of the Myanmar Times was arrested on 10 February and not granted bail until late March.

He was acquitted of other charges, included allegations that he drugged the 29-year-old woman he was convicted of assaulting.

The woman had previously tried to have her complaint dropped - saying she was pregnant and unable to travel to court, the AFP news agency reports.

The court in Rangoon sentenced Dunkley to 30 days in prison for "simple hurt", before allowing him to go free because of the time he had already spent in detention.

He also opted to pay a fine of 100,000 kyat ($120) instead of serving a six-month jail term for the automatic breach of immigration laws his conviction for assault brought.

Walking out of court, the newspaper editor told reporters the verdict was ridiculous and said he would appeal.

Dunkley has run the Myanmar Times for a decade, under an arrangement whereby all its content is passed through government censors.

His business partners said in March the arrest had come amid a dispute with Burmese colleagues over the newspaper's ownership, future direction and senior leadership roles.


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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Suu Kyi actress barred from Burma

28 June 2011 Last updated at 05:57 GMT By Vaudine England BBC News, Bangkok Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (L) and actress Michelle Yeoh Michelle Yeoh stars as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a new film, The Lady The actress who plays the part of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a forthcoming film has been barred from entering Burma.

Michelle Yeoh, a former Bond girl, tried to enter the country on 22 June but was deported on the same day.

An official told reporters that Michelle Yeoh was now blacklisted and would not be able to enter Burma.

She has visited Burma before - in December, she met the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"She did not have the chance to enter Myanmar (Burma) again. She was deported straight away on the first flight after arriving at Yangon (Rangoon) International Airport," a Burmese official said.

Ms Yeoh has previously travelled to Burma with Aung San Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris, who was allowed into the country earlier this month to mark his mother's 66th birthday.

'The Lady'

Ms Yeoh portrays Aung San Suu Kyi's life in a forthcoming film, The Lady.

Directed by Luc Besson it will be released later this year.

Michelle Yeoh, a 48-year old Malaysian actress, played a Chinese spy alongside Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

She also starred in Ang Lee's martial arts movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Aung San Suu Kyi recently gave the BBC's annual Reith Lectures in which she explored what freedom means, and described the meaning that Buddhism has given to her lonely political struggle.

In 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the Burmese election by a landslide.

She then spent 15 of the next 20 years under house arrest, and was finally released last November, a week after military-controlled elections marked what the government says is a return to civilian rule.

Quite what is in the movie of her life remains a mystery - but blacklisting the actress portraying it seems clumsy - and an unlikely way to dim interest in its screening.


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