Bangkok  - Myanmar pro-democracy activists on Friday launched a global signature campaign for the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The campaign seeks to get 888,888 signatures before May 24, the date that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate should legally be released from house arrest.

The signature target symbolizes August 8, 1988, the day Myanmar's junta massacred an estimated 3,000 pro-democracy demonstrators in Yangon.

Yangon  - Myanmar's prime minister, General Thein Sein, is to visit Indonesia and Singapore shortly in response to invitations from the leaders of the two South-East Asian countries, state media reported Friday.

Yangon - United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres arrived in Yangon Wednesday after a two-day visit to Rakhine state, the traditional homeland of Rohingya refugees, officials confirmed.

"He visited Sittwe yesterday afternoon and also visited Yathittaung town today," said a state official who requested anonymity.

Yangon  - In a ceremony presided over by Myanmar's military supremo Senior General Than Shwe and attended by the junta hierarchy, a new pagoda for the capital of Naypyitaw was inaugurated this weekend, media reports said Sunday.

Than Shwe and his wife Kyaing Kyaing presided over the hoisting of the umbrella on top of the Uppatasanti Pagoda on Saturday in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital since
2004 that is situated about about 350 kilometres north of Yangon, the former capital.

Yangon  - Myanmar's state-run media on Saturday accused the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) of taking instructions from the United States and Britain, noting that the countries' embassy officials had visited the party's Yangon headquarters 21 times last month.

"During their visits, they met with central executive committee members of the party and gave large and small envelops and parcels to the latter," said The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of Myanmar's military-run government.

Washington and London have made no secret of their support for the NLD, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked by the military junta from taking power for the past 19 years.

Cha-am, Thailand - Efforts to set up a human rights body for the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) got off to a bad start Saturday when Myanmar and Cambodia blocked civil society representatives from attending talks with the group's leaders.

The 14th ASEAN Summit being held in Cha-am, 130 kilometres from Bangkok, has been billed as the most "inclusive" meeting of the 42-year-old South-East Asian grouping to date.

The summit kicked off Saturday morning with a series of talks between ASEAN leaders and representatives of civil society, parliamentarians, youth organizations and the business community.