Manila  - Democracy activists took to the streets in the Philippines on Friday to demand more action from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) against Myanmar for its poor human rights record.

The protestors, numbering around 90, picketed the Thai embassy in Manila and urged ASEAN to put Myanmar, formerly called Burma, on the "hot seat" during its annual leaders' summit in Thailand, which started Friday.

"The military regime of Burma has a lot to answer," said Resti Delizo of the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines. "Its human rights record is not showing any degree of significant improvement and ASEAN should not take a blind eye to this issue."

Hanoi (dpa) - Officials and executives at a Vietnam-Myanmar trade fair have signed several deals to boost trade between the two countries, Vietnamese media reported Thursday.

Vietnam government representatives signed a memorandum of understanding Wednesday to import more than 5 million dollars of wood from Myanmar by 2010 at the Vietnam-Myanmar Joint Conference on Trade Exchanges in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the conference, which attracted more than 50 entrepreneurs from the two countries, the Vietnamese importing company DIC said it had signed an agreement to buy

New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on Myanmar's military junta to release all political prisoners, including the main opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was not among those freed over the weekend.

Ban also said he was ready to visit Myanmar, but urged the junta to ensure a return to democracy.

Ban visited Myanmar in May 2008, after the devastation caused by cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 100,000 people and left 2 million homeless. That visit focused on humanitarian assistance to the impoverished nation.

Yangon  - Myanmar's amnesty for more than 6,000 prisoners has so far included only 19 political prisoners, excluding opposition leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, observers said Sunday.

The military regime announced Friday that it would release 6,313 prisoners from the country's jails as a "gesture" of sympathy towards their families and to allow them to participate in the upcoming general election of 2010.

Yangon - Myanmar's amnesty for more than 6,000 prisoners has so far included only 19 political prisoners, excluding opposition leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, observers said Sunday.

The military regime announced Friday that it would release 6,313 prisoners from the country's jails as a "gesture" of sympathy towards their families and to allow them to participate in the upcoming general election of 2010.

Yangon - Myanmar authorities on Saturday began to free prisoners from Yangon's notorious Insein jail, including some political prisoners, under a government amnesty for 6,313 inmates nationwide.

Eyewitnesses saw scores of prisoners leaving Insein on Saturday evening. Among them were Thet Wai, a member of the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) party, and five other low-ranking opposition members.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo have apparently been excluded from the amnesty. Suu Kyi and Tin Oo have been under house arrest since mid-2003.