Yangon  - Myanmar's junta has opened diplomatic relations with the Principality of Andorra - one of the world's smallest nations, state media and foreign ministry sources said Sunday.

The two countries decided to establish diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level with effect from February 11, 2009, The New Light of Myanmar reported.

An agreement was signed by permanent representatives from both countries at United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday, the government mouthpiece said.

Yangon  - United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Tomas Ojea Quintana left Yangon Sunday to visit the Karen State, where Myanmar's junta has waged a decades-old war against the Karen people, driving hundreds of thousands of them into Thailand.

The Karen, many of whom profess to be Christian, are one of the few ethnic minority groups in Myanmar who have refused to sign a cease-fire agreement with the government, making them the targets continued military attacks and human rights abuses.

Yangon - The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, arrived in Myanmar Saturday evening, a day after two activists were given 15-year prison terms for saying the military regime did not really want democracy.

Mr Quintana wants to meet arrested opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners following a months-long spate of lengthy jail terms against scores of the military's critics ahead of a general election next year.

Yangon - Tin Oo, the vice chairman of Myanmar's main opposition party, has been slapped with another year of house arrest, government sources said Friday.

Authorities extended Tin Oo's detention by another year under the Law Safeguarding the State from Danger and Subversive Elements, which places a five-year maximum term on imprisonment.

Tin Oo, 82, vice chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and first deputy to its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was put under house arrest on February 13, 2004, meaning this year would be his sixth of detention.

Yangon - Myanmar's main opposition party marked Union Day Thursday by launching a nationwide petition campaign to free its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since mid-2003.

Hundreds of National League for Democracy (NLD) members and supporters kicked off the "Free Suu Kyi" campaign by signing their names on a signboard at the party's headquarters in Yangon on the holiday that marks the 1947 call for independence by Myanmar's ethnic groups.

"We started the signature campaign today for the freeing of Daw [Madame] Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo and all political prisoners," NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

Jakarta  - Thailand will work with the UN refugee agency and neighbouring countries to help Myanmar's Rohingya boat people, Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Wednesday.

The Thai military has been accused of mistreating migrants belonging to the Rohingya minority group, who said they were fleeing persecution in Myanmar, by towing more than 10 vessels out to sea and leaving the refugees in engineless boats without sufficient food and water.

Almost 400 of the Rohingya migrants were rescued by the Indonesian Navy off the coast of Aceh province in January and earlier this month.

The Rohingya told Indonesian officials they had been physically abused by Thai authorities before being abandoned at sea.