Yangon - Myanmar's human rights situation remains "challenging," United Nations Special Human Rights Envoy Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana concluded Thursday, winding up a six-day visit to the junta-ruled nation.

The junta refused to allow Quintana to meet with either Aung San Suu Kyi, the longstanding leader of the opposition, or Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Than Shwe during the trip.

"The human rights situation in Myanmar is still challenging," Quintana said shortly before departing the country late Thursday night.

Yangon - United Nations special rapporteur for human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, was allowed to visit Yangon's notorious Insein prison Monday, security sources confirmed.

Quintana, who arrived in Myanmar Saturday, travelled to the Karen State on Sunday where he visited Hpa-An prison, where a 28 year-old Burmese blogger named Nay Phone Latt is serving a 20-year prison term, according to sources who asked for anonymity.

Upon his return to Yangon on Monday, Quintana met with foreign diplomats and then went to Insein prison, where hundreds of political prisoners of the military-ruled state are being held.

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 - 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), Feb. 8 : Vice President M. Hamid Ansari paid a visit to the mausoleum of former Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar here on Saturday.

Acknowledging Zafar's contribution to India''s first war of independence in 1857, Ansari said: "Bahudar Shah Zafar occupies a place in our history and played a prominent role in the First War of Independence in 1857 and every citizen in the country (India) knows about it. It is a matter of great regret that he had to spend the last days of his life away from his own country."

Ansari is on a four-day official visit to Myanmar.