A US assistant secretary of state will visit the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot on Saturday to study the latest situation of Burmese refugees living there.

Commodity prices have risen sharply in northern India after Naga protesters blocked two vital highways connecting Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Mizoram for two months, say border sources.

A top UN official, Vijay Nambiar, who is the special adviser on Burma to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is due to discuss Burmese issues with the Singaporean government on Thursday, according to a UN press release.

International concern about the Burmese juntas ambition to acquire nuclear weapons with North Korean assistance continues to grow, as experts, journalists and defectors release a steady stream of information suggesting that Naypyidaw is seeking to become Southeast Asia's first nuclear-armed state.

BANGKOK There are regional and international security implications arising out of fresh evidence that Burma is seeking nuclear weapons and is in breach of a UN arms embargo on North Korea.

BEIJING When the military regime in Burma launched a campaign last August to disarm the ethnic rebels in the Kokang region, made up mostly of ethnic Chinese

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who postponed his trip to Southeast Asia in April following the deadly earthquake in northwest Chinas Quinghai province, is now expected to visit Burma and meet with Snr-Gen Than Shwe between the end of May and early June, diplomatic sources said.