Myanmar

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern at reports of air strikes in Myanmar's Kachin State, where a 20-month conflict between government troops and rebels has been escalating.

A train in Myanmar carrying petrol derailed and burst into flames, killing 25 people and injuring 62, most of them villagers trying to collect fuel spilled in the accident, state television said.

Hundreds of homes burned and gunfire rang out as sectarian violence raged for a fifth day between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in western Myanmar, pushing the death toll to nearly 60 and testing the country's nascent democracy.

The US Treasury has relaxed sanctions on Myanmar to permit financial transactions to support certain humanitarian and development projects in the country as it moves ahead with democratic reforms after decades of military rule.

The United States will take targeted steps to ease sanctions banning the export of U.S. financial services and investment in Myanmar to respond to progress in the Southeast Asian country's democratic transition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says.

Myanmar's junta was officially disbanded on Wednesday after handing over power to a new so-called civilian government, the latest phase of a transition to democracy that has been widely criticised as a sham.

The Government is to change its position on Myanmar and return to calling it Burma.

People love historical analogies, so it's easy to think of Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest on Saturday as Myanmar's Mandela moment.