Soldiers have been sent to northern Burma to protect an enormous jade boulder that could weigh up to 50 tons.

The UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming positive changes in Burma but expressing serious concern at an upsurge of sectarian violence between Muslims and Buddhists in strife-torn Rakhine state.

THE news from Burma these days is relentlessly positive.

Recent battles between Burmese government troops and Kachin ethnic rebels have killed 31 people, a state-run newspaper said, as the ongoing fighting threatens the country’s reform and reconciliation process.

The Burmese government has signed a ceasefire agreement with ethnic Karen rebels, taking a major step towards ending one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies.

Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has joined forces with environmentalists and minority groups with an appeal for a rethink of a large dam project.

Buddhist nuns swelled the forces of anti-government protesters in Burma as up to 20,000 people took to the streets.