BURMA’S junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centres yesterday, apparently out of concern the “tented villages” might become permanent.

BURMA’S ruling junta lashed out yesterday at aid donors who promised millions of dollars for cyclone relief, saying survivors didn’t need “bars of chocolate“.

A BURMA state radio station yesterday said close to 4,000 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others are unaccounted for in a single town after the devastating Tropical Cyclone Nargis swept through.

Burma’s military junta has arrested a dozen activists and Buddhist monks this month, despite assurances that it has halted its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, a human rights watchdog said today.

Burma’s military government, already under fire for its violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, is recruiting children as young as 10 into its armed forces, a US human rights group said today.

Burma’s military junta released at least 19 political prisoners, including pro-democracy party members, as part of a group of nearly 4,000 inmates it said were wrongly charged by an intelligence agency.

The EU threatened Burma’s military junta with new sanctions today unless they free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest by October 8.