Scores of Myanmar students rallied illegally in Yangon Monday against a new education bill they describe as undemocratic, the latest in a series of protests that began during a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

Young activists, some holding banners reading "We need Academic Freedom" and "Fight for Democratic Education", staged a peaceful march across the city center to call for the education system to be reformed.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday warned of the dangers of outright conflict in Asia, as China squares off against rival claimants over disputed territories, but vowed that Washington would remain anchored in the region.

In a speech at Brisbane's University of Queensland, Obama insisted that his "pivot" of U.S. policy back to Asia was real and here to stay.

Myanmar activists greeted U.S. President Barack Obama with placards decrying the slow pace of reform in their country as he attended a lively public meeting in Yangon on Friday.

A small band of protesters brandished signs reading "Reform is Fake" as Obama arrived to address a crowd of young people from countries around Southeast Asia at the end of a two-night visit to Myanmar.

Myanmar's parliament Friday lambasted U.N. Security General Ban Ki-moon for using the term 'Rohingya', accusing him of interfering in the country's affairs during a visit this week that has kicked off fresh furor over the Muslim minority.

The issue of the identity of the Rohingya, who mainly live in western Rakhine State, is incendiary in Myanmar.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Myanmar Friday to hold "free, fair and inclusive" elections as he threw his weight behind a bid by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to change a constitution that bars her from the presidency.

Obama held talks with fellow Nobel laureate Suu Kyi at her lakeside villa in Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon, after arriving from the capital Naypyidaw where he discussed the nation's troubled reform process with President Thein Sein.

The United States voiced alarm over Myanmar's "backsliding" on democratic reforms, as President Barack Obama Thursday attended a regional summit meant to showcase the country's transition from army-led isolation.

Obama was set to raise powder-keg rights issues in a meeting with his Myanmar counterpart Thein Sein -- a former general turned reformer -- late Thursday on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw.

U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Myanmar Wednesday as the once cloistered nation hosted its biggest gathering of world leaders since shedding junta rule, but concerns over the pace of democratic reforms surfaced immediately.

Obama, who will meet Southeast Asian leaders and attend the East Asia Summit in the purpose-built capital of Naypyidaw, signaled he would throw his political might into re-igniting the democratic process.

The United Nations said Tuesday it had urged Thai authorities against deporting more than 200 Muslim boatpeople from Myanmar being held in southern Thailand after they were intercepted en route to Malaysia.

Thai police arrested 259 people on an island off the southern province of Ranong Saturday, days after activists reported a surge in the number of stateless Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar's restive Rakhine state.

The United Nations said Tuesday it had urged Thai authorities against deporting more than 200 Muslim boatpeople from Myanmar being held in southern Thailand after they were intercepted en route to Malaysia.

Thai police arrested 259 people on an island off the southern province of Ranong Saturday, days after activists reported a surge in the number of stateless Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar's restive Rakhine state.

President Barack Obama headed for China Sunday on a trip that will focus on Washington's often tense relations with the country, and will also see the president visit Myanmar and Australia.

The China stop will be dominated by Obama's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where the White House said it expects "candid and in-depth conversations."