Myanmar expels Italian reporter

YANGON (AP): An Italian journalist who was blacklisted for illicitly gathering news in Myanmar earlier this month was expelled when he tried to enter the country again, official sources said yesterday.

The journalist, Maurizio Giouliano, 23, had first arrived in Myanmar on a tourist visa on Aug. 6, said a government news release.

When he left Myanmar on Aug. 12, Giouliano was told not to enter the country again because "he had contacted the opposition National League for Democracy and illegally gathered information during his stay here," reports in the state-controlled press said.

He tried to enter Myanmar again on Sunday with a different passport and holding a tourist visa which identified him as a tourist, but was caught and immediately deported, the reports said.