Myanmar’s opposition party led by detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday called for the release of activists who were beaten and arrested by a militia group earlier this month.
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A 24-year-old farmer lost most of his family, as well as his prized water buffaloes, to the cyclone but says he is still waiting for the power tillers local authorities promised to distribute in Kungyangone, one of the worst-affected townships in Rangoon Division.
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An editor on the privately-run Rangoon magazine Cherry was fired and three censorship board employees were reportedly suspended from duty after the monthly carried a poem that displeased government officials.
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Veteran Burmese journalist and editor of Hantharwaddy publication U Win Tin, is currently suffering from severe ill-health and is needing immediate treatment for asthma.
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At a small concrete shrine on the outskirts of this storm-battered city, people have been flocking to pay their respects to Nyaung Bin, “the old man of the solitary banyan tree.” His statue wears a flowing pink robe, has a golden face, and bears a passing resemblance to the late actor Yul Brynner.
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Fighting broke out on Monday between troops of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and its breakaway group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), forcing the evacuation of a Thai border village.
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A sector commander-level flag meeting between the border security forces of Bangladesh and Burma was held in Cox’s Bazar town on Sunday, 29 June.
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The establishment of diplomatic link between Myanmar and Saudi Arabia in recent years has facilitated export of fishes by Myanmar people to that country, the local 7-Day News reported in this week’s issue, quoting the Livestock Breedings and Fisheries Association.
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More than 90 percent of foreign investment in Myanmar last year was funneled into the oil and gas sectors, according to a recently released government report.
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Rising demand for opium in Kachin state, Myanmar, has lured many farmers to switch from rice to poppy cultivation, which is much more profitable. Gold and jade miners and those into timber logging are heavily into opium consumption fuelling demand.
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Police killed two drug traffickers in a gunfight after luring them into selling crystal methamphetamine at a forest in Mae Sai district in Chiang Rai. The two were suspected of being members of a drug gang linked with Red Wa guerrillas in Burma, which is notorious for smuggling drugs into northern Thailand.
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American Secretary of State inspects post-quake destruction and recovery
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The number of Chin refugees being arrested in Malaysia has increased dramatically in recent months, raising fears among the Chin communities and leaders worldwide that their lives could be highly jeopardised if they are sent into the brokers’ hands at the Thai-Malaysian border or sent back to Burma.
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Consumers with a conscience, beware: clothing made in “Myanmar” – the country known as Burma until its name was changed by its oppressive military regime – is still to be found on the shelves, notably at Mr Price and Pick n Pay.
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Since the special meeting of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Singapore on May 19, there has been a lot of criticism of and skepticism in the way Asean engaged in the humanitarian relief effort toward the victims of Cyclone Nargis.
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Almost two months after Cyclone Nargis ripped through Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta region, leaving tens of thousands of people dead or homeless, thousands continue to suffer with little or no relief.
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