PHUKET: Police arrested two Myanmar nationals in possession of more than 250 grams of crystal methamphetamine (ya ice) on Friday.
Thiha Soe, 32, and his wife, referred to by police only as Moe, were apprehended after officers received a tip-off from Rassada Subdistrict Chief (Kamnan) Chanchai Tantawacheerapan.
“Mr Chanchai contacted officials after hearing complaints about two plant workers selling drugs at the entrance to the Chai Taweekit fish processing plant,” said Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada at a press conference on Saturday.
Police then waited for the pair at their rental room, about 200 meters from the plant.
Once the couple arrived, officers performed a search yielding 252.12 grams of ya ice, with an estimated value of about 886,000 baht. (Courtesy of Phuket Gazette)
For more information - Visit here.
November 30, 2015
Myanmar's president and military chief to meet election victor Suu Kyi this week
The most powerful figures in Myanmar's transition following its historic elections are to meet this week in separate talks that could set the course for the incoming government dominated by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
In a post on the presidential office Facebook page, Myanmar president Thein Sein confirmed he had extended an invitation to meet Ms Suu Kyi on Wednesday morning at the president's house in Naypyidaw.
The chief of Myanmar's defence forces, Min Aung Hliang, has also confirmed he has agreed to meet the head of the victorious National League for Democracy (NLD) later that day, according to ABC Radio Australia's Burmese service.
Ms Suu Kyi has sought to take a conciliatory approach following the elections, dampening victory celebrations and requesting talks with the president and the army chief in the weeks following the NLD's overwhelming win in the November 8 poll. (Courtesy of ABC news)
For more information - Visit here.
In a post on the presidential office Facebook page, Myanmar president Thein Sein confirmed he had extended an invitation to meet Ms Suu Kyi on Wednesday morning at the president's house in Naypyidaw.
The chief of Myanmar's defence forces, Min Aung Hliang, has also confirmed he has agreed to meet the head of the victorious National League for Democracy (NLD) later that day, according to ABC Radio Australia's Burmese service.
Ms Suu Kyi has sought to take a conciliatory approach following the elections, dampening victory celebrations and requesting talks with the president and the army chief in the weeks following the NLD's overwhelming win in the November 8 poll. (Courtesy of ABC news)
For more information - Visit here.
Attack breaks post-martial law calm in Kokang region capital
The military newspaper Myawady reported that “rebels” of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) had opened fire on military columns in Laukkai on November 27. It gave no word on casualties and said the “rebels” retreated to the north-east, toward the border with China, when the army returned fire.
The military was combing the area for their hideouts but none of the rebels involved had been identified, the newspaper said.
A police major told The Myanmar Times that no one was killed in the November 27 attack.
President U Thein Sein ended nine months of emergency rule in the Kokang Self-administered Zone on November 17. “The situation has since returned to normal and the rule of law has been restored in the zone,” his decree said.
Residents contacted by The Myanmar Times yesterday confirmed they had heard gunfire in or near the town on November 27. They said this was not the first such incident, raising fears that the MNDAA still had the resources to harass the Tatmadaw after months of fighting resulted in the ethnic Chinese insurgents being pushed back to remote border areas. “We usually don’t go outside at night. The situation is not so different from under military administration. Sometimes we hear shooting from remote areas,” said one local. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
The military was combing the area for their hideouts but none of the rebels involved had been identified, the newspaper said.
A police major told The Myanmar Times that no one was killed in the November 27 attack.
President U Thein Sein ended nine months of emergency rule in the Kokang Self-administered Zone on November 17. “The situation has since returned to normal and the rule of law has been restored in the zone,” his decree said.
Residents contacted by The Myanmar Times yesterday confirmed they had heard gunfire in or near the town on November 27. They said this was not the first such incident, raising fears that the MNDAA still had the resources to harass the Tatmadaw after months of fighting resulted in the ethnic Chinese insurgents being pushed back to remote border areas. “We usually don’t go outside at night. The situation is not so different from under military administration. Sometimes we hear shooting from remote areas,” said one local. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
CB Bank chair to open industrial zone
Chair of Co-operative Bank U Khin Maung Aye also chairs the Kaung Myanmar Aung (KMA) Group of Companies which has interests from hotels and real estate to mining, forestry, agriculture and automobiles.
Another of his businesses, Kaytumadi Development Company (Public), recently bought over 1000 acres of land in Bago Region where it plans to open an industrial zone this December or in early 2016, he told The Myanmar Times. The land is near to the 150 mile point along the highway from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw, in Taungoo, he said.
“We have permission to build an industrial zone, and now need to present our plans to the Myanmar Investment Commission and other government departments.”
He has already invited investors from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to consider opening businesses in the new zone, he said.
The project will cost between K20 billion and K50 billion to build, he said, and the company plans to issue shares to the public worth K10,000 each, to raise the necessary funds. A number of investors from Taungoo will also put up capital. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Another of his businesses, Kaytumadi Development Company (Public), recently bought over 1000 acres of land in Bago Region where it plans to open an industrial zone this December or in early 2016, he told The Myanmar Times. The land is near to the 150 mile point along the highway from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw, in Taungoo, he said.
“We have permission to build an industrial zone, and now need to present our plans to the Myanmar Investment Commission and other government departments.”
He has already invited investors from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to consider opening businesses in the new zone, he said.
The project will cost between K20 billion and K50 billion to build, he said, and the company plans to issue shares to the public worth K10,000 each, to raise the necessary funds. A number of investors from Taungoo will also put up capital. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
DICA issues revised list of ‘out of touch’ companies
The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration has published a revised list of companies to be struck off its register, after receiving a number of complaints from businesses named on the list that are still operational.
In August, the regulator issued a request for confirmation from all companies still in business, as it seeks to clean up its database by removing out-of-date company names.
However, the list of 20,165 local and 2015 international “out of touch companies” published earlier this month contained a number of errors.
Some companies such as Myanmar Red Dot Network and Capital Diamond Star Group confirmed that their companies are currently active in Myanmar and that they have submitted documentation notifying DICA.
Others said that former incarnations of their business were named on the list, leading to confusion among clients. These included international companies such as Singapore-based Surbana International Consultants, who have since confirmed their operating subsidiary status in Myanmar with DICA. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
In August, the regulator issued a request for confirmation from all companies still in business, as it seeks to clean up its database by removing out-of-date company names.
However, the list of 20,165 local and 2015 international “out of touch companies” published earlier this month contained a number of errors.
Some companies such as Myanmar Red Dot Network and Capital Diamond Star Group confirmed that their companies are currently active in Myanmar and that they have submitted documentation notifying DICA.
Others said that former incarnations of their business were named on the list, leading to confusion among clients. These included international companies such as Singapore-based Surbana International Consultants, who have since confirmed their operating subsidiary status in Myanmar with DICA. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Catch Glimpses of Life in Lithuania and Myanmar
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seven films from Lithuania and Myanmar will be showcased in the ‘Country Focus’ section of 20th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) that will commence on December 4. The Lithuanian films will portray the Baltic nation’s troubled history as a satellite state in the USSR and its present reality. Two Cold War era movies, the 1966-made Jausmai (Feelings) and Grazuole (The Beauty) made in 1969, are listed as sourced from ‘Soviet Union-Lithuania’.
The other films are Kolekcioniere (The Collectress, 2008), Ekskursante (The Excursionist, 2013) and Losejas (The Gambler, 2015). Films from Myanmar, which also has a history of authoritarian rule, typically steer clear of political commentary with light-veined family entertainers. The two movies Red Cotton Silk Flower (2012) and Successor of Merits (2015) represent film industry in the present Myanmar. Feelings, a collaborative effort by directors Alimantas Grikiavicius and Algirdas Dausa, at its core is a family drama set against the bleak backdrop of World War II. The Beauty is the story of a sensitive yet impish child who is elected beauty queen by her playmates, and becomes convinced of her good looks. (Courtesy of The New Indian Express)
For more information - Visit here.
The other films are Kolekcioniere (The Collectress, 2008), Ekskursante (The Excursionist, 2013) and Losejas (The Gambler, 2015). Films from Myanmar, which also has a history of authoritarian rule, typically steer clear of political commentary with light-veined family entertainers. The two movies Red Cotton Silk Flower (2012) and Successor of Merits (2015) represent film industry in the present Myanmar. Feelings, a collaborative effort by directors Alimantas Grikiavicius and Algirdas Dausa, at its core is a family drama set against the bleak backdrop of World War II. The Beauty is the story of a sensitive yet impish child who is elected beauty queen by her playmates, and becomes convinced of her good looks. (Courtesy of The New Indian Express)
For more information - Visit here.
UN warns of need to boost immunisation
The United Nations has called for an expansion of immunisation to combat the threat of polio and other preventable diseases, after two cases of a vaccine-derived form of the virus were detected in northern Rakhine State.
The World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund said the cases were the result of poor immunisation coverage, and showed that the government and parliament needed to prioritise immunisation in the national budget.
“One immediate step to help reaching this goal is to prioritise vaccines and cold chain in the government’s health budget,” they said in a joint statement.
Routine immunisation coverage has been particularly low in Rakhine State, dipping below 80 percent in recent years. In some townships only 27pc of children received the three recommended doses of oral polio vaccine in 2014, WHO and UNICEF said.
Rakhine State has been wracked by communal conflict since 2012, and government health services in Muslim communities are often non-existent. Lack of trust in government health staff is also a major barrier.
U Thaung Hlaing, health director in Rakhine State, said vaccine-derived polio virus was detected in two children from Maungdaw township, one in May and one in November.
“One child had never been exposed to vaccine, but the other had taken vaccine just once,” he said. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
The World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund said the cases were the result of poor immunisation coverage, and showed that the government and parliament needed to prioritise immunisation in the national budget.
“One immediate step to help reaching this goal is to prioritise vaccines and cold chain in the government’s health budget,” they said in a joint statement.
Routine immunisation coverage has been particularly low in Rakhine State, dipping below 80 percent in recent years. In some townships only 27pc of children received the three recommended doses of oral polio vaccine in 2014, WHO and UNICEF said.
Rakhine State has been wracked by communal conflict since 2012, and government health services in Muslim communities are often non-existent. Lack of trust in government health staff is also a major barrier.
U Thaung Hlaing, health director in Rakhine State, said vaccine-derived polio virus was detected in two children from Maungdaw township, one in May and one in November.
“One child had never been exposed to vaccine, but the other had taken vaccine just once,” he said. (Courtesy of MMTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Mandalay Assamese ladies feted in city
GUWAHATI, Nov 28 - Two Myanmar-based Assamese women, whose ancestors were taken by the Burmese (Myanmarese) army as a ‘gift’ from the Ahom kings about 200 years back, were accorded felicitation at the Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir here today. The event was organised by city-based surgeon Dr Satyakam Phukan, teacher of North Guwahati College Dr Tapan Sarma and city-based businessman Binoy Sarma, who visited Myanmar between January and February 2013 in search of the people of Assam origin.
The ancestors of the two women, who were felicitated today, had to leave their motherland after the repeated Burmese invasions of Assam between 1817 and 1826, along with the Burmese armymen. Though these people have lost their language and culture, they still maintain that they are Assamese people. Initially, there were around 5,000 such people living in Myanmar. But today, a majority of them have assimilated into the Myanmarese society and those who are still maintaining their Assamese identity, are mostly settled in Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar and Bhamo, another city of the neighbouring country.
The two women – Ratnamoyee and Rajani Devi – who came to the city, accompanying two groups of Manipuri and Bengali people of Mandalay, however, had to speak in Burmese during their felicitation. They said that they have a very weak economy. They have lost their language and culture. But they take great pride in identifying themselves as Assamese, they said. (Courtesy of TheAssamTribuneOnline)
For more information - Visit here.
The ancestors of the two women, who were felicitated today, had to leave their motherland after the repeated Burmese invasions of Assam between 1817 and 1826, along with the Burmese armymen. Though these people have lost their language and culture, they still maintain that they are Assamese people. Initially, there were around 5,000 such people living in Myanmar. But today, a majority of them have assimilated into the Myanmarese society and those who are still maintaining their Assamese identity, are mostly settled in Mandalay, the second largest city of Myanmar and Bhamo, another city of the neighbouring country.
The two women – Ratnamoyee and Rajani Devi – who came to the city, accompanying two groups of Manipuri and Bengali people of Mandalay, however, had to speak in Burmese during their felicitation. They said that they have a very weak economy. They have lost their language and culture. But they take great pride in identifying themselves as Assamese, they said. (Courtesy of TheAssamTribuneOnline)
For more information - Visit here.
Japan eager to cozy up to Myanmar’s incoming NLD government
The government is stepping up efforts to develop a relationship with Myanmar’s top opposition force, the National League for Democracy, after its landslide victory in the general election earlier this month.
Also, Japanese businesses have a high interest in Myanmar’s abundant and cheap labor.
With China also beginning to build ties with the incoming Myanmar government, Japan plans to mobilize public-private efforts to provide assistance to Myanmar, which China invested in heavily while it was under military rule, officials said.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida held talks with Nyan Win, visiting spokesman for the NLD and member of the party’s central executive committee. At the meeting, Kishida called for pro-democracy icon and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi to make a visit to Japan soon.
Nyan Win is the NLD’s de facto No. 2 executive and Suu Kyi’s closest aide. (Courtesy of JapanTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Also, Japanese businesses have a high interest in Myanmar’s abundant and cheap labor.
With China also beginning to build ties with the incoming Myanmar government, Japan plans to mobilize public-private efforts to provide assistance to Myanmar, which China invested in heavily while it was under military rule, officials said.
On Friday, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida held talks with Nyan Win, visiting spokesman for the NLD and member of the party’s central executive committee. At the meeting, Kishida called for pro-democracy icon and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi to make a visit to Japan soon.
Nyan Win is the NLD’s de facto No. 2 executive and Suu Kyi’s closest aide. (Courtesy of JapanTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Right groups say Myanmar offensive has displaced 10,000 people
BANGKOK – A Myanmar military offensive against ethnic rebels in the east of the country has uprooted more than 10,000 people, rights groups said, accusing the army of bombing schools and Buddhist temples, firing on civilians and raping women.
Since Oct. 6, the army has shelled six villages, shot and injured three people, and fired on 17 villagers who are now missing, according to activists in Shan state.
The Shan Human Rights Foundation has documented eight cases of sexual violence since April, including a 32-year-old woman gang-raped by 10 soldiers on Nov. 5 while her husband was tied up under their farm hut in Ke See township.
“We are very concerned that there has been no public condemnation by the international community about these war crimes and these attacks on civilians,” rights activist Charm Tong said. (Courtesy of JapanTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Since Oct. 6, the army has shelled six villages, shot and injured three people, and fired on 17 villagers who are now missing, according to activists in Shan state.
The Shan Human Rights Foundation has documented eight cases of sexual violence since April, including a 32-year-old woman gang-raped by 10 soldiers on Nov. 5 while her husband was tied up under their farm hut in Ke See township.
“We are very concerned that there has been no public condemnation by the international community about these war crimes and these attacks on civilians,” rights activist Charm Tong said. (Courtesy of JapanTimes)
For more information - Visit here.
Aust business nous could boost Myanmar
MACQUARIE University academic Sean Turnell, an informal advisor to the NLD leadership, says agricultural reform will be a key priority once the government takes power early next year.
"Australia has a real lot to contribute now. In a sense Australia's greatest expertise is agriculture (and) agriculture is likely to be a real priority," Turnell told AAP.
"One could imagine Australian advice on that front could become quite significant," he said.
Some 70 per cent of Myanmar's 54 million population still make a living from the rural sector.
Many face high levels of debt. But as part of reforms Myanmar's agriculture bank will be able to provide more credit in the rural sector.
Australia has assisted Myanmar in the drafting of a new mining law, but the legislation has remained bogged down in the parliament.
Turnell expects the legislation to pass once the new government is in place. (Courtesy of TheAustralian)
For more information - Visit here.
"Australia has a real lot to contribute now. In a sense Australia's greatest expertise is agriculture (and) agriculture is likely to be a real priority," Turnell told AAP.
"One could imagine Australian advice on that front could become quite significant," he said.
Some 70 per cent of Myanmar's 54 million population still make a living from the rural sector.
Many face high levels of debt. But as part of reforms Myanmar's agriculture bank will be able to provide more credit in the rural sector.
Australia has assisted Myanmar in the drafting of a new mining law, but the legislation has remained bogged down in the parliament.
Turnell expects the legislation to pass once the new government is in place. (Courtesy of TheAustralian)
For more information - Visit here.
No evidence over Kachin teacher murders
No evidence has been found about the criminals who raped and killed two Kachin volunteer teachers on January 19 this year in northern Shan State.
The police and an investigation commission formed by the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) failed to find any evidence about the murderers, after questioning several Kaunghka villagers, where the murders occurred, said Reverend Zau Ra of Muse Township KBC.
“The case is still under investigation. We plan a press briefing and a prayer service on the first anniversary of the murders,” he added.
Another KBC member said the army had failed to reply to a request for a meeting. (Courtesy of Eleven Myanmar)
For more information - Visit here.
The police and an investigation commission formed by the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) failed to find any evidence about the murderers, after questioning several Kaunghka villagers, where the murders occurred, said Reverend Zau Ra of Muse Township KBC.
“The case is still under investigation. We plan a press briefing and a prayer service on the first anniversary of the murders,” he added.
Another KBC member said the army had failed to reply to a request for a meeting. (Courtesy of Eleven Myanmar)
For more information - Visit here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)