Social development
Lack of ethnic party MPs ‘serious weakness’ in parliament
During the 8 November election, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide, crushing the army-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and surprising many by also winning big in ethnic minority-dominated areas where ethnic political parties had expected ...
Conflicting calls mark peace conference
Key ethnic armed groups are boycotting the talks and more than 100 civil society organisations called for their postponement, but nonetheless President U Thein Sein’s government on 12 January launched the first round of a political dialogue aimed at bringing a permanent end to over six ...
Daw Suu highlights ‘deeply rooted’ educational flaws
Myanmar’s deeply rooted rote learning system is outdated and leads to poor educational standards, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said on 11 January. Improving the country’s education system will be a key challenge for the new administration when it takes over in March. Keep reading ...
Mandalay tent dwellers hope to get public housing
Tent-dwellers on the banks of the Ayeyarwady River in Mandalay may soon be exchanging their canvas walls for bricks and mortar, as the regional government seeks tenants for newly completed low-cost housing. The Mandalay Region government has decided not to charge would-be tenants a deposit amounting ...
Hepatitis survey points to nearly 5 million infected
Nearly 5 million people in Myanmar suffer from a form of hepatitis, health officials say. A nationwide survey conducted last year estimated that about 3.3 million people suffer from hepatitis B and a further 1.3 million live with hepatitis C. Keep reading ...
Antimicrobial program begins
The Ministry of Health on 11 January launched a nationwide program aimed at holding back the spread of drug-resistant diseases. Microbes are continuing to evolve resistance to drugs at an alarming rate all over the world, often due to the unsupervised and inappropriate use of antimicrobials, health ...
UN pressures Thai Government on 82 disappeared
The government has been active in dealing with enforced disappearances, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee said on 7 January. Mr Sek’s comments came after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on 6 January urged the government to step up efforts to investigate the whereabouts of 82 ...
Budget freeze hurts grantees
Thai Health Promotion Foundation’s (ThaiHealth) budget freeze is causing impacts on its grantees, complained civic groups. As a result of the investigation of the Auditing Committee on Fiscal Expenditure, projects funded by ThaiHealth with grants of more than five million baht a year must seek approval ...
Cambodia’s lightning deaths spike in 2015
Deaths from lightning strikes jumped 42.6 per cent year-to-year in 2015, with 107 people killed and another 77 injured across Cambodia, according to statistics released on 5 January by the National Committee for Disaster Management. The numbers represent a marked increase from 2014, when 75 people died ...
Authorities move to clear squatters from town water supply
Pyin Oo Lwin officials are cracking down on forest dwellers squatting near a road construction site alongside the city’s only water supply. The township’s Department of Environmental Conservation and Forestry blamed the squatters around Lake Thit Ta Pin Taung for causing forest degradation by lighting forest ...
