News

Brace yourselves: 2016 could be the hottest year on record, bringing high temperatures, drought and perhaps more flooding to Myanmar, weather experts warn. The culprit is the El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, reckoned to be the most powerful ever, said meteorologist U Tun Lwin. Its ...

The Myanmar government has said it will not respond to Amnesty International’s annual report, in which the rights group on 25 February criticised it for failing to address religious discrimination and human rights abuses. The report also alleged there was an ongoing climate of impunity for ...

In a major nationwide overhaul of education, the government is to hire and train more than 100,000 primary-school teachers to work in a revitalised system, the Department of Education has announced. The extra teachers represent a 25 percent boost to the current workforce, which stands at ...

Myanmar hackers say they have attacked Thai government websites since early January and stolen data, part of a long-running, broader campaign against those critical of Myanmar’s government. The Blink Hacker Group said in Facebook posts and in an email interview that its attacks were in retaliation for ...

Myanmar health authorities have announced another crackdown on the use of chemical dyes in fish paste, setting an April deadline for ensuring markets are free of dangerous brands. Daw Khin Saw Hla, director of the Food and Drug Administration branch in Mandalay, said producers in Ayeyarwady ...

Yangon’s traffic congestion is a major factor in fouling the city’s air, experts say. Speaking at an air quality seminar, Dr Than Htut, a retired head of the Occupational Health Unit, said it was the most important of three major causes of air pollution, the ...

Census data held back last year is still too sensitive to release, officials say. Though the initial results of the 2014 census were released in August of that year and a more detailed statistical picture was made public in May 2015, information about religion and ...

In the midst of a stand-off with local authorities, anti-drug campaign group Pat Ja San is lobbying the National League for Democracy to address the issue of opium poppy cultivation in parliament. The Christian drug-fighting vigilantes – notorious for their hardline tactics – have been encamped ...

Health officials are to continue their polio vaccination campaign beyond the official end of the program, which was on 22 February, as it emerged that even in downtown Yangon less than half the under-fives eligible had been inoculated. The US$4 million Supplementary Polio Immunisation Campaign targeted 4.6 ...

The spectre of drought is already hanging over a Mandalay township, where villagers are being forced to pay K50,000 per load of water as their wells dry up. Taungtha township, Mandalay Region, has been facing water shortages as nearby lakes and wells go dry, said Ko ...