News
Close to bottom of corruption index but improving slightly
Myanmar still languishes among the world’s most corrupt countries although its performance has improved slightly over the past year, according to a global review released on 27 January. Berlin-based graft monitor Transparency International said that with a better score on perceived levels of public sector corruption, ...
“Myanmar is still the third-most malnourished country in Southeast Asia"
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in Myanmar is facing a funding shortfall of $51 million to meet all the needs till the end of 2016. The organisation, which has a 250-strong staff in the country, says it provided food and cash assistance to ...
Up to 30 feared dead in two Hpakant landslips
Deadly landslips have brought more death to Kachin State as two separate collapses in one day at the Hpakant jade mines claimed an unknown number of victims. Local residents fear as many as 30 people may have lost their lives. The first of the two landslides ...
Hundreds of families evicted from Mingalardon
Heavy machinery reduced the homes of several hundred families to rubble in Yangon’s Mingalardon township early on 26 January, leaving residents in the rain with their meager possessions. The families were designated as squatters on the 560 acres of land leased to military-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings ...
Myanmar allows 40 percent foreign ownership in condominiums
Myanmar’s Union Parliament approved on 22 January the draft Condominium Law to allow 40-per-cent foreign ownership. Under the law, foreigners can buy up to 40 per cent of condominium units. Keep reading ...
Emergency ambulances to make ‘death highway’ less lethal
Myanmar’s notorious “death highway” might become a little less deadly as plans go forward to set up an emergency ambulance service along the route. Hospitals along the Yangon-Nay Pyi Taw-Mandalay Highway are taking part in the scheme. Keep reading ...
Mrauk-U conservation seen as reconstructing not preserving
Heritage zones in Myanmar’s Mrauk-U, Rakhine State, are under threat due to renovations that have altered the designs of ancient pagodas, the Mrauk-U Heritage Trust claims. The Department of Archaeology and the National Museum in Sittwe are both operating construction sites. Keep reading ...
Conf : Religious leaders needed in peace process
President U Thein Sein attended this weekend’s World Peace Buddhist Conference, organised by the deputy chair of the nationalist hardline group Ma Ba Tha. Held at the Sitagu Academy’s Sagaing campus, the event was self-described as bringing together dozens of leaders from all religions to counter ...
Opium poppy farmers reject crop ban, war on drugs
Opium poppy farmers from Myanmar attending an international conference on “prohibited plants” have rejected a ban on growing their crops and urged an end to forced eradication. “We reject prohibition and the war on drugs,” small-scale farmers from 14 countries, including Myanmar, said in a joint ...
Five Myanmar cities better equipped to monitor earthquakes
As a country lodged on some of the most seismically active faults during what scientists suggest may be a particularly active period, Myanmar is boosting its ability to predict earthquakes. New digital seismographs will be set up in five cities across the country by the end ...
