News
Vietnam, Laos to bolster special ties
Laos and Vietnam should continue to step up public awareness campaigns to strengthen the special solidarity and traditional friendship between the Parties and peoples of both nations, a senior Lao Party official said in a meeting with Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in ...
State-owned telecom slashes landline fees as users go mobile
Burma’s state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) on 15 July halved the price of landline phone installation after years of wringing the country’s monopolized communications market. The fixed phone rate has been pinned at a staggering 650,000 kyat (US$565) rate for more than a decade. Twenty years ...
Shelling sends civilians fleeing in Shan State
More than 100 people from Kaung Kha village in Muse Township have fled their homes after artillery shells were fired into the settlement on 13 July, reportedly leaving one person dead and two others injured. The displaced villagers told The Irrawaddy that the artillery bombardment began ...
Myanmar navy rescues 102 boat people
The Myanmar navy has rescued more than a hundred Bangladeshi boat people from an islet near the country’s southernmost region, an official report said on 14 July. They were left on the small islet in early June and the Myanmar navy is searching the area for ...
Beer competition brews as Heineken launches in Myanmar
Dutch giant Heineken opened its US$60 million brewery on 12 July, with its locally developed Regal Seven lager beer set to hit store shelves shortly. The brewer will also face the unusual situation of competing against one of its own beers. It owns Tiger beer, but ...
Villages hope to get rich from Myanmar's oil rush
Once-quiet Myanmar villages have become oil boomtowns made out of bamboo and metal, and powered by generators. Speculators must pay both local authorities and the villagers whose land they want to drill on. And if they do strike oil, they better hope it’s not too ...
After slavery, trafficked fishermen face lonely road to recovery
Hundreds of fishermen were rescued from slavery on Thai fishing boats off the coast of Indonesia earlier this year. Trafficked and sold to work on the boats, the men – mostly from Myanmar and Cambodia – had endured beatings, abuse and torture. After they were freed, ...
NLD commits to contesting November election
The Burmese opposition party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi announced 11 July it will contest the general election on Nov. 8, an effort that is expected to strongly challenge the ruling military-backed party. “We will contest the election to continue implementing the democratic transition ...
3 activists sentenced to 4 months for prayer in central Burma
Three activists have been sentenced to four months in prison for holding a prayer session in support of student demonstrations earlier this year, the latest in a string of convictions for violating Burma’s controversial Peaceful Assembly Law. Myint Myint Aye, 57, Khin May Si, 65, and ...
Time to set the Kyat free
The Burmese kyat has recently fallen. Down around 13 percent this year, and 26 percent since the instigation of the “managed float” arrangements in 2012, the decline in the kyat has also brought with it a return of many of the economically repressive impulses of ...
