HOUSE OF THE WEEK

Three-storey Mayangone villa

MAYANGONE township is the setting for this three-storey villa with oodles of space and mainstream taste. The pillar- and balcony-heavy façade gives a strong indication of what lies inside- more

Yangon Weather Forecast, Burma

Opening date set for 300-room downtown hotel

AFTER 15 years and almost US$100 million of foreign investment, one of the country’s largest hotel construction projects is nearing completion. Centrepoint Towers Hotel, part of an integrated retail and hotel complex in downtown Yangon, is expected to open in November, the project’s chief executive, Mr Richard Mayhew, told The Myanmar Times via email last week. (Volume 26, No. 507)

UN praises Myanmar govt for anti-human trafficking efforts

MYANMAR and its Southeast Asian neighbours are at the forefront of efforts to combat illegal trafficking in people, an international gathering in Bagan heard this week. (Volume 26, No. 507)

Tourism industry bucks international trend

TOURISTS are flocking back to Myanmar, according to figures just released by the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. More than 227,400 tourists visited Myanmar between January and December 2009, more than 25 percent up on the 170,812 recorded for the year 2008, the ministry announced. (Volume 26, No. 507)

Meditation’s willing audience

THE Christmas and New Year period is often characterised as a time of excess but for thousands of young people from Yangon, the 2009/10 festive season w as one of reflection and meditation. More than 4000 participated in a youth meditation and moral training course held at the Chekinda Yama Monastery in Hmawbi, Yangon Division, from December 14 to January 4, ....(Volume 26, No. 507)

Govt guarantees security of workers in Jordan

THE Myanmar government has stepped in to help ensure the security of Myanmar women workers in Jordan after a factory-floor fight that left several of them injured. (Volume 26, No. 507)

Development training for civil servants

JAPAN’S Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) plans to provide technical assistance to civil servants to help them devise new policies for governance and economic and rural development, SPF advisor Dr Lau Sim Yee said last week. (Volume 26, No. 507)

Myeik resort to open in December

CONSTRUCTION work is underway on a major investment in Myanmar’s hotels and tourism sector: a $15 million, 100-room resort in Myeik. (Volume 26, No. 507)

CERF grants $4 million to humanitarian agencies

THE United Nations and humanitarian agencies operating in Myanmar will form a working group to decide how to allocate US$4 million of new funding, an official from the UN Information Centre in Yangon said last week. (Volume 26, No. 507)

NLD leader meets govt minister

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi met Minister for Relations U Aung Kyi on January 15, their first meeting in 2010, state media announced last week. (Volume 26, No. 507)

Consumers urged to read product packaging

LOCAL experts last week called on consumers to carefully check the labels of products on supermarket shelves to avoid undesirable health side effects. The president of the Myanmar Academy of Medical Science, Professor Chit Soe, said the proliferation of brands in Myanmar had made it more difficult for shoppers to choose the product most suitable for their needs. (Volume 26, No. 507)

Woodcarving on show in Bahan tsp

MORE than 1000 wooden statues carved from old trees are set to go on display at the 2nd Myanmar Arts and Crafts Exhibition from January 25 to February 3 at Sayasan Plaza in Bahan Township, organisers said last week. We decided to make objects of value out of old trees and roots,” said Daw Win Sein ....(Volume 26, No. 507)

Island paradise welcomes visitors

VISIT an unspoiled island paradise – that’s the offer from Myanmar Five Star Line, which is running a five-day tour to Coco Island, off Myanmar’s southern coast. (Volume 26, No. 507)

No deaths in ferry accident

A FERRY operating on the Ngawun River in Ayeyarwady Division sank on January 15 after hitting a submerged reef near Pammawady but no lives were lost in the accident, officials said. (Volume 26, No. 507)

A caliph in the midst of hell

I HAVE been living for more than four mouths in the greatest opium- producing country in the world. That country is Afghanistan, where huge drug revenues are used to buttress political powers; where opium barons lavish their ill-gotten incomes on equipping pocket armies that are as lethal as any Western combat troops. (Volume 26, No. 507)

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