Vol. II, No. 212, 8th Waxing Day of Tazaungmon 1377 ME Thursday, 19 November, 2015

Page 8

Myanmar’s most urgent issues

President U Thein Sein to attend 27th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits

Ye Myint

Page 3Page 3

Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker meets with ambassadors from China, EU

en route to dialoguegovt, ethnic orgs, political parties to appoint uPdJC members

analYSiS

realtors, experts see little impact from planned launch of stock exchange

THE Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee will be formed with a total of 48 members—16 each from the government, eth-nic armed groups and political parties—to lead political dia-logues, said U Aung Min, the vice chairman of the Union Peacemaking Working Commit-tee on Wednesday.

Speaking on the second-day of the meeting of the Joint Im-plementation Coordination Meeting of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement yesterday in Nay Pyi Taw, U Aung Min also reiterated that a framework for political dialogues would be drafted within 60 days after the UPDJC is formed.

During the meeting, Pado Saw Kwe Htoo Win, the general secretary of the Karen Nation-al Union, stressed the impor-tance of implementing political dialogues in line with the Na-tionwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), which was signed on 15 October between the Union government and eight ethnic armed groups, calling on rep-resentatives from other groups to cooperate with each other as part of the effort to end Myan-mar’s armed conflicts and to launch political dialogues.

Meetings for drafting the framework for political dia-logue are expected to start be-fore 14 December 2015, ac-cording to the timeline of the

ceasefire terms. Political dia-logue is expected to start before 14 January, as it must begin within 90 days after the political framework is signed by the joint committee.

Vice President Dr Sai Mauk Kham said that the second meet-ing held on Tuesday in Nay Pyi Taw was another step toward implementing the NCA.

The vice president also

praised the level of coordina-tion between the JICM and the ethnic armed groups to form the committee and include political parties in its processes, urging all stakeholders to maintain the current status quo and carry on the remaining tasks of the JICM.

There have been no clashes between the army and the eight ethnic armed group signatories since the ceasefire was signed

on 15 October.Also at the meeting, a Un-

ion-level joint committee for monitoring the ceasefire was formed with 10 representa-tives each from the govern-ment and from the eight ethnic armed groups, plus six civilians proposed by the both sides, to-taling 26.

The Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups

agreed at the first committee meeting on October 31 that both sides would meet certain re-quirements within the 30 days after the signing of the NCA on 15 October.

The two sides were set to draw up a political framework within 60 days after the formal signing of the NCA and start a political dialogue within 90 days.—Myanmar News Agency

DESPITE predictions that the country’s property market will be strengthened by next month’s opening of the Yangon Stock Exchange, some realtors and ex-perts have doubts as to whether the stock exchange will have any impact at all.

“No immediate impact on the real estate sector can be seen because Myanmar people are un-familiar with the country’s first stock market, or stock markets in

general,” said Sai Khun Naung, a realtor.

The realtor stressed the need for the future government’s in-volvement in the provision of stable policies for the currently stalling property market, predict-ing that with effective policies, a bounce-back would occur.

“Myanmar’s real estate sec-tor will begin growing following the emergence of the new capital market for investors and develop-ers,” Deputy Minister for Finance Dr Maung Maung Thein said

during the question-and-answer session after his recent talk on the Yangon Stock Exchange and Myanmar’s economic develop-ment potential.

The deputy minister, who is also the chairman of the Securi-ties and Exchange Commission of Myanmar, gave an example of how Vietnamese developers have invested in Myanmar’s property market, saying that their money came from selling shares on the stock market.

According to the deputy

minister, the Yangon Stock Ex-change is ready to begin trading and is tentatively scheduled to open on 9 December.

According to housing agents, the recent downward trend of the property market continues, with sales slumping by over 50 percent across the country. The situation has forced potential buyers as well as inves-tors to become cautious—a poor indicator of market strength and positive potential.

The property market is not

likely to have a significant impact on the planned launch of the new capital market, said realtors, pre-dicting a possible drop in residen-tial prices due to the introduction of new homes and condos to the market next year.

Compared to 2015 when, for various reasons, the market stag-nated with a slump in both sales and rentals, the property market will be alive next year, said Man-aging Director U Nay Min Thu of iMyanmarHouse.com.

See page 3 >>

A Union-level joint committee for monitoring the ceasefire was formed with 26 representatives during the second day meeting of the Joint Implementation Coordination meeting of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. Photo: MyanMar news agency

2 Parliament 19 November 2015

Amyotha HluttawPyithu Hluttaw

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw

Amyotha Hluttaw RoundupMEMBERS of parliament discussed three bills and submitted one on the third day of the current Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House) session yesterday.

U Phone Myint Aung of Yangon Region Constituency No 3 discussed the Suppression of Prostitution Act (1949), while Dr Banya Aung Moe of Mon State Constituency No 7 focused on the Technical and Vocational Educa-tion Bill. U Shu Maung of Shan State Constituency No 8 made

comments about the Basic Educa-tion Bill.

Chairman of the Amyotha Hluttaw Bill Committee U Khin Maung Yi read the committee re-port on the bill amending the Arms Act, submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Hluttaw decided to re-view discussions over Suppres-sion of Prostitution Act (1949) and Technical and Vocational Education Bill. —Myanmar News Agency

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw RoundupTHE 13th regular session of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament) yesterday approved a bill amending the Blood and Blood Products Law and the Body Organ Donation Law.

The Hluttaw recorded the allotment of separate funds un-der the Union Financial Law and extended the term of the Py-idaungsu Hluttaw Projects and Financial Development Joint Committee.

Secretary of the Joint Bill Committee U Saw Hla Tun read the committee report on the Con-

dominium Bill.Deputy Minister for Nation-

al Planning and Economic De-velopment Daw Lei Lei Thein explained 10 chapters of the sec-ond biannual national planning report for the 2014-15 fiscal year, submitted by the Union Govern-ment.

U Aye Mauk of Mahlaing Constituency, who is the secre-tary of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Joint Committee for Projects and Financial Development, read the report on national planning.—Myanmar News Agency

Pyithu Hluttaw roundup

THE Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation has been changing the cultivation patterns for new pad-dy species in response to and in preparation for the effects of cli-mate change on Myanmar agri-culture.

Deputy Minister U Ohn Than explained the policy on the third-day of the Pyithu Hluttaw session yesterday.

U Than Myint of Wundwin Constituency asked what plans were in place to prevent climate change from damaging agricul-ture and about the implementation

of the national water harvesting campaign (NWHC).

The deputy minister said the National Water Resources Com-mittee will lead the implementa-tion of the national water harvest-ing campaign.

U Hla Maung of Chaungzon Constituency asked questions re-garding the successful testing of a new paddy species that displays a resistance to seawater, and about plans to distribute quality paddy seeds to the townships that have suffered the encroachment of ocean tides.

Deputy Minister U Ohn Than replied that the Agricultural Research Department began the distribution of Hsinthwelatt and Pyimyanmar Sein paddy strains in 2013 and 2014. The new species are better able to resist seawater due technological advancements. Currently, farms run by depart-ment distribute quality paddy seeds to local farmers.

On the same day,the Joint Bill Committee read the bills to amend the Foreign Investment Law and the Myanmar Investment Law.—Myanmar News Agency

Travellers with life jackets visit Inlay Lake, Nyaungshwe Township. Photo: Moht

Southern Shan State sees sharp tourism increaseAN increasing number of foreign tourists are visiting des-tinations in southern Shan State, such as Taunggyi, Inlay, Kalaw and Pindaya, all of which can be reached easily via Heho by plane or by express bus from Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Tachilek and Kengtung.

Inlay Lake, which is situ-ated 2,950 feet above sea level, continues to be a popular tourist destination. The traditions of its indigenous Inntha people, in-cluding their handloom-woven traditional clothes, metallurgical works and pottery, as well as water birds and herbal plants and famous pagodas nearby, attract

thousands of foreign tourists.The number of foreign tour-

ists to the region increased from 60,017 in 2012 to 123,045 in 2014, and a total of 96,993 for-eign tourists have visited Inle re-gion this year as of October.

Taunggyi boasts excellent scenery, as well as the ancient pagoda complexes of Mwedawk-etku, Panetaloke Lake and Shwe Oo Min cave.

The hill resort of Kalaw is home to Danu, Taungyo, Palaung, Pa-O, Shan and Bamar ethnic communities. A total of 12,561 foreign tourists had visited the Kalaw area this year as of Octo-ber.—Myanmar News Agency

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw MPs focus on approving bills during their remaining term. Photo: MNA

U Than Myint of Wundwin Constituency. Photo: MNA

U Hla Maung of Chaungzon Constit-uency. Photo: MNA

Deputy Minister U Ohn Than. Photo: MNA

U Phone Myint Aung of Yangon Region Constituency No 3. Photo: MNA

U Shu Maung of Shan State Constituency No 8. Photo: MNA

national 319 November 2015

Realtors, experts see little impact from planned launch of stock exchange>> From page 1

The current cooling trend for the real estate sector will re-bound with a slight drop in hous-ing prices expected to be trig-gered by a shift of public interest in investment in the new capital market, the managing director added.

According to developers, the country’s real estate market has the potential for remarkable

profits and has been attracting not only business people but also individuals to invest in the sector since early 2013.

Sky rocketing land prices brought about the downward trend in the overheated property market. Sales and rentals have become sluggish, and the immi-nent bursting of the market bub-ble has been forecast since the start of this year.

A view of a building under construction from across Inya Lake in Yangon, the country’s commercial city. Photo: Ye MYint

SpeAker of the pyithu Hluttaw Thura U Shwe Mann met sepa-rately with the ambassador of the people’s republic of China Mr Hong Lian and the european Un-ion’s ambassador Mr roland ko-

bia at the pyithu Hluttaw building hall in Nay pyi Taw yesterday.

The meetings were also at-tended by U Hla Myint Oo, the chairman of pyithu Hluttaw In-ternational relations Committee,

U khin Maung Tun and Daw Aye Aye Mu, members of the Le-gal Affairs and Special Cases As-sessment Committee, as well as officials from the Pyithu Hluttaw Office.—Myanmar News Agency

U THeIN SeIN, president of the republic of the Union of Myanmar, will pay a visit to Malaysia to attend the 27th ASeAN Summit and related Summits in the near future at the invitation of Honourable Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul razak, prime Minister of Malaysia.—Myanmar News Agency

THe ASeAN editors Confer-ence will take place in kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 3 and 4 December. More than 100 ed-itors from news agencies and print and electronic media will attend the annual event, which aims to highlight the role of the media in ASeAN, which is home to 630 million people.

The conference will focus on difficulties of media arena in ASeAN region, the role of media and further strengthening of media communication in the region.

Malaysia held the ASe-AN chairmanship in 2015, after Myanmar did so last year.—Shin Min

reNeWABLe energy plays a vital role in supplying fuel to meet market demands, Myan-mar’s Union Minister for Sci-ence and Technology Dr ko ko Oo said at the energy Dialogue between russia and ASeAN in the Field of renewable energy and Clean energy Technologies at Hotel Amara in Nay pyi Taw yesterday.

He said the ministry is implementing the legal frame-work, policies, tactics and road-

maps for a national renewable energy sector.

professor Mr Vadim A Yakovlev of the Boreskov Insti-tute of Catalysis (BIC) in russia discussed energy technologies.

Officials of the ministry and those from russia and ASe-AN countries submitted papers on renewable and clean energy technologies.

The meetings will continue until Friday.—Myanmar News Agency

kOreA International Coopera-tion Agency (kOICA) and Min-istry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MOAI) held an ground-break-ing ceremony on construction of agricultural machinery training center in Myanmar in Nay pyi Taw on 17 November.

kOICA is implementing the project named ‘Farmland Con-solidation and Agricultural Ma-chinery Training for Agricultur-al Mechanization’ from 2013 to 2016 with 6 milion USD in order to promote the agricultural devel-opment in Myanmar. It will help

expand more arable farm land to increase the land utilization and improve agricultural productivi-ty. In collaboration with MOAI, kOICA has completed 100 hec-tare pilot consolidation as one of the main component of the pro-ject. The construction of Agricul-tural Machinery Training Center with scale of 3,476 square metres will be completed by the second half of 2016.

Chief resident represent-ative of the kOICA Myanmar Office Mr. Nam Kwon Hyoung delivered his congratulatory

speech, “Farm mechanization is very imminent issue to maximize tremendous agricultural poten-tial in Myanmar.” He also men-tioned, “Agricultural Machinery Training Center will play a vital role to expand utilization of farm machinery as well as increase in agricultural productivity in My-anmar.”

U Soe Hlaing, Director-Gen-eral of Agricultural Mechaniza-tion Department, and officials from Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation attended the ceremo-ny.—KOICA

President U Thein Sein to attend 27th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits

Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker meets with ambassadors from China, EU

KOICA constructs Agricultural Machinery Training Center

Malaysia to host ASEAN Editors Conference

Myanmar, Russia, ASEAN focus on role of renewable and clean energy

Participants pose for documentary photo at ground-breaking ceremony on construction of agricultural machinery training center. Photo: KoiCA

Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw Thura U Shwe Mann holds talks with European Union’s ambassador Mr Roland Kobia. Photo: MnA

4 LocaL News 19 November 2015

THE Rural Development Depart-ment in Natogyi Township hand-ed over the building of No 1 in-ter-district road to the Department of Highways.

At present, the Department of Highways is maintaining roads and bridges in the township under the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Construction, Town-ship Engineer Daw Theint Theint Tun said.

The inter-district road is 30 miles shorter than the 95-mile Myingyan-Mandalay Road and will be more suitable for cargo trucks and commercial vehicles.

The Department of High-ways will soon begin construction of three concrete bridges and eight pipe culverts. Engineers from the department are currently placing asphalt on a 3-mile section of the road.—Htay Myint Maung

Inter-district road construction in Natogyi Township

A FIELD day of Ngwechi-9 and Shwedaung-8 long staple cotton plantations was held on farmland in Yanaung village, Pyawbwe Township, Mandalay Region, on Tuesday.

Head of Township Agri-

culture Department U Nay Win explained the characteristics of quality cotton species, the preven-tion of pests, the market price of cotton and the economic develop-ment of local cotton growers.

A farmer said, “I grow one

acre of Shwedaung-8 cotton and two acres of Ngwechi-9 cotton with the technical assistance of the Township Agriculture Depart-ment. In November, I will harvest my plantations. It costs about K200,000 (155USD) per acre to

cultivate. I expect my plantations will yield 1,600 kilo of cotton per acre, netting me about K800,000 (620 USD) per acre based on K1,100 per 1.6 kilos of cotton.”

The field day was also at-tended by Deputy Director U Lin

Myat of the Yamethin District Agriculture Department and the Chairman of the Township Agri-cultural Coordination Committee U Min Ko Ko in addition to a number of lesser officials.—Min Min Htwe (Pyawbwe)

Farmers expect high yield of long staple cotton

Entrepreneurs give talks on successTHE Mandalay Region Cham-bers of Commerce and Industry, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Committee, US-AID and Myanmar-Germany Cooperation Group held a talk on success in entrepreneurship at the hall of the MRCCI in Chanayethazan Township on Tuesday.

Both the Chairman of the chamber U Aung Than and the Chairman of the SME Develop-ment Committee U Win Htay

spoke at the event. Member of the entrepreneurs association U Aung Myint Tun, U Tin Latt of Chindwin College, U Soe Myint Than, writer U Moe, U Ye Myat Thu of the computer profession-als association, Daw Thiri Khit of computer industrialists asso-ciation and youth entrepreneur Daw Su Mon Toe gave lectures on overcoming challenges in business and prospects for the 2016 economic situation.—Thi-ha Ko Ko (Mandalay)

Honda Spike vehicle donated to Hpa-an Township Red Cross BattalionMAJOR Thein Zaw Min and his wife of the Border Guard Force in Kayin State donated a Honda spike to the Hpa-an Township Red Cross Society yesterday.

Commander of the Town-ship Police Force Police Major Myint Aye, who is also com-

manding officer of the Town-ship Red Cross Battalion, spoke at the event.

Major Thein Zaw Min handed over ownership of the vehicle to deputy commanding officer of the Red Cross bat-talion U Thaung Tun Aung.—Saw Myo Min Thein (IPRD)

This lush and green cotton plantaion will be hope for grower. Photo: Min Min htwe

Upgarding of inter-district road in Natogyi Township. Photo: htay Myint Maung

regional 519 November 2015

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APEC leaders to pledge push for free trade, anti-terrorism measuresMANILA — Leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific economies will pledge to step up efforts to realise their ambitious trade initiative and combat terrorism to keep growth from getting derailed, ac-cording to a draft joint declara-tion obtained yesterday by Kyodo News.

The leaders of the Asia-Pa-cific Economic Cooperation fo-rum members gathered in Manila yesterday to hold a two-day meeting. A major agenda item will be how to push ahead with their ultimate goal of establishing a broad free trade zone under the Free-Trade Area of the Asia-Pa-cific framework.

Discussions will be intensi-fied in particular after 12 coun-tries, all APEC members, con-cluded years of negotiations last month to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc that covers 40 percent of the global econo-my.

“We reaffirm our commit-ment to advance the process in a comprehensive and systematic manner towards the eventual re-alization of the FTAAP as a ma-jor instrument to further APEC’s regional economic integration agenda,” the draft joint declara-tion reads.

The TPP and other regional

trade pacts under negotiation have been considered as funda-mental steps toward creating the ambitious FTAAP free trade zone.

“We note the recent devel-opment on the free trade agree-ments in the region and the pro-gress of the possible pathways to the FTAAP, including the finali-zation of Trans-Pacific Partner-ship negotiations,” the draft

notes.It goes on to say the mem-

bers also “encourage the early completion of negotiations for (the) Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership” which is seen as another mega multilateral trade initiative that the Associa-tion of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan and India, along with three other partners, are seeking to establish.

A summit of the 12 countries involved in the US-led TPP was also held Wednesday on the side-lines of the APEC summit.

“While our focus is on ap-proval and implementation of the results of negotiations with our current partners, we have also seen interest from a number of economies throughout the re-gion,” the leaders said in a state-ment issued after the TPP meet-

ing. The trade treaty “isn’t (just) about boosting exports between our countries in the Asia-Pacific. The TPP is also helping to write the rules of global trade for the 21st century,” US President Ba-rack Obama, the chair of the meeting, said.

The APEC leaders are also set to denounce terrorist acts and agree to cooperate in counter-measures after 129 people were killed with hundreds wounded in terrorist attacks in Paris last Fri-day, according to the draft.

“Under the shadow cast by the terrorist attack against the Russian aircraft over Sinai, and the attacks in Paris, Beirut, and elsewhere, we strongly condemn all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism in all their forms and manifestations,” the draft said. “We will not allow terrorism to threaten the fundamental values that underpin our free and open economies.”

The APEC forum, estab-lished in 1989, groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guin-ea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.—Kyodo News

Leaders take a question from the floor during a APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) dialogue at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Manila, Philippines on 18 November 2015. Photo: ReuteRs

Militants execute Malaysian captive in Philippines: Malaysian governmentKUALA LUMPUR — A small al Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group has executed a Malaysian businessman held captive since May on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, the Malaysian government said yesterday.

The Philippine military ear-lier said it was investigating credible intelligence reports that Abu Sayyaf militants had be-headed Bernard Then on Tues-day.

On his Facebook page, Ma-laysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was shocked and sickened at the killing and de-manded the perpetrators be brought to justice. Asked by Reuters if the man was behead-ed, Deputy Home Affairs Minis-ter Nur Jazlan Mohamed would only say his death was “violent”.

Philippine Brigadier-Gener-al Alan Arrojado, army com-mander on Jolo, said the Malay-sian was killed in the town of Indanan.

While the execution is far to the south of the capital Manila, where world leaders including US President Barack Obama are attending the Asia-Pacific Eco-nomic Cooperation (APEC) summit, it is a reminder of the security challenges small Isla-mist groups still pose to the Phil-ippines.

Jolo is a stronghold of Abu

Sayyaf, a group known for bomb attacks, kidnappings and behead-ings. It frequently seeks ransom in return for freeing hostages.

The businessman and a Ma-laysian woman were abducted in May from a Chinese seafood res-taurant in a coastal town in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, on Borneo island, and taken to Jolo.

Last week, Abu Sayyaf freed the woman after reports a

ransom was paid for her release.Arrojado said an earlier in-

telligence report indicated Abu Sayyaf planned to behead the man if a ransom was not paid. In September, Abu Sayyaf kid-napped two Canadians, a Norwe-gian and a Filipino from an up-scale beach resort in the southern Philippines. They have demand-ed 1 billion pesos (14 million pounds) for each of the cap-tives.—Reuters

Soldiers stand guard as they are deployed to remote villages in Jolo, Sulu southern Philippines. Photo: ReuteRs

BANGKOK — Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said yesterday the government has designated 2016 as “the year of investment” through positive contributions from stimulus packages, tax in-centives, law improvement and infrastructure development pro-jects, urging private sectors to invest more.

In a seminar on “Thailand’s Economic Outlook 2016,” he said that the country’s economy will improve next year due to government expenditure and in-vestment, adding that invest-ment from the private sector could significantly support the growth.

Early on Monday, Thai au-thorities forecast that national growth domestic product will expand by 2.9 percent by the end of the year and projected it to grow by 3.0-4.0 percent in 2016.

Somkid said the govern-ment has a policy of enhancing the country’s competitiveness, and shifting the economic struc-ture from the agricultural indus-try to high-tech or value-added industries such as robotics, avia-tion, logistics and bio-econo-my.—Kyodo News

Thai government designates 2016 as ‘year of investment’

6 regional 19 November 2015

SE Asia faces threat of Islamic State-styled terror attacksKUALA LUMPUR — Southeast Asia faces the threat of Islamic State-inspired attacks designed to “glamorise terror-ism”, a Malaysian minister said yesterday, voicing fears of bat-tle-hardened fighters returning from Syria to launch Paris-style attacks.

In September, Malaysian police thwarted a plot to deto-nate bombs in Kuala Lumpur’s vibrant tourist area of Bukit Bin-tang. Other recent plots frustrat-ed by Malaysian security forc-es included plans to raid army camps and seize weapons.

“I think the Paris situation can also be transplanted here, in Southeast Asia, where we also have fertile ground for recruit-ment of such operatives who will receive directives from Syria to carry out attacks,” Nur Jazlan Mohamed, Malaysia’s deputy home minister, said in an inter-view.

“Such attacks, they hope, will glamorize terrorism and therefore attract more people to join their cause,” he said, sin-gling out tourist and entertain-ment centres in the region as

a favoured targets. Terrorism is high on the agenda of world leaders gathered in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit, in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people.

And the minister’s com-ments follow news of the exe-cution this week of a Malaysian businessman in the Philippines by Abu Sayyaf, and Islamist mil-itant group that had past links to al Qaeda but has more recently shown support for Islamic State.

Estimates suggests that more that 500 Indonesians, over 40 Malaysians and a handful of Singaporeans have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of others were arrested or detained before they could leave the coun-try. In Malaysia, 150 terror sus-pects have been arrested since Islamic State rose to prominence in 2013.

Counter-terrosism will doubtless be on the agenda when Southeast Asian leader gather in Kuala Lumpur next week for a regional summit, and security has been ratcheted up in the Ma-

laysian capital.“We have upgraded our se-

curity information at immigra-tion to make sure there are no suspicious foreigners coming into country and activated an-ti-terrorism unit locally,” Nur Jazlan said.

Enforcement officials and security experts fear Malaysian militants hiding in Southern Philippines are trying to bring to-gether groups in Malaysia, Indo-nesia and Philippines to form a regional branch of Islamic State.

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the al Qaeda linked group that carried out th Bali bombings in 2002 that killed over 200 people, that could be used to build a network.

JI has been most active in Indonesia, but has had cells in several other Southeast Asian countries, whereas there is an array of smaller Islamist militant groups, like Abu Sayyaf, operat-ing more locally in the region.

“These groups are just look-ing for an umbrella organisation and IS is becoming that organ-isation for these disparate and separate groups to get together,” said Nur Jazlan.—Reuters

UN denies Secretary-General Ban will visit North Korea next weekUnItEd Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon will not visit North Korea next week, a UN spokesman said in a statement yesterday after China’s Xinhua news agency reported that he will visit the North on Monday and stay for about four days.

The statement released by the spokesman’s office said Ban will be in New York and then travel to Malta for the Commonwealth Summit, which starts on 27 No-vember. From there, he will travel to Paris for the UN summit on cli-mate change, which begins on 30 November.

“The Secretary-General will not be travelling to the dPRK next week,” the spokesman said, using the short-form name for the democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“The Secretary-General has repeatedly said that he is willing to play any constructive role, in-cluding travelling to the dPRK, in an effort to work for peace, sta-bility and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula.”

A report by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency yesterday cit-ing north Korea’s official KCnA news agency said Ban would visit for about four days starting Mon-day, and that his itinerary was now being confirmed.

On Monday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said Ban would visit the North Korean cap-ital this week, citing an unnamed

UN source. The North is under multiple Un Security Council res-olutions for its missile and nuclear tests, as well as separate US and EU sanctions.

the Un spokesman’s office on Monday said it had no com-ment on the reported planned vis-it, but that Ban has always said he is ready to play a role to help dialogue and peace on the Korean peninsula.

Two serving UN chiefs have travelled to the North. Kurt Waldheim visited the capital, Pyongyang, in 1979 and again in 1981, followed by Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993.

Ban, a South Korean, had earlier this year made plans to visit

an industrial park in the North op-erated jointly by the two Koreas. But Pyongyang retracted approval for the trip at the last minute with-out explanation.

Ban served as South Ko-rea’s foreign minister from 2004 to 2006, a period of intense mul-tinational negotiations aimed at ending the North’s nuclear pro-gramme. Those talks led to a 2005 deal that later fell apart.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The two Koreas in August held high-level talks to end a tense standoff at their border and try to improve ties.—Reuters

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, deputy chief of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami waves from a car as police arrest him in Dhaka. Photo: ReuteRs

Bangladesh opposition leaders to hang for war crimes

dHAKA — Bangladesh’s Supreme Court yesterday re-jected final appeals from two opposition leaders against death sentences for atrocities com-mitted during the 1971 war of independence, rulings that are likely to spark protests by their supporters.

Muslim-majority Bangla-desh has seen a rise in Islamist violence in recent months, with two foreigners and four secular writers and a publisher killed this year.

Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mu-jahid, 67, secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of five charges in-cluding torture and the murders of intellectuals and minority Hindus while he commanded Al Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, during the war to break away from Pakistan.

Salahuddin Quader Chow-dhury, 66, former legislator from former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BnP), was convicted in October 2013 on charges of genocide, religious persecution, abduction and torture during the war.

“The entire nation is hap-py with the verdicts,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters outside the packed court amid tight security.

The rulings mean the two could be hanged at any time un-less they seek mercy from the president.

Mujahid, social welfare minister from 2001 to 2006 un-der Khaleda, would be the first former minister and the third to be hanged while Chowdhury would be the first BnP leader to go to the gallows unless they are granted clemency.

“It is up to them whether they want to seek mercy or not,” defence counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain told reporters.

Just a few hours before the rulings, an Italian priest was

wounded in the latest attack on foreigners in Bangladesh. Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for earli-er attacks on foreigners.

The government, how-ever, rejected Islamic State’s claim and blamed the growing violence in Bangladesh on its domestic political opponents linked to Islamist parties.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina opened an inquiry into crimes committed during the war in 2010, paving the way for prosecutions by a war crimes tribunal that Islamists have de-nounced as part of a politically motivated campaign aimed at weakening Jamaat-e-Islami’s leadership.

Two Jamaat leaders have been executed, one in decem-ber 2013 and another in April. They declined to seek clemency from the president.

US lawmakers and interna-tional human rights groups say the tribunal’s procedures fall short of international standards.

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, set up by the US Congress, has expressed “serious concerns” over the death penalties.

defence counsel for Mu-jahid were intimidated and ar-rested, the commission said this week citing reports, while pre-mier Hasina’s reported call to “try the war criminals quickly” raised concerns over whether due process had been observed.

No Peace Without Justice, a non-profit organisation based in Italy, has called the tribunal’s proceedings “a weapon of polit-ically influenced revenge whose real aim is to target the political opposition”.

The government denies the accusations. East Pakistan broke away to become inde-pendent Bangladesh after the war between India and Paki-stan. About three million people were killed.—Reuters

Photo: ReuteRs

world 719 November 2015

German spy head says public events must go ahead despite security fears

BERLIN — Germany should not be cowed by the threat of Islamic State violence, the head of the domestic intelligence services said yesterday, after an interna-tional soccer game was cancelled due to fears of an attack.

With security worries run-ning high in Europe after shoot-ings and bombings in Paris last Friday which killed at least 129 people, BfV president Hans-Georg Maassen said Germany, like other Western states, is an enemy of Islamic State (IS).

IS has claimed responsibili-ty for the Paris attacks.

“If IS can hit us, if IS can carry out terror attacks in Ger-many, it will do so — that is our big concern,” Maassen said in an

interview with broadcaster ARD.But Germany should not

cancel big public events in re-sponse to those fears.

“No, I would not recom-mend that at all,” said Maassen, though he defended the decision on Tuesday evening to cancel Germany’s soccer match against the Netherlands in Hanover, which Chancellor Angela Merkel had been due to attend.

“I can say we had very con-crete leads that led us to give our recommendation to the German government (to cancel the match),” said Maassen.

“It is a lead that we must take very, very seriously,” he said, without giving further de-tails. He declined to confirm me-

dia reports that a tip-off came from French intelligence sourc-es.

After the stadium was evac-uated, officials said no arrests were made and no explosives found. Media reported there were fears of explosives in the stadium.

Later, police in Hanover re-moved a suspicious package on a train way on its way to southern Germany before giving the all clear.

German police say more than 750 suspected Islamists have travelled to the Middle East from Germany and the authori-ties know of about 70 who have returned from military training camps.—Reuters

MOSCOW — Russia is not changing its plans for air strikes in Syria after the Kremlin said that a bomb did bring down a Russian passenger plane that crashed in Egypt on 31 Octo-ber, the Kremlin’s spokesman said yesterday.

Dmitry Peskov told jour-nalists on a conference call that the air strikes alone could not fully succeed in fighting the Is-lamic State and must be sup-ported by land operations that are being conducted by the Syrian army. —Reuters

Kremlin says no change to air strike plans in Syria

PARIS — A Belgian Islamic State militant suspected of masterminding last week’s Paris shootings was one of the targets of a police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis yesterday, a judicial source said.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, initially thought to have pulled the strings from Syria, was be-lieved to be among a group of people holed up in an apart-

ment in the northern suburb near the national soccer stadi-um, which was one of the sites attacked by suicide bombers last week, the source said.

“The operation is still un-der way. It’s not over,” local member of parliament Mathieu Hanotin said on France Inter radio. “Everyone must stay in-doors. There are still gunmen holed up in the apartment.”—Reuters

Suspected Belgian mastermind of Paris attacks sought in raid

BELGRADE — Serbian Justice Minister Nikola Selak-ovic has said that the Security Service Coordination Bureau has fully prepared all opera-tional plans to implement in case Austria, Germany and Slo-venia closed their state borders.

Selakovic said after a meeting of the Bureau on Tues-day evening that “we will not wrap our country in barbed wire and various kinds of fenc-es and walls.”

Selakovic said that the Bu-

reau had also decided that the competent security services, particularly intelligence servic-es, were to drastically step up their activities and enforce all necessary measures to protect people and property on the ter-ritory of Serbia.

The Bureau also analysed the situation concerning securi-ty and stability in Republika Srpska, and possible responses and all available measures of protection in case of potential terrorist acts.—Tanjug

Selakovic: Bureau has plans ready if others close borders

PRISTINA — A hand grenade was thrown into the backyard of the Kosovo’s Constitutional Court building in the centre of Pristina yesterday morning, a senior police official said, add-ing it “exploded in a controlled manner.”

The Constitutional Court

building which is near Koso-vo’s government building was surrounded by police and bomb squad units, Reuters witness reported.

The official, who declined to be named gave no further details on the explosion. —Reuters

Hand grenade explodes in backyard of Kosovo court building

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her top ministers will hold a special meeting on se-curity issues yesterday after an international soccer match was cancelled on Tuesday evening on fears of a planned attack, two government

sources said. The talks, which will probably also include in-telligence chiefs, will take place after a regular full cabi-net meeting.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has cancelled several other engagements to at-tend.—Reuters

Germany holds special security cabinet meeting: govt sources

NewS IN BrIef

Heavy armed police patrol at the train station in Hanover after the match was called off by police due to a security threat. Photo: ReuteRs

Cuba blames US for migrant crisis in Central AmericaHAVANA — Cuba’s Communist government on Tuesday blamed the United States’ Cold War-era immigra-tion law for a migrant crisis in which more than 1,000 Cubans have been getting stuck at Cen-tral American border crossings in an attempt to reach the United States.

The Cubans have been mak-ing their way north from Panama to Costa Rica to Nicaragua, seek-ing to eventually reach the Unit-ed States, where Cubans receive special treatment that welcomes them without a visa. But Nicara-gua, a close ally of Cuba, closed its border with Costa Rica on Sunday to stop them.

“The Foreign Ministry wishes to emphasise that these citizens are victims of the US government’s politicization of immigration issues,” according to a statement read on the nation-al news broadcast.

It was the first report about the ongoing migrant crisis in Central America in Cuba’s offi-

cially controlled media, but it did not mention Nicaragua’s deci-sion to halt them at the border.

Cuba said it was in contact with the Central American gov-ernments involved to find a solu-tion and that its people were also victims of human traffickers and criminal groups that prey on mi-grants.

Cubans are immediately re-ceived at the US border and ob-tain permanent US residence with relative ease.

In addition, the United States applies a “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy that allows Cubans who set foot on US soil to stay while those captured at sea are sent back to their Caribbean is-land nation.

But with US-Cuban rela-tions improving since last De-cember’s detente, Cuban migra-tion to United States has increased as Cubans anticipate a possible end to the preferential treatment.

Cuba has long complained that the US law, known as the

Cuban Adjustment Act, and the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy in-tentionally lure Cubans on a dan-gerous journey.

“This policy stimulates ir-regular emigration from Cuba towards the United States and constitutes a violation of the let-ter and the spirit of migration ac-cords that are in force and through which both countries as-sume an obligation to guarantee legal, safe and orderly emigra-tion,” the statement said.

Some 1,200 Cubans had been stuck in Panama, attempt-ing to cross into Costa Rica when Costa Rica suddenly tightened its immigration policy, then re-versed course and allowed the Cubans in on Saturday.

But after passing through Costa Rica they were stopped at the Nicaraguan border on Sun-day.

Nicaragua’s accused Costa Rica of sparking a “humanitari-an crisis” by allowing more than 1,000 Cubans to pro-ceed.—Reuters

8 ANALYSIS 19 November 2015

Myint Win Thein

Myanmar’s most urgent issues

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MyanMar’s recent elections high-lighted a number of urgent needs for the country. Judging from the cam-

paign speeches of political parties, national rec-onciliation is the most urgent need of all.

When it comes to national reconciliation, most people understand that the nationwide Ceasefire Agreement is an effort toward nation-

al reconciliation. However, armed conflicts are only one aspect of national reconciliation. all po-litical, social and economic problems in the coun-try must be settled through dialogue. It is neces-sary for all political forces to reconcile their differences, including communal conflict. Only then can true national reconciliation take place.

another issue highlighted by the campaign is the problem of land confiscation. Farmers work the land. When they lose their land, they lose their jobs, too. as farmers make up 75 percent of the population, the lives of the biggest majority of people are jeopardized. Therefore, land issues are immediate problems to be settled.

yet another urgent issue for Myanmar is cor-ruption. Corruption not only causes a loss of pub-lic funds but also undermines the pillars of socie-ty, including the rule of law. as a result, it has an

impact on the lives of all citizens. Myanmar has a number of issues that must

be resolved immediately, but the aforemen-tioned issues are the most urgent—these are the issues that determined the election results. The abilities of the outgoing and incoming govern-ments to solve these problems will also be deci-sive in Myanmar’s future elections.

OpiniOn

“The successive elections revealed that Myanmar leaders respected the people’s aspirations and political rights to choose the able representatives or right representatives for the parliaments. In that period, the eligible voters in Myanmar had been given rights to cast the votes freely and willingly”.

Analyzing the History of Elections in Myanmar Tommy Pauk

ElEctions are important for democratic societies around the world. When

people are losing political rights and participations, they seem to be lifeless and meaningless in a soci-ety. it is obviously universal that elections can be lively and power-ful when people escape from re-gimes or inefficient leadership in some societies. We often hear and learn from the world news about the elections being held in various countries except the countries un-der the dictators and military re-gimes. in fact, elections are bridg-es between the people’s wishes and the governments’ implemen-tation on the wishes or desires of the people concerned. Elections breed or produce leaders and legit-imate governments. in some coun-tries, governments are directly se-lected by the despotic rulers so there is no bridge, known as elec-tion. Undeniably, the elections are activated by the majority votes of people to choose right candidates to take seats in parliaments. thus they are called parliamentary elec-tions. in other words, elections are considered as the peoples’ weap-on to fight against the despotic rul-ers or topple the rulers who are undeserved for the leadership role or to choose the citizens who de-serve the leadership role. in ad-vanced democratic societies, elec-tions are the paths for people’s representatives to implement or materialize the people’s hope, as-piration and desires democratical-ly. normally, megalomaniac dic-tators and illegitimate governments are pretty scared of holding free, fair and credible elections. they don’t usually re-spect and recognize the results of the elections and they are usually against the will of the majority of people indeed. sometimes, the elections have been rigged or ma-nipulated by the government or ruling party in some countries.

the foreign observers or even Un observers are deployed in a certain country to ensure the elections are not rigged. the eligible voters of citizens must know the electoral processes precisely so that their enfranchisement cannot be lost or cheated.

let’s take a look at the history of Elections held in Myanmar after regaining its own independ-ence from the British colonialists.

Remarkably, from 1946 to 1951, there had been an interim government formed with the ap-proval of the British Governor named sir Hubert Elvin Rance. it consisted of Bamar leaders and other ethnic leaders. n.B from 1946 to January, 04, 1948, Myanmar was still under the Brit-ish colony. the national hero, General Aung san, was one of the cabinet members and he served as Defense Minister cum Foreign Affairs Minister. then General Aung san and the leaders of na-tional brethren had written the constitution in 1947. tragically, General Aung san and some of the cabinet ministers were assassi-nated on 19 July, 1947.

in 1948, Myanmar regained its own independence from the British colonialists. then the Un-ion of Myanmar government had ruled its people and protected its sovereignty, independence and territory. Until the beginning of 1951, no general elections had been held whatsoever. neverthe-less, there had been a number of political parties, working on their stance, principles and manifestos for nation building tasks since 1944. the most powerful party was Anti-fascists Peoples’ Free-dom league. the second most powerful party was national Unit-ed Front and the rest are ethnic parties, workers’ party and Peas-ants’ party etc.

the government had striven hard for everlasting independence and democracy in Myanmar. they intended to establish parliamenta-ry democracy and to maintain the

sustainable union solidarity in the nation. therefore, the government of the Union of Myanmar con-ducted the first multi-party general elections in Myanmar on the 12th June of 1951.This was the signifi-cant event as well as democratic practice in Myanmar. At that time, multi-colored insurgency was prevalent in some states and divi-sions in Myanmar. therefore, the period of nationwide general elec-tions lasted for six months due to the unrest or disturbances of insur-gencies.

Eventually, the free and fair elections had been held success-fully. Approximately, ten parties had contested the elections. the two popular political parties among them were AFPFl; An-

the state power to restore law and order because the armed insurrec-tion against the elected govern-ment was rampant in some states and countryside. on the 6th of Feb-ruary 1960, the third parliamenta-ry elections were held by military caretaker government. AFPFl had split into factions—clean AF-PFl and stable AFPFl. Both ri-val factions contested the elec-tions with other ethnic parties. clean AFPFl won the elections. Prime Minister was U nu.

the successive elections re-vealed that Myanmar leaders re-spected the people’s aspirations and political rights to choose the able representatives or right repre-sentatives for the parliaments. in that period, the eligible voters in

tively high. the fame and glory of Rangoon University was one of the proofs of education status in Myanmar in these periods.

on the 2nd March of 1962, a group of the military leaders led by General ne Win seized the state power. that group was named as the Revolutionary council. the then junta ordered all the political parties in Myan-mar to be abolished. no elections were held between 1962 and 1973. the junta founded a single-politi-cal-party called Burma socialist Programme Party (BsPP).

the new state constitution was adopted in 1973. the referen-dum was also held on 15 Decem-ber 1973. so, the constitution came into effect in 1974. the so-cialist Republic of the Union of Myanmar was an official name in accord with the constitution and the BsPP was a single-politi-cal-party which led the country. BsPP held some elections with no rival parties for selecting BsPP members to be posted in executive power, judicial power and legisla-tive power. BsPP, the ruling par-ty, had claimed the manifesto to the world that Burma would march towards the Burmese way to socialism. However, the elec-tions for Pyithu Hluttaw (People’s Assemblies) representatives and the People’s council representa-tives were held every four year a period between 1974 and 1986. they were indeed not multi-party general elections, but the elections for people’s representatives, who must be members of the Burma socialist Programme Party, to at-tend People’s Assemblies. the regime came to an end in 1988 due to the country’s economic de-cline. As a result, Myanmar was listed in the index of lDc in the world. During the government of the socialist Republic of the Un-ion of Myanmar era, majority of eligible voters did vote for so-called people’s representative in elections unenthusiastically.

See Page 9 >>

ti-fascists Peoples’ Freedom league (Pha-sa-pa-la) and nUF; national United Front (pa-ma-nya-ta). AFPFl won the majority vote and formed the democratic government. Prime Minister was U nu.

the second parliamentary elections were held on the 27th of April 1956 in accord with 1974 constitution. the general elections were held successfully. AFPFl won the elections again. Prime Minister was U nu. in 1958, the military caretaker government, headed by General ne Win, took

Myanmar had been given rights to cast the votes freely and willingly. From 1951 to 1960, three historic general elections were held to form legitimate governments suc-cessfully. All these elections were recorded as free, fair and credible events in Myanmar history. there had been mutual respect and mu-tual trust between the govern-ments and people in Myanmar in the above-stated periods. the country’s economy was much more prosperous than any other countries in south East Asia and its education standard was distinc-

local News 919 November 2015

>> from page 8The government mechanism

was totally paralyzed due to boycott by all government em-ployees across the country. The junta took the power to restore the law and order on 08.09.1988. The government was named as State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). The 1974 constitution was abolished by SLORC. The SLORC had pledged to hold the free and fair multi-party democracy general elections and allowed the citi-zens to set up or register the po-litical parties officially. The SLORC held the multi-party general election on 27 may 1990. National League for Democracy, National Unity Party and other ethnic parties had contested the elections. National League for Democracy had set for a land slide victory. The event was rec-ognized as a free and fair elec-tion by international communi-ties. The entire eligible voters of Myanmar people had cast their ballots for right representatives for the democratic parliament hopefully, lively and enthusiasti-cally. The entire Myanmar peo-

Analyzing the History of Elections in Myanmar

ple desired or wished or aspired for democracy. People’s expec-tation could be materialized through free and fair elections because these elections bring out elected government or legitimate government democratically.

In 2008, the new state con-stitution was adopted by junta and they held the referendum for it. A period between 1988 and 2009 was the era of junta (SPDC) in Myanmar. In 2010, the first multi-party general elections were held for parliaments stipu-lated by 2008 constitution. Un-ion Solidarity and Development Party won the elections for dem-ocratic parliaments. The 25% of seats in the parliament are to be taken by military representatives (defense services personnel) nominated by Commander-in- Chief of the Defense Services in accord with 2008 constitution. In 2012, by-elections were held. NLD party won the by-elections and some seats in the parlia-ments. The constitutional gov-ernments were formed in Myan-mar to exercise good governance and clean government. The po-litical reforms and economic re-

forms have been carried out by the government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Union Solidarity and Development Par-ty stood as a ruling party and its members were selected for the cabinet.

The second multi-party gen-eral election was held on 8 No-vember 2015 nationwide in ac-cord with 2008 constitution. This time, NLD party has set a land slide victory. NLD party has won the land slide victory twice in the history of elections in My-anmar. Her party’s victories have marked an important mile-stone in the history of elections in Myanmar indeed. Both of NLD’s historic victories repre-sent the decision of the majority of people in Myanmar democrat-ically. The party has won the elections democratically and fairly. The eligible voters of citi-zens have wholeheartedly ex-pressed their will and chose the right people’s representatives for upcoming sessions of the parlia-ments. We, the ordinary people have to wait and see what might happen to the fair-victory of NLD in the very near future. Some people feel skeptical and concerned about the process of handing over the power from current government to NLD. An-

yway, people must have positive attitudes towards present politi-cal changes and scenario. We can learn a lot of good and bad lessons from history of elections held in different eras in Myan-mar from 1948 to date. The win-ning party members of NLD must not hold grudges against others. The ruling party must hand over the power to NLD, the winning party democratically and honestly. Thus the winners and the losers would be able to shake hands each other. Wishing Myanmar people a prosperous change with happiness and peace!!!

About the author

Tommy Pauk is the pesudonym of U Thein Swe, who is B.A (English) and (Registered Law) R.L I. degrees holder. He has English teaching experience at Yangon University English Department and Workers’ College in Yangon, and now is working as freelance writer and English Teacher cum Translator/Interpreter for foreign firms.

Letter tothe EditorDear Editor

THe loss of several inno-cent lives in Paris due to suicide attacks by terrorists brings tears to the eyes and makes us think that indeed the green planet is slowly turning into an uninhabita-ble and inhospitable place for fellow humans. So much misguided hatred and na-tionalistic jingoism have been in rise across the plan-et that such incidents are becoming fearfully common with huge loss of lives for the ordinary citizens. We need to stand up against such inhuman and insen-sitive attacks on the hu-manity all across the globe and register our strongest protest against such insane mass murders. The planet is at the cross roads and every citizen needs to come out of the safe shelter of their homes on the streets to ex-press their solidarity for a humanitarian crisis rocking the globe.

Thanking youSincerely yours

Saikat Kumar Basu

THe Ayeyawady Bank opened its No 2 branch in the compound of the Thein Than Chi highway bus terminal in Muse, northern Shan State, yesterday.

The bank currently has 126 branches across the nation.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Muse District’s deputy commissioner U Kyaw Kyaw Tun, Deputy Managing Di-rector U Ko Oo of the bank and departmental officials.—L Soe (Muse IPRD)

A CAMPAING to raise the read-ing skills of local residents was implemented at the Basic edu-cation Primary School in Aung-myethaya village, Kyaukme, northern Shan State, on Tuesa-day.

Officials of the Kyaukme District Information and Public Relations Department gave talks on the advantages of reading to local residents. The officials held a story telling contest for stu-dents and presented prizes to the winners.—Myint Aung

New bank branch opens in Muse

IPRD officials attempt to improve reading skills of locals

Ayeyawady Bank branch opened in Muse is ready to serve customers. Photo: L Soe

IPRD officials share knowledge of reading skills with students. Photo: Myint Aung

THe Rural Development Department in Nyaunglebin Township, Bago Region, spent K49.7 million (38,600 USD) on the installation of 11KV and 400 volt power lines and a transformers in east Kyuchaung village on Tuesday.

Head of the Township RDD U Than Lwin and offi-cials inspected the progress of the electrification tasks and provided some assistance.

Rural electrification tasks will benefit 137 houses in the village.

The installion of the transformer was completed on Tuesday.

The electrification will also bring development to the villages around the village of Kyuchaung.

The local authorities are also planning to supply power to other villages in the rural area.—Nay Lin (Nyaun-glebin)

Nyaunglebin Township RDD to electrify 137 houses

10 world 19 November 2015

CLAIMS DAY NOTICE MV jI xIANg SONg VOY NO (23)Consignees of cargo carried on MV ji xiang

song VoY no (23) are hereby notified that the ves-sel will be arriving on 19.11.2015 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of m.i.t.t-4 where it will lie at the consignee’s risk and expenses and subject to the byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.

Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8 am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claim’s Day now declared as the third day after final discharge of cargo from the Vessel.

No claims against this vessel will be admitted af-ter the Claims Day.

SHIPPINg AgENCY DEPARTMENT MYANMA PORT AUTHORITY

AgENT FOR: M/S COSCO SHIPPINg CO LTD.Phone No: 2301186

CLAIMS DAY NOTICE MV SINAR bIAk VOY NO (451N)Consignees of cargo carried on MV sinar biak

VOY NO (451N) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 19.11.2015 and cargo will be dis-charged into the premises of m.i.P/a.w.P.t where it will lie at the consignee’s risk and expenses and subject to the byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.

Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8 am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claim’s Day now declared as the third day after final discharge of cargo from the Vessel.

No claims against this vessel will be admitted af-ter the Claims Day.

SHIPPINg AgENCY DEPARTMENT MYANMA PORT AUTHORITY

AgENT FOR: M/S SAMUDERA SHIPPINg LINEPhone No: 2301185

CLAIMS DAY NOTICE MV PACITA VOY NO ( )

Consignees of cargo carried on mV PaCita VoY no ( ) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 19.11.2015 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of m.i.P where it will lie at the con-signee’s risk and expenses and subject to the byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.

Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8 am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claim’s Day now declared as the third day after final discharge of cargo from the Vessel.

No claims against this vessel will be admitted af-ter the Claims Day.

SHIPPINg AgENCY DEPARTMENT MYANMA PORT AUTHORITY

AgENT FOR: M/S CHINA SHIPPINg LINESPhone No: 2301185

West, Russia should put aside differences to defeat terrorism: MedvedevManiLa — russian Prime Minister Dmitry medvedev said yesterday that his country can beat terrorism on its own but the best option would be for moscow and the west to put aside their differences and fight it together.

speaking at a summit of asia-Pacific nations in manila, medvedev said the west’s boycott of Russia looked “weird” in light of last week’s militant attacks in Paris and the 31 October bombing of a russian air-liner over Egypt.

“an act of terror with our plane and the terror at-tack in Paris ... have sharp-ened the global political agenda,” he said.

“the war is declared against the whole civilised world. the threat is glob-al and, alas, is real. So the stance of some western countries on russia looks weird,” medvedev said, adding the west’s stance towards Moscow was short-sighted.

“i do believe we should be together in this fight.”—Reuters

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks during his address at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Manila on 18 November. Photo: ReuteRs

abUja — nigeria’s President Muhammadu bu-hari has ordered the arrest of the country’s former nation-al security adviser, accusing him of stealing around $2 billion received for phantom arms contracts, the presiden-cy said.

the arrest order is part of a campaign by buhari, who was elected in March,

to tackle graft that has en-riched an elite but left most normal people in poverty.

Buhari’s office said for-mer security adviser Sambo Dasuki had “awarded fic-titious and phantom con-tracts” worth around $2 bil-lion for jets, helicopters and ammunition for the army to fight the jihadist Boko Har-am group which were never

delivered.Under buhari’s prede-

cessor goodluck jonathan, when Busaki was in office, Boko Haram took control of parts of nigeria’s northeast where it is trying to carve out an islamic state.

“Had the funds si-phoned... been properly used for the purpose they were meant for, thousands

of needless nigerian deaths would have been avoided,” the presidency said late on tuesday. there was no immediate comment from Dasuki. in a statement attrib-uted to him by local media he was quoted as saying he had always served Nigeria “with the best of intentions”.

in recent months, nige-ria, backed up by its neigh-

bours, has recaptured much of the territory initially lost to Boko Haram though su-icide bombings and other attacks blamed by officials on the militant group remain part of daily life in the north.

Boko Haram has waged a six-year campaign which has killed thousands and displaced 2.1 million people.—Reuters

Paris — syria will only share intelligence informa-tion with France if Paris changes its policies in the region, President bashar al-assad said in an inter-view with French magazine Valeurs actuelles.

“if the French govern-ment is not serious in its fight against terrorism, we will not waste our time collaborating with a country, government or an institution that sup-

ports terrorism,” he said in the interview carried out the day after Friday’s deadly at-tacks in Paris. “You have to first change policy so that it

is based on one criteria, to be part of an alliance that joins countries only fighting terrorism and not support-ing them.” assad, battling

a multi-pronged insurgency against his rule, repeated that he had always said he was ready to be part of an inter-national coalition against terrorism and that it was up to syrians to decide their fu-ture through the ballot box. France has called for a glob-al alliance against islamic state, which claimed respon-sibility for the Paris attacks and controls swathes of land in Syria and iraq.—Reuters

DOHa — two members of the saudi security forc-es were killed yesterday in Saudi arabia’s restive east-ern province after gunmen opened fire on their vehi-cle, an interior Ministry spokesman quoted by state news agency SPa said. “at one o’clock in the morn-ing a security patrol in the province of Qatif came un-der fire from an unknown source”, the spokesman

said. there was no imme-diate claim of responsibili-ty for the attack which took place on the outskirts of the mostly shi’ite Muslim town of Seihat.

the Sunni-ruled king-dom, the world’s top oil exporter, has been hit by a spate of deadly shoot-ing and bomb attacks in recent months, many of them claimed by islamic State.—Reuters

mOSCOw — a bomb that downed a russian plane in Egypt last month had been placed in the aircraft’s main cabin not in the cargo com-partment as reported earlier, the daily kommersant said yesterday citing an unnamed source.

the newspaper, citing a source close to the inves-tigation of the crash, said the epicentre of the explosion appeared to have been at the rear of the cabin near the tail section.

“according to a pre-liminary version, the bomb could have been laid under the passenger seat by the window. its operation has led to the destruction of the frame and depressurisation of the cabin, which had an explosive character,” the newspaper said.

all 224 people on board were killed. President Vladimir Putin vowed on tuesday to hunt down those responsible and intensified air strikes against militants in Syria.—Reuters

Bomb that downed Russian plane in Egypt placed in main cabin

Nigeria’s Buhari orders arrest of former security adviser for graft

Two members of Saudi security forces shot dead

Syria’s Assad says no intelligence sharing with France unless change in policy

“If the French government is not serious in its fight against terrorism, we will not waste our time collaborating with a country...”

President Bashar al-Assad

HealtH & Science 1119 November 2015

Sharp’s air purifying technology found effective against bird flu

Genetic sleuthing helps sort out ancestry of modern EuropeansWashington — Dna extracted from a skull and a mo-lar tooth of ancient human re-mains discovered in the southern Caucasus region of georgia is helping sort out the multifaceted ancestry of modern Europeans.

scientists said on Monday they sequenced the genomes of two individuals, one from 13,300 years ago and the other from 9,700 years ago, and found they represented a previously un-known lineage that contributed significantly to the genetics of almost all modern Europeans.

these individuals were members of hunter-gatherer groups that settled in the Cauca-sus region, where southern Rus-sia meets georgia, about 45,000 years ago, after our species trekked out of africa to populate other parts of the world. at the time, Europe was populated by neanderthals.

the Caucasus hunter-gath-erers later became isolated there for millennia during the last ice

A skeleton dating from almost 10,000 years ago which was found in the Kotias Klde rock shelter in Western Georgia is seen in an undated picture courtesy of the University of Cambridge. Photo: ReuteRs

age, the scientists said.the thaw at the end of the

ice age brought them into con-tact with other peoples, leading to the advent of a culture of horse-riding herders who swept into Western Europe around 5,000 years ago, bringing metal-lurgy and animal-herding skills, they added.

“Modern Europeans are a mix of ancient ancestral strands,” trinity College Dublin geneti-cist Daniel Bradley said. “the only way to untangle the modern weave is to sequence genomes from thousands of years ago, be-fore the mixing took place.”

Until now, only three such ancestral strands had been iden-tified flowing from ancient pop-ulations. the Caucasus inhabit-ants comprised a previously unidentified “fourth strand,” said University of Cambridge geneticist andrea Manica, not-ing that they contributed signifi-cantly not only to the ancestry of Europe but also to people in

Central asia and the indian sub-continent.

Bradley called the finding “a major new piece in the human ancestry jigsaw.” the Caucasus region is located at a crossroads of the Eurasian landmass, with nearby migration routes heading both west and east.

the Caucasus hunter-gath-erers lived in caves and in small groups of probably no more than 20 to 30 people, University Col-lege Dublin archaeologist Ron Pinhasi said.

one of the two sets of re-mains came from the Kotias Klde cave near the village of

sveri in western georgia and the other remains came from about 25 miles (40 km) away in the satsurblia cave near the village of Kumistavi, tengiz Mesh-veliani of the georgian national Museum said. the research was published in the journal nature Communications. —Reuters

US firefighter gets world’s most extensive face transplantnEW YoRK — a volunteer firefighter from Mississippi whose face was burned off during a home fire rescue received the world’s most extensive face transplant, new York University Langone Medical Centre said on Monday.

after a 26-hour surgery per-formed at the new York hospital in august, 41-year-old Patrick hardi-son is living with the face of 26-year-old David Rodebaugh, a BMX extreme bicycling enthusiast from Brooklyn who was pro-nounced brain dead after a cycling accident.

he received a full scalp and face, including ears, nose, lips and upper and lower eyelids.

now, for the first time since that raging fire in senatobia, Mis-sissippi in 2001, hardison can blink and even sleep with his eyes closed — key steps to sparing his

blue eyes from blindness that pre-viously seemed all but inevitable, said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the plastic surgeon who led the 150-person medical team that per-formed the procedure.

simultaneous surgeries took place, Rodriguez said, with hardi-son on one operating table while Rodebaugh was on the other. the nYU medical team had practiced for a full year to get it right.

“You only have one chance to land the Rover. the same goes with the face,” Rodriguez told Reu-ters following a news conference in new York earlier on Monday.

the team slit the skin at the back of the donor’s head, peeling each side forward with key pieces of bone attached at the chin, nose and cheekbone and then precisely draped it, like Batman’s cowl, onto hardison’s head.

“Everything has to be perfect-ly positioned,” Rodriguez told Reuters, including the bones, mus-cles, ear canals, lips and nerves.

nYU, which will pay for the estimated $1 million surgery, took the case after a firefighter buddy reached out on behalf of hardison, whose own children were initially terrified of their father’s disfigured face.

Proof of the surgery’s success was obvious after a medical team took hardison shopping for new clothes at Macy’s this fall, and no one in the store gave him a second look, Rodriguez said.

Rodebaugh’s mother, who gave permission for the transplant, noting her son was an unexpected gift after she had been told she could not conceive a child, recently was shown a photograph of the sur-gical results.—Reuters

MELBoURnE — People who drink more than two cups of cof-fee per day are less likely to suf-fer from liver conditions, accord-ing to a landmark australian study. the study, conducted by Monash University in Mel-bourne, focused on 1100 liver disease patients at the Monash health Clinic and found that cof-fee was able to reduce the impact on their condition.

two cups a day were found to reduce the damage caused by hepatitis C by up to 13 percent. Four cups were found to reduce the signs of fatty liver disease —the most common liver disease affecting about 40 percent of australians — by as much as 24 percent.

Current statistics showed that around 6 million australians are, or have been, affected by some form of liver disease, with fatty liver disease, hepatitis B and hepatitis C the three most common forms.

alex hodge, a liver disease specialist at Monash health, re-vealed the findings of the study this week at the annual meeting of the american association for the study of Liver Diseases in san Francisco. he told Mel-bourne radio on tuesday morn-ing about the findings of his study and the apparent curative effects of coffee. “two or more cups of coffee led to an improve-

ment in their liver disease,” he said. “Certainly moderate amounts of coffee, depending on the liver disease you’re looking at, seem to be associated with less liver damage and probably less liver fat.” the study found the most dramatic results were found in patients with hepatitis C and that drinking tea had no ef-fect on the liver.

in a separate study, coinci-dentally published on the same day, harvard University’s Chan school of Public health found similar results with people who drink up to five cups of coffee per day. “in the whole study pop-ulation, moderate coffee con-sumption was associated with reduced risk of death from cardi-ovascular disease, diabetes, neu-rological diseases such as Par-kinson’s and suicide,” the findings found. “Bioactive com-pounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflam-mation,” said Ming Ding, a har-vard doctoral student.

“that could explain some of our findings.

however, more studies are needed to investigate the biologi-cal mechanisms producing these effects.”

no preventative effects were found during this study, which was published in the latest edition of the journal Circula-tion.—Xinhua

Three cups of coffee a day can help liver disease patients: Australian study

osaKa — sharp Corp. said tuesday it has found its air puri-fying technology is effective to inhibit bird flu virus.

the Japanese electronics maker plans to develop air clean-ers and air conditioners using the “Plasmacluster ion” technology to help prevent infections of the

disease to humans.sharp conducted a joint re-

search with Vietnam’s Pasteur institute, finding that highly con-centrated ions generated through a chemical reaction using the technology can decrease the in-fectiousness of h7n9 virus by 99 percent in a content of 1 cubic

meter for about 47 minutes.the first human infection

with the avian h7n9 virus was confirmed by the World health organisation in 2013. the tech-nology has already proved effec-tive to remove other influenza viruses, bacteria as well as mold spores, sharp said.—Kyodo News

12 world 19 November 2015

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATIONDEVELOPMENT OF IRRIGATION AND LAND CONSOLIDATION

SCHEMES IN MYANMARUNDER

THE LINE OF CREDIT FROM EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF INDIAINVITATION FOR OPEN TENDER

1. Sealed bids are invited by Agricultural Mechanization Department (AMD), Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MOAI), the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (hereinafter called the employer), from the qualified and resourceful Contractors (hereinafter called the bidders) registered in India for procurement of farm machinery and implements for Development of Irrigation and Land Consolidation Schemes in Myanmar.

2. The bidding documents may be purchased by the interested bidders upon submission of a formal request on payment of a non-refundable fee indicated above for each set of tender documents.

3. The bidding documents will be available from the office as noted in paragraph 8 on any working day with effect from 27.11.2015 to 7.1.2016 (from 9.00 hr. to 16.00 hr. local time).

4. Pre-bid meeting will take place at the below address at 10.00 hr (local time) on 21st De-cember, 2015 for discussions of various issues raised by the prospective bidders. The matters requiring clarification shall preferably be intimated by the bidders to the employer through email at aungwinamd@gmail.com, 07 (seven) days in advance of the date of pre-bid meeting, with a copy to the Project Management Consultant, i.e. WAPCOS Ltd. (commercial@wapcos.gov.in)

Building No.15 Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation Nay Pyi Taw, The Republic of The Union of Myanmar.

5. The bids duly completed in all respects as described in the bidding document shall be submitted, in a sealed envelope, to the employer on or before Friday 8.1.2016 at 10.00 hr (local time), and shall be valid for a period of 90 days from the date of opening of bid initially, subject to the extension from time to time. The bids will be opened thereafter in the presence of the bidder’s representatives at 10.00 hr. (local time) on 8.1.2016 at the address mentioned above.

6. The bid must be accompanied, in a separate envelope duly sealed, by a bid security of as indicated above with validity of 118 days initially, subject to the extension from time to time as desired by the employer in the form of a Bank Guarantee issued by a Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB). The bid without the bid security shall be summarily rejected.

7. The bid received after the expiry of the stipulated time of submission shall not be consid-ered. The employer reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids at on its discretion without assigning any reason whatsoever. The employer is not bound to accept the lowest offer / bid and reserves the right to negotiate with bidders.

8. Contact Address is as mentioned the following.

Office of Director General,Agricultural Mechanization Department, Building No. 50, Nay Pyi Taw, The Republic of The Union of Myanmar.Telephone No- +9567-431172, Fax: +95-67-431246www.moai.gov.mm

Tender Description Bidding Document Fee (USD)

Procurement of farm machinery and 500implements for Development of Irrigation and Land Consolidation Schemes in Myanmar

MANILA — US President Barack Obama yesterday called on world leaders and the private sectors to ad-dress the issue of climate change and encourage more investors to get into clean energy.

Obama made the call in a speech at the APEC CEO Summit 2015 at the Philippine International Convention Centre in Met-ro Manila.

“No nation is immune to the consequences of a changing climate,” said Obama.

“The old rules that said we can’t grow our econo-mies and protect our envi-ronment at the same time, those are outdated. We can transition to clean energy

without squeezing busi-nesses and consumers,” said the president.

He said there will be always challenges and op-portunities, and the use of solar power and renewable energy is not only cheaper than those of conventional power, but also can gener-ate new jobs.

After delivering the speech, Obama led a fo-rum during the APEC CEO Summit yesterday.

Obama addressed questions to Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, a gi-ant e-commerce firm, and Ms. Aisa Mijenio Mijeno, an engineer who founded SALT Philippines.

Jack Ma said “we have to raise public awareness

of the climate change” that affected people’s life, add-ing, “We have to take ac-tion and join together.”

Mijeno, seawater lamp technology inventor, said, “Climate change is like cancer. Right now, we are in stage two, you will feel the symptoms. You don’t want to let it to reach the stage four when it is al-ready too late.”

Mijeno said her lamp uses saline solution or sea-water to power up an LED, and can even charge mobile phones with a USB portal.

Obama, who was lis-tening intently, said: “That’s great!” He said there’s a role for governments to provide tax incentives to small busi-nesses.—Xinhua

A F/A-18F Super Hornet parked at all air base in the Australia capital territory to commemorate the anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force in Canberra, Australia on 17 November. Photo: Xinhua

LONDON — Britain wants to close all of its coal-fired power plants by 2025 and lower their output from 2023, the government said yesterday, making it the first major economy to put a date on shutting down polluting coal plants to curb carbon emissions.

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Chan-gel, Amber Rudd, will set out further details in a speech later yesterday that will seek to encourage the building of new gas and nu-clear power plants instead.

Coal-fired power plants provided around a third of Britain’s electrici-ty last year but many of the ageing plants have been due to close over the next dec-ade due to tightening Euro-

pean Union environmental standards.

Now a consultation starting in the spring next year will set out proposals to close by 2025 all coal-fired power stations which are “unabated” — plants not equipped to capture and store their carbon emissions — and restrict their usage from 2023.

“It cannot be satisfac-tory for an advanced econ-omy like the UK to be re-lying on polluting, carbon intensive 50-year-old coal-fired power stations,” Sec-retary of State for Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd will say, according to excerpts of the speech she will deliver at the Institu-tion of Civil Engineers.

Drax Group, operator

of one of Europe’s larg-est coal and biomass-fired power plants, could see the remaining coal units close two years earlier if the gov-ernment sticks to the 2025 closure date, analysts at Jef-feries said.

“By putting a specific date by which coal will be phased out, the government will naturally focus atten-tion on security of supply,”

the analysts said in a re-search note.

Shares in Drax were down 0.8 percent at 224.8 pence by 1023 GMT, hav-ing already fallen from over 600 pence in the past year.

Britain hopes to fill the supply gap with new low-er-carbon gas and nuclear power plants, which will also help it to meet a legally binding target to cut its car-

bon dioxide emissions by 2050 to 80 percent below 1990 levels.

“One of the greatest and most cost-effective contributions we can make to emission reductions in electricity is by replacing coal-fired power stations with gas,” Rudd will say.

Gas plants emit almost half the amount of carbon dioxide per megawatt of power generated as coal plants.

The move away from coal was welcomed by climate change campaign-ers seeking a reducton in carbon emissions blamed for global warming. Later this month, world leaders will gather in Paris for UN negotiations to seek an ac-cord to curb greenhouse gas

emissions.“The UK is demon-

strating the type of leader-ship that nations around the world must take in order to craft a successful agree-ment in Paris and solve the climate crisis,” said former US Vice President and cli-mate change campaigner Al Gore.

However, some cam-paigners protested about the new emphasis on burn-ing gas instead.

“Phasing out coal is essential for the climate. But switching from coal to gas is like an alcoholic switching from two bot-tles of whisky a day to two bottles of port,” said Simon Bullock of the environmen-tal group Friends of the Earth.—Reuters

US president calls on world leaders to address climate change, use clean energy

UK proposes closing all its coal-fired power plants by 2025“The UK is demonstrating the type of leadership that nations around the world must take in order to craft a successful agreement in Paris and solve the climate crisis.”

Al GoreFormer US Vice President

PiCTURe oF THe dAy

advertisement 1319 November 2015

Vol. II, No. 210, 6th Waxing Day of Tazaungmon 1377 ME Tuesday, 17 November, 2015

INsIDE

Page 8

Page 2

Does Myanmar suffer from party politics?

MPs urged to complete bill discussions

Page 3Page 3

Central Bank of Myanmar members discuss coordination with relevant ministries

President offers Kathina robes to senior monks

parlIaMENT rEsuMEspriority to be given to passing important bills

THE signing ceremony for agreements between the Min-istry of Construction, the Min-istry of Rail Transportation and the Korea Exim Bank took place at the Kempinski Ho-tel in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday, attended by Union Ministers U Kyaw Lwin and U Nyan Tun Aung.

The agreements cover the construction of the Myan-mar-Korea Friendship Dala Bridge and the purchase of 100 new rail coaches using a loan from the Economic Develop-ment Cooperation Fund (EDCF)

of the Republic of Korea.The bridge will be built

across the Yangon River to link local roads in downtown Yan-gon with No 1 Highway in Yan-gon Region.

According to the agree-ment, the EDCF will provide US$45 million for the purchase of 20 new rail coaches, equipped with air-conditioning, 20 coach-es without air-conditioning and 60 new ordinary coaches for the Ministry of Rail Transportation of Myanmar.

Deputy Minister for Con-struction Dr Win Myint and

Deputy Ministers sign agreements with Korean bank for Dala bridge, new rail coaches

PYIDAUNGSU Hluttaw will work towards having the addi-tional budget bill for the fiscal year 2015-16 approved during its final regular session. Priority will be given to approving important bills out of the remaining bills being discussed in parliament, said Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann.

He made the comments dur-ing the 13th regular session of the parliament, which resumed Mon-day following a recess period that included the general election of 8 November.

The Speaker also expressed his delight about Myanmar’s smooth and peaceful general elec-tion, saying that he believed that the first general election in the country’s transition period brings pride to Myanmar. He praised the Union Election Commission and the Union Government as well.

He also pledged on behalf of parliament, for Pyidaungsu Hlut-taw to cooperate with the govern-ment and the Tatmadaw [army] to carry out the remaining tasks during the post-election period.

During the same session of parliament, Union Minister for Finance U Win Shein, on behalf of the government, clarified the additional budget bill for the fis-cal year 2015-16.

Parliamentary bill commit-tees held a coordination meeting over finalising the remaining bills.—Myanmar News Agency

scale model of Yangon-Dala bridge. Photo: myanmarcs.focuscoregrouP.com

representatives attend 13th regular session of pyidaungsu Hluttaw. Photo: mna

Deputy Minister for Rail Trans-portation U Myint Thein signed the agreements along with the chairman of Korea Exim Bank, Dr Lee Duk-Hoon. Yangon-Dala bridge will take five years to build and will be 6,144 ft in length.

Dala is on the Southern bank

of the Yangon River across from downtown Yangon. The area has not seen much development. Ac-cess has only been via a ferry. The new bridge will link Phone Gyi Road, Landmadaw to Bo Min Yaung Road, Dala.—Myan-mar News Agency

aNalYsIs

Vol. II, No. 207, 3rd Waxing Day of Tazaungmon 1377 ME

Saturday, 14 November, 2015

INSIDE

Page 3

NLD wins general election

Page 2

Japan to provide further

assistance to flood-hit schools

Page 2

Union FM attends First

Mekong-Lancang

Cooperation

Foreign Ministers’

Meeting

bIg WEEk for MEDIaNEWSpapEr SalES Soar afTEr ElEcTIoN

Ko Moe

Ye Myint

aDb to pour $100m into road upgrade

Page 8

aNalYSIS

Page 3

Page 3

Keep up the momentum for reform

Vice President U Nyan Tun

meets with Japanese delegationSenior General Min Aung Hlaing

meets US, Japan ambassadors

THE Asian Development Bank

ADB announced yesterday that

it will provide a US$100 mil-

lion loan to upgrade a section

of road in Myanmar which is

currently considered the “miss-

ing link” of the Greater Mekong

Sub-region’s East-West Corri-

dor. The completion of the My-

anmar sections of the corridor

will link Da Nang in Viet Nam

with Mawlamyine and Yangon.

Along with the ADB-assisted

project, the Government of Thai-

land is separately supporting im-

provements to the road linking

Kawkareik and Myawaddy on

the border with Thailand, while

the section between Eindu and

the main Yangon-Mawlamyine

highway is being rehabilitated

through a government-managed

build-operate-transfer conces-

sion operated by a private My-

anmar company.

The loan will be used to up-

grade a 66.4 kilometre section

of a two-lane road between Ein-

du and Kawkareik townships in

Kayin State which also has the

principal road link to Thailand.

According to the Asian Devel-

opment Bank (ADB), 25 percent

of Myanmar’s land-based trade

relies on this route.

“Upgrading this stretch of

the road will complete improve-

ments to Myanmar’s sections of

the GMS East West-Corridor.

This will open up new economic

opportunities for the state and

country and support inclusive

growth,” said James Leather,

Principal Transport Specialist in

ADB’s Southeast Asia Depart-

ment.The project will improve

the road section in line with

Greater Mekong Sub-region

road network standards. An

access road to a river port in

Kyondoe Township will also be

upgraded using the funds, said

the Manila-based lender.

ADB’s loan comes from

the bank’s concessional Asian

Development Fund. Addition-

al co-financing support of $20

million is being provided by the

ASEAN Infrastructure Fund,

with the Government of Myan-

mar providing counterpart sup-

port of $1.8 million. The project

will run for over 3 years with

an estimated completion date of

September 2019.

According to the bank, the

project’s scheduled completion

date is September 2019.

SALES of newspapers and

journals at stalls have reached its

peak after the historic November

8 election, of which the National

League for Democracy officially

won yesterday.

“Sales doubled on the day

after the general elections,” said

Maung Maung Tar, a newspaper

vendor at Thamine Junction in

Yangon. The demand for dailies,

which are cheaper than week-

ly journals, is now higher in the

market, said a vendor at Shwe-

gondine junction.

Generally, all printed media

containing election results have

seen a sharp spike in sales over

the past week, she added.

The prime time for the sales

is between 7 am and 11 pm.

Myanmar newspapers and journals at a roadside news stand in Yangon. Photo: Aye Min Soe

•WeareMyanmar’shighest-circulatingEnglishlanguagedailynewspaper

•Weoffercompetitiveadrates•Youradwillbeseenbyawideandinfluentialreadership

TRADEMARK CAUTION

Merck KGaA, a company incorporated in Frankfurter Str. 250, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany, is the current owner of the Trademarks described below, by virtue of the Deed of Assignment dated 5 October 2015 (Reg. No. 4/12960/2015) executed between Ares Trading S.A, (Assignor), and Merck KGaA, (Assignee), whereby Assignor, the original owner had registered the Trademarks in Myanmar, assigned it to Assignee:

CRINONE Reg.No.4/1571/2012

In respect of “Topical progesterone products” in Class 5.

MOVECTRO Reg.No.4/3407/2009 & Reg.No.4/12243/2011

In respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations, namely preparations for the treatment of immunological diseases and disorders, inflammatory diseases and disorders, oncological disease and disorders, neurological disease and disorders, cardiovascular diseases and disorders, gastroenterologic diseases and disorders, metabolic diseases and disorders, pharmaceutical preparations” in Class 5.

PERGOVERIS Reg.No.4/1067/2010

In respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations for human use, sanitary preparations for medical purposes, dietetic substances adapted for medical use” in Class 5.

SANZESA Reg.No.4/505/2010 In respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations for human use, namely preparations for the treatment of immunological diseases and disorders, inflammatory disease and disorder, endocrinological diseases and disorders, ontological diseases and disorders, neurological disease and disorders, infertility diseases and disorders, metabolic diseases and disorders, rheumatologoical diseases and disorders, genetic, diseases and disorders” in Class 5.

ENCADIX Reg.No.4/12371/2013 In respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations, namely preparations for the treatment of immunological diseases and disorders, inflammatory disease and disorder, endocrinological diseases and disorders, ontological diseases and disorders, neurological disease and disorders, infertility diseases and disorders, cardiovascular diseases and disorders, gastroenterological diseases and disorders, metabolic diseases and disorders, pulmonary diseases and disorders, rheumatological diseases and disorders, diabetic diseases and disorders, genetic diseases and disorders, musculoskeletal diseases and disorders, disorders, immunological diseases and disorders” in Class 5.

NIMSURA Reg.No.4/1070/2010 & Reg.No.4/6632/2013 In respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations, namely preparations for the treatment of immunological diseases and disorders, inflammatory disease and disorder, endocrinological diseases and disorders, ontological diseases and disorders, neurological disease and disorders, infertility diseases and disorders, cardiovascular diseases and disorders, gastroenterological diseases and disorders, metabolic diseases and disorders, pulmonary diseases and disorders, rheumatological diseases and disorders, diabetic diseases and disorders, genetic diseases and disorders” in Class 5.

OVITRELLE OVIDREL Reg.No.4/1573/2012 Reg.No.4/1572/2012 All in respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations to be used in the field of infertility, immunology-oncology, pediatrics and endocrinology” in Class 5.

STILAMIN SEROPHENE Reg.No.4/1569/2012 Reg.No.4/1570/2012

FREPENSO Reg.No.4/3362/2010 & Reg.No.4/4184/2007 All in respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations for human use” in Class 5.

REBISLIM REBISLIDE Reg.No.4/12368/2013 Reg.No.4/12365/2013

REBIFORM REBIFLITE Reg.No.4/12374/2013 Reg.No.4/12372/2013

REBIDOSE Reg.No.4/12367/2013 All in respect of “Pharmaceutical preparation for the treatment of neurological diseases and disorders, immunological diseases and disorders” in Class 5.

GONAL-F GONAL- Reg.No.4/1066/2010 Reg.No.4/3619/2013

SAIZEN REBIF Reg.No.4/5364/2007 Reg.No.4/6634/2013

All in respect of “Pharmaceutical preparations” in Class 5.

REBISLIM REBISLIDE Reg.No.4/12369/2013 Reg.No.4/12366/2013

REBIFORM REBIFLITE Reg.No.4/12375/2013 Reg.No.4/12373/2013

All in respect of “Medical device to be used for the treatment of neurological diseases and disorders, immunological diseases and disorders” in Class 10.

COOL.CLICK ONE.CLICK Reg.No.4/5366/2007 Reg.No.4/5362/2007

EASYPOD CLICK.EASY Reg.No.4/5363/2007 Reg.No.4/5365/2007

All in respect of “surgical and medical apparatus and instruments” in Class 10.

REBISTYLE Reg.No.4/12370/2013

In respect of “Pen injector for the treatment of multiple sclerosis” in Class 10. Fraudulent or unauthorised use, or actual or colourable imitation of the said Trademarks shall be dealt with according to law.

Daw La Min May, H.G.P

For Merck KGaA C/o Kelvin Chia Yangon Ltd, Level 8A, Union Financial Centre (UFC), Corner of Mahabandoola Road & Thein Phyu Road, Botahtaung Township, Yangon, The Republic of The Union of Myanmar. By their Attorneys, Singh & Singh Lall & Sethi, New Delhi – 110 049, India Dated 19 November 2015 lmm@kcyangon.com

ADVERTISE WITH US!

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Vol. II, No. 211, 7th Waxing Day of Tazaungmon 1377 ME Wednesday, 18 November, 2015

Page 8

Nature reserves are essential for our future

President U Thein Sein sends messages of felicitations to Latvia, Oman

Ye Myint

Page 3Page 3

Senior General inspects 500-year-old-moat

progrEssINg To pEacEDrafting of framework for dialogue begins

Vice President Dr Sai Mauk Kham delivers speech at Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting (JICM) on Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. Photo: Myawady

aNaLYsIs

Tilapia breeder says technology needs to modernise to attract FDI

U MYINT Sein, a local tila-pia breeder, said that the US has shown interest in importing 30 shipping containers of tila-pia from Myanmar each month, equaling 360 containers a year.

Foreign partnerships, im-

portant in attaining technological know-how in the intensive aqua-culture industry, is required to have better access to U.S markets for tilapia farmers, he said yesterday.

The breeder, who recent-ly attended the Boston Seafood Show in the US, added that tila-pia farmed in Myanmar need to

be bigger and healthier to meet standards set by the US, which imports 70,000 containers of tila-pia annually, mostly from China.

“Myanmar tilapia’s flesh is often thin and they come in varied sizes. The US market de-mands tilapia with thick flesh and fish which are similar in size,

around 1 kg.”These requirements can be

fulfilled by setting up a sustain-able aquaculture projects with the aid of advanced technology in Myanmar, he said. U Myint Sein said that he is seeking a joint venture partner for high-tech aquaculture projects that would

help fill the gap.He called on those in Myan-

mar’s fishery sector to develop modern aquaculture system in ti-lapia and ka-kadit farming to help hit the country’s yearly export earnings target of US$ 1 billion in the fishery sector.

see page 2 >>

JOINT Implementation Coordina-tion Meeting (JICM) on the Nation-wide Ceasefire Agreement began planning the formation of a Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee, which will draft a framework for holding political dialogue as part of efforts for the peace process.

Vice President Dr Sai Mauk Kham said that the second meet-ing held yesterday in Nay Pyi Taw was another step towards the im-plementing nationwide ceasefire agreement, which was signed on 15 October with the government and eight ethnic armed groups.

The vice president also praised the level of coordination between JICM and the ethnic armed groups to form the committee and include political parties in its processes.

Meetings for drafting the framework for political dialogue is scheduled to start before 14 De-cember, 2015, set according to the timeline of the ceasefire terms. Po-litical dialogue is expected to start before 14 January, as it must begin within 90 days after the political framework is signed by the joint committee.

see page 3 >>

14 entertainment 19 November 2015

David Beckham feels he is 21London — Former soccer star david Beckham says he still feels 21 in his heart and mind, despite him reaching his 40th

birthday earlier this summer. The retired soccer superstar

said he still acts as though he is just out of teens, reported Fe-male First.

“It just felt like another birthday, to be honest. A lit-tle bit of a bigger birthday... I don’t feel any different to when I turned 21. I still feel young at heart and in my head as well, and I think that’s important.”

Beckham retired from his sporting career in 2013 and now his life revolves around being a stay-at-home father to his chil-dren, sons Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and four-year-old daughter Harper, while his wife Victoria Beckham, 41, works on her suc-cessful fashion empire.

“I wake up, make breakfast for my chil-dren, take them to school. I go and work

out after I’ve done that, then my little girl finishes

at 12 o’clock, so I pick her up, take her

for lunch and then take her home and go to the park with her.

“ F r o m there I pick my boys up and then take them to football p r a c t i c e , which fin-ishes at 9 in

the evening.” dav id ’ s

life has altered d r a m a t i c a l l y

since he hung up his soccer boots professionally but he has embraced the change in his life. “It’s a big change but it’s one that I’ve actually enjoyed. Spending time with the kids, being able to take them to train-ing every single day,

pick them up every day and take them to school — you know, it’s what I love.—PTI

Lawyers for Porsche say actor Paul Walker to blame for his deathLoS AnGELES — Lawyers for German automaker Porsche said actor Paul Walker was responsi-ble for his own death in a crash of a Porsche sports car, in re-sponse to a wrongful death law-suit filed by Walker’s daughter, court documents showed.

Cranbrook Partners, repre-senting Porsche AG (PSHG_p.dE) and other defendants, said in papers filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court that Walker’s death was the result of his “own comparative fault.”

In november 2013 Walk-er was a passenger in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT driven by Roger Rodas when the vehicle careened into trees and a utility pole in Santa Clarita, northwest of Los Angeles, killing both men.

After a four-month inves-tigation, Los Angeles officials said the crash had been caused by excessive speed and not me-chanical failure.

Meadow Walker, the ac-tor’s only child and sole heir, filed a complaint in September accusing Porsche of skimping on safety features for the vehi-cle, which could have prevented the crash or at least kept the ac-tor alive. Her lawsuit requested a jury trial.

Lawyers for Porsche said Walker had “knowingly and vol-untarily assumed all risk, perils and danger” of the 2005 Carrera GT, and that the car, owned by Rodas, had been “abused and altered,” and “was misused and improperly maintained.”

“That abuse and altera-

tion proximately caused or contrib-uted to the incident and to Mr. Walker’s death,” Cranbrook said. Meadow Walker’s attorney Jeff Milam said on Tuesday that Porsche was “try-ing to deflect its own responsi-bility by blaming the victim.”

“Paul was the passenger in a car that was not designed to protect its occupants. While the speed may have been unlawful, it was well below the vehicle’s advertised capabilities,” Milam said in a statement.

He added that Paul Walker survived the impact of the crash, but “burned to death because of Porsche’s defective design.” Earlier this year, attorneys for Porsche said Rodas, the driver

of the vehi-cle, was to blame

for the crash after Rodas’ widow filed a lawsuit against the automaker alleging neg-ligence and wrongful death, among other claims.

Walker’s death led to a temporary halt in produc-tion of “Furious 7,” an action movie in the “Fast & Furious” franchise about illegal street car racing.

The film was released this year after Walker’s brothers helped finish his scenes.—Reuters

Julianne Moore to re-team with Todd Haynes for ‘Wonderstruck’

Jamie Foxx’s daughter named Miss Golden Globe 2016LoS AnGELES — oscar- winning actor Jamie Foxx’s daughter Corinne is Miss Gold-en Globe 2016, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced.

Miss or Mister Golden Globe is chosen to assist at the awards ceremony and is tradi-tionally the son or daughter of

an established Hollywood star. The 21-year-old USC sen-

ior and model follows in the footsteps of the likes of Greer Grammer, Kelsey Grammer’s daughter, Sosie Bacon, daugh-ter of Kevin Bacon, and Rumer Willis, Bruce Willis’ daughter.

Corrine considers the title an “honour”, said The Holly-

wood Reporter. “Throughout the years I’ve

grown up watching my dad establish himself as a well-re-spected actor. I’m honoured that HFPA has given me the opportunity to now share the same stage where he’s been rec-ognised for some of his greatest accomplishments,” she said.

Lorenzo Soria, president of the HFPA, said, “Like her father, she leads a fine example of following her dreams and we can’t wait to see what she does next.” The 73rd annual Golden Globes will air on January 10 and will be hosted by Ricky Gervais. —PTI

LoS AnGELES — Actress Julianne will reunite with her Far From Heaven direc-tor Todd Haynes for “Wonderstruck”, the adaptation of the children’s book by Brian Selznick.

The book, part prose, part black and white illustrations, tells a story of two kids, both deaf, from different time periods, one from 1927, one from 1977, who run away to new York, said The Hollywood Report-er.

despite the chasm of decades, they are connected by a mystery waiting to be solved.

Selznick, whose book “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” was adapted into the 2011 Martin Scorsese film “Hugo”, has written the script for the movie.

Killer Films, which produced Hayne’s most recent picture, the lesbian drama “Car-ol” that stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, is also producing “Wonderstruck”.

Moore, 54, received one of her four oscar nominations for her performance in Far From Heaven. The actress will be next seen in “The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2”.—PTI

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Supplied photo shows a piece of “KitKat”-shaped gold block produced by Nestle Japan Ltd., the Japanese unit of Swiss food giant Nestle SA. The 230-gram gold block worth 2 million yen will be presented as a prize to encourage customers to join its store loyalty programme. Photo: Kyodo News

Nestle Japan to sell ‘KitKat’ chocolate covered in gold leaf

Three British authors, one Irish on Costa prize fiction shortlistLONDON—Novelsby threeBritish authors and one Irishwriter have made the four-book fiction shortlist for the2015CostaBookAwards, theprizecommitteeannouncedonTuesday.

TheBritishwriterson thelist are Kate Atkinson for “AGod in Ruins”, Patrick Galefor “A Place Called Winter”and Melissa Harrison for “AtHawthorn Time”. Irish novel-istAnneEnright isnominatedfor“TheGreenRoad”.

The Costa book awards,which honor authors living inGreat Britain or Ireland, alsogive prizes for best first nov-el,biography,poetryandchil-dren’sbook.

Theauthorofthetopbookselected in each category re-ceivesa5,000-pound($7,600)prize while the winner of theoverallCostaBookoftheYearreceives 30,000 pounds. Thewinnerswillbeannouncedon4January.

Since the awards werefoundedin1985,thetopprizehas gone to a novel 11 times,to a biography six times, to apoetry collection seven timesandtoachildren’sbookonce.

Thenomineesintheothercat-egoriesareasfollows:

First NovelSara Baume for “Spill

Simmer Falter Wither”, KateHamer for “The Girl in theRed Coat”, Andrew MichaelHurley for “The Loney”, Ta-shaKavanaghfor“ThingsWeHaveinCommon”

BiographyRobert Douglas-Fairhurst

for“TheStoryofAlice:Lew-is Carroll and the Secret His-tory ofWonderland”,ThomasHardingfor“TheHousebytheLake”, Ruth Scurr for “JohnAubrey: My Own Life”, An-dreaWulf for “The InventionofNature: TheAdventures ofAlexanderHumboldt,theLostHeroofScience”

PoetryAndrew McMillan for

“Physical”, Kate Miller for“The Observances”, Don Pat-erson for “40 Sonnets”, NeilRollinsonfor“TalkingDead”

Children’s BookFrances Hardinge for

“The Lie Tree”,Hayley Longfor “Sophie Someone”, Sal-ly Nicholls for “An Island ofOurOwn”,AndrewNorrissfor“Jessica’sGhost”.—Reuters

16.3m foreigners visit Japan, duty-free shop openings surgeTOKYO — The number offoreign visitors to Japan thisyearmarked an estimated re-cord 16.32 million as of theendOctober, the JapanTour-ismAgencysaidyesterday.

In line with the rise invisitors from abroad, thenumber of duty-free shopsacross Japan more than tri-pledtoatotalof29,047from9,361 a year earlier, the Ja-pan National Tourism Or-ganisationsaid.

On 1 October last year,Japan expanded its list ofpurchasable duty-free itemsforforeignvisitorstoincludefood,alcohol,drugsandcos-metics on top of electronicgoods,clothingandbagsthatwere already exempt fromtheconsumptiontaxfortrav-ellers.

Retailers in Japan havebeen eagerly trying to ben-efit from overseas shoppers,particularly the so-called“bakugai”, big-spending Chi-nesetourists.

In October alone nearly

1.83 million people visitedJapan,thesecondmostinonemonthafterarecord-high1.92millionlandedinJuly.

By nationality, thelargest number of Octobervisitors came from China,at 445,600. The monthlynumber of Chinese visitorsdropped between July andSeptember,possiblyaffectedby the country’s economicslowdown.

The total annual numberof foreign visitors, alreadysurpassingtherecordof13.41millionloggedlastyear,isex-pected to reach19millionbytheendof2015.

TheJapanesegovernmentaims to increase the numbersof foreign visitors to 20mil-lion by 2020 when Tokyowill host the Olympic andParalympicGames.

Withthe20millionmarkwithin range, the governmentbeganearlierthismonthplan-ning for a new goal of 30million visitors annually by2030.—Kyodo News

OSAKA—With an eye on theNew Year’s gift market, NestleJapan Ltd. will release a limitededition “KitKat” chocolate cov-eredwithgoldleafinlateDecem-ber,thecompanysaidMonday.

Fivehundredunitsoftheed-ible novelty productwill be soldfor2,016yen($16)eachat“Kit-Kat Chocolatory” stores acrossJapan.

The Japanese transliterationof “KitKat” is pronounced “kit-to katsu,” which can also mean“a definite victory,” making theproduct a popular good luck to-ken,particularlyforstudentstak-inghigh schooloruniversity en-tranceexams.

Nestle Japan also plans tooffer a 230-gram, KitKat-shapedgold block, worth around 2mil-lionyen, as aprize to encouragecustomerstojoinitsstoreloyaltyprogramme.—Kyodo News

Nearly 1m international students now in US collegesWASHINGTON — Almosta million international studentswere currently studying at col-legesanduniversitiesacross theUnitedStates, anewreport saidonMonday.

Accordingtolatestdatafromthe2015OpenDoorsReport,anannualsurveybytheUSInstituteof International Education, thenumberof internationalstudentsat US colleges and universitiesrosetoarecordhighof974,926inthe2014-15academicyear.

The growth rate was 10percentcompared todataof last

year,thehighestrateofgrowthin35years,thereportsaid.

WhileChinacontinuedtore-mainthetopcountryoforiginofinternationalstudentsintheUnit-edStates,with304,040Chinesestudents currently studying atUScollegesanduniversities,thegrowth rate of Chinese studentswas outpaced by that of Indianstudents,saidthereport.

Currently, there were arecord high of 132,888 stu-dents from India studying inthe United States, increasingby 29.4 percent compared to

a growth rate of 10.8 percentfortheChinesestudents.Therewerealsolargeincreasesinthenumber of students from Bra-zil, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,said the report, attributing therisetoheavyinvestmentbythethree governments to developa “globally competent work-force”.

Meanwhile, Internationalstudents’ spending across thecountry contributed more than$30 billion to the US economyin2014,accordingtotheUSDe-partmentofCommerce.—Xinhua

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German midfielder Mesut Ozil attributes his excellent form this sea-

son to a greater maturity in his Arsenal side, a factor that has allowed him to control more games.

The 27-year-old playmaker has been one

of the club’s stand-out performers and has regis-

tered 10 assists in the Premier League so far, making him Eu-

rope’s most creative player.Often criticised for a lack

of consistency since moving to the Emirates Stadium from Real Madrid in 2013 for a club record fee, Ozil has helped the Gunners to second in the league. The club is behind Manchester City only on goal difference.

“I think as a team you can see that we’ve become more mature. We’ve learnt from our mistakes and you can see on the pitch that we’re more steady,” Ozil told the club’s website (www.arsenal.com).

“We’ve had some setbacks this season but we’ve learnt from them and it shows on the pitch

that my team mates are looking for me even more and I’m able to control the game better. You can see that we function well as a team,” the Germany internation-al added.

Ozil, who has scored two goals in 16 appearances this sea-son, said Arsenal’s maturity has been more evident since the turn of the year, with the club having picked up more points than any other side in England’s top flight in 2015.

“When you look at the past seasons, we’ve always been a technically-strong team but when we played against big teams, we dropped points,” Ozil said.

“In the second half of last season and in this year so far, we’ve proved ourselves against the biggest teams.”

“You learn from your mis-takes and we can measure our-selves with the best. That distin-guishes us as a team,” the World Cup winner added.

Arsenal travel to take on 13th placed West Bromwich Albi-on in the premiership on Satur-day.—Reuters

Mature Arsenal allows me to control games: ozil

Arsenal’s Mesut ozil in action during the Barclays premier League at Emirates stadium, on 8 November. Photo: ReuteRs

LONDON — France’s Manchester United striker Anthony Martial left Wemb-ley Stadium on crutches with his left foot strapped after suffering an injury in the 2-0 friendly defeat by England on Tuesday.

France coach Didier Deschamps did not reveal the extent of the injury to 19-year-old Martial, who was substituted in the 67th minute, but played down concerns it was serious.

“He was in quite a bit of pain after the match,” said De-schamps. “He got a kick in the penalty area. I think it’s just a knock rather than anything else to the top of his foot.”

United have lost Anto-nio Valencia (foot) for five months while Michael Carrick (ankle) had to pull out of the France game. They visit Wat-ford in the Premier League on Saturday. —Reuters

France’s Man United striker Martial suffers foot injury

LONDON — Japanese star Kei Nishikori got his ATP World Tour Final campaign back on track on Tuesday with a three-set win over Tomas Berdych in London, keeping alive his hopes of qualifying for the semifinals of the prestigious season-ending tournament.

Nishikori bounced back from a heavy 6-1, 6-1 loss to No-vak Djokovic, his first match of the tournament, using a combi-nation of aggression and dogged-ness to beat his higher-ranked Czech opponent 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in 2 hours and 23 minutes.

“It was much better than my first match,” said Nishikori at the

Nishikori gets 1st 2015 ATp World Tour Final win, Federer up next

post-match press conference. Nishikori’s next match

is against 17-time grand slam champion and six-time World Tour Final winner Roger Federer who had a sensation-al win over Djokovic, also on Tuesday.

Federer won a tight first set 7-5 and then shut down the world’s top player in the second, winning it 6-2 for only his sec-ond victory over the Serbian in their past six meetings.

“Winning the first set clear-ly in a match like this gives you the upper hand,” said Federer. “It was important to strike again as quick as possible in the sec-

ond set, and I did.”Nishikori has beaten Feder-

er twice on the ATP tour, but not since 2014 and not in their past two meetings, so he has a big mountain to climb in London on Thursday.

“Every time I play (Federer) I get that feeling like when I first played him. He’s my favorite player in the tour. I always look forward to testing my ability of playing against him,” said Nishi-kori.

“It’s going to be a really big challenge for me to play Roger. It’s always exciting. It’s going to be really important match for both of us.”—Kyodo News

Thakayta BEHs No 2 triumphs in cricket tournament

The final cricket match and the award ceremony of this year’s Inter-basic Education School Cricket Tournament were held at Shwe Pin Lon Cricket Ground in Dagon Myothit (North) Town-ship yesterday.

Thakayta Basic Educa-tion High School No 2 defeated Yankin BEHS No 6 with a score of 108-106 in the final match. Thakayta BEHS No 1 and North Okkalapa BEHS No 5 tied for third place in the men’s event.

In the women’s event, Thakayta BEHS No 2 also emerged the champion with a score of 140-100 against Bahan

BEHS No 1. Third place went to Mingala Taungnyunt BEHS No 3 and Yankin BEHS No 1.

A total of 18 student teams participated in the men’s event, while 12 teams competed in the women’s event.

Officials presented cham-pionship trophies and K100,000 each to the winning teams. They also awarded medals and K75,000 each to the second-prize winning teams, and medals and K50,000 each to the third-prize winning teams.

The tournament was joint-ly organised by the Myanmar Cricket Federation and the Yan-gon Region Department of Basic Education.

Ko Moe

Thakayta Basic Education High school No 2 team receives a trophy from an official of Myanmar Cricket Federation. Photo: tun Aung KyAw

TOKYO — Russian marathoner Viktor Ugarov has been disqual-ified after winning the Kanazawa Marathon in Japan on Sunday as Russia is suspended from in-ternational athletics events amid allegations of state-sponsored doping, The Associated Press reported.

The AP quoted the Interna-tional Association of Athletics

Federations as saying Tuesday that “the event organiser is dis-qualifying his record and no appearance or prize money will be paid.” The IAAF added that it would write to the Russian federation seeking disciplinary action.

According to the AP, Rus-sian athletics federation general secretary Mikhail Butov said that

he had not heard that Ugarov had competed in Sunday’s race but said the case would be looked into.

“We couldn’t physically in-form each athlete, so it’s proba-bly more of a problem for the or-ganisers who allowed the athlete to take part in the competition,” Butov was quoted as saying. —Kyodo News

Russian runner disqualified after winning marathon in Japan