China lodges diplomatic protest after court issues harsh punishments in crackdown on illegal timber trade along border China has lodged a diplomatic protest with Burma after a court sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life imprisonment for illegal logging. China’s voracious demand for raw materials has fuelled resentment in Burma towards …
Burma's military rulers have appealed for international help to get the county's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta rice farmers back to their paddy fields, amid concerns about food shortages if they miss the planting season. The request came as Burma's state television yesterday said a military-sponsored constitution had won the support of …
More than 60,000 people may have died as a result of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and at least 1.5 million are homeless or otherwise in desperate need of assistance. The Burmese military junta, one of the most morally repulsive in the world, has allowed in only a trickle of aid …
Burma's ruling junta was last night locked in an increasingly tense stand-off with the international community after flatly refusing to allow foreign aid workers into the country to tackle the impact of the recent cyclone disaster. Amid clear indications that between 60,000 and 100,000 people are now dead or missing …
For Burma's normally reclusive military rulers, resented by their own citizens and mistrustful of the outside world's intentions, the devastation wrought by tropical cyclone Nargis has posed an uncomfortable dilemma at a sensitive political moment. With the numbers of dead and missing now exceeding 60,000, the generals
President George W. Bush offered to send US naval forces to help cyclone-devastated Burma yesterday as the number of people dead and missing soared to 60,000. Mr Bush said the US, which has long-standing trade and investment sanctions against Burma, stood ready to "do a lot more to help", but …
Burma's military rulers told foreign diplomats yesterday that more than 10,000 people had died in the devastating cyclone at the weekend, as the regime made a rare appeal for international help to bring relief to survivors. The diplomats fear a further 3,000 could be missing. The cyclone, which devastated Rangoon, …
More than 350 people have been killed in Burma by a powerful cyclone that knocked out power in the impoverished country's commercial capital and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said today. Military-run Myaddy television station said five regions have been declared disaster zones following yesterday's storm, which packed winds …
Before paper, palm leaf or Ola was the most popular material used for writing and painting in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and Indonesia. In India, they have been used for more than 2,000 years. Scribes recorded much of India's literary and scientific heritage on these, etching letters carefully into the …
a series of mild tremors following the earthquake, which hit the Andaman and Nicobar islands on September 14, 2002, has raised fears of a possible eruption of the Barren volcano. Experts say that a possible eruption of the volcano, located a few kilometres away from Diglipur at Barren Island can …
In Burma, there are an estimated 100,000 new tuberculosis cases each year. However, despite the crisis, the government is following the recommendations laid down by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to decrease the threat. At the second national seminar on tuberculosis, minister for health Ket Sein said about 75 per …
One of the Burma's ethnic rebel groups have criticised the military government for pushing ahead with a plan to build a hydroelectric dam overlooking the social and environmental impacts. "They are carrying out this project without taking into consideration the high human cost,' said Seng Suk, a senior member of …
Burma may have the world's highest rate of HIV infection and AIDS contracted from dirty needles, say medical experts. The government has reported registering only 60,000 drug addicts, with as few as 17,000 infected with AIDS. Foreign medical experts put the total number of addicts closer to 5,00,000 and estimate …
The Thailand government's ambitious plans of buying natural gas from Burma and transporting it home through pipelines have met with stiff opposition from the local residents and nature conservation groups. This is because the pipelines would pass through forests and the construction work would damage the forest cover to a …
MORE than 2,000 people belonging to the ethnic Karen community have been massacred in Burma since February by the Burmese army to clear their land for the Myinmoletkat Nature Reserve. Over 30,000 have been forced to work unpaid and unfed or to flee across the border to Thailand. Isolated by …
Green activists have pledged to intensify their struggle against the Burma-Thai gas pipeline project planned by the Petroleum Authority of Thailand which is threatening verdant tracts of forests in the Kanchanaburi province. Environmental groups of Burma and Thailand recently held an emergency meeting following the approval of environmental impact assessment …
The much-touted Yadana gas pipeline project in Burma has run into trouble. Burmese political exiles have filed a lawsuit in a US district court against the California-based Unocal Corp, asking it to stop work in the US $1.2 million natural-gas project and to compensate the affected people. They claimed that …
PRESSING need for foreign exchange is pushing the country on to the international timber trail. Though the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) chooses to be tight-lipped, official sources admit timber exports have been given a green signal. To begin with, timber traders will be allowed to re-export teak wood …
