2 dec 14 gnlm

Volume I, Number 63 11th Waxing Day of Nadaw 1376 ME Tuesday, 2 December, 2014

I N S I D E

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Norwegian King and Queen arrive in Nay Pyi Taw

Thura U Shwe Mann meets Norwegian King

Malversation and red tape

Stop using children for political gain

Plans underway to increase anti-HIV drugs distribution up to 95 % next year: Health Ministry

Yangon, 1 Dec — With the assistance of partner or-ganizations, the Ministry of Health has planned to in-crease its supply of anti-HIV drugs from 60 % to 95 % of people infected with the hu-man immunodeficiency vi-rus (HIV) next year in a bid to control HIV infections in the country.

“This effort is believed to reach the millennium de-velopment goals for com-bating the spread of HIV/AIDS in 2015,” said Yan-gon Region Chief Minister U Myint Swe at the celebra-tion of World AIDS Day on Monday at Ahlon BEHS-4.

He went on to say that plans are underway to in-crease the allocation of the health-related budget in the future so as to accelerate the ministry’s development pro-cesses, with an official say-

By Khaing Thanda Lwining that health departments in Yangon Region received more than K1 billion from the budget this fiscal year.

According to a 2013 survey of the International AIDS Society, about 35 mil-lion people are living with HIV worldwide, with more than 2 million becoming infected with the virus in a

single year.In Myanmar, there are

over 180,000 HIV-infect-ed people who are 15 years of age and above. Most of them became infected with the virus through genital contact, said Dr Aye Ko Ko, head of the Yangon Region Health Department. He add-ed that the Ministry is also planning to establish Decen-tralized ART Sites at 150 lo-

cations across the nation by the end of 2016 in a bid to ensure the easy accessibility of HIV services to the target population.

The survey from 2000 to 2013 said that the rate of HIV transmission in Myan-mar has decreased to 0.47 % from 0.94 %. However, about 120,000 patients do not have access to medica-tion yet.—GNLM

President U Thein Sein welcomes Norwegian king with ceremony

naY PYi Taw, 1 Dec — President U Thein Sein welcomed Norwegian King His Majesty Harald V with a ceremony on the lawn at the Presidential Palace in

Nay Pyi Taw on Monday.The president and the

king took the salute of the guard of honour at the cer-emony, at which students also greeted the two leaders.

They then introduced sen-ior government officials of the two sides to each other, including Myanmar union ministers U Wunna Maung Lwin, U Thein Nyunt, U

Soe Thane, U Win Tun, U Zeyar Aung, Dr Kan Zaw and U Than Htay.

U Thein Sein and His Majesty Harald V, together with their spouses, held a

private conservation at Cre-dentials Hall of the Presi-dential Palace.

At a meeting of gov-ernment officials from both

(See page 3)

President U Thein Sein and Norwegian King His Majesty Harald V inspect the Guard of Honour at welcoming ceremony.—mna

Photos and logos of

AIDS depict World AIDS Day poster displayed at

the ceremony at Ahlon

BEHS-4 in Yangon.Photo: Khaing

thanda Lwin

Vice-Senior General Soe Win meets Defence Minister of Vietnam

Tax for agarwood to be set under 25 per cent of

local price

naY PYi Taw, 1 Dec— Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry is planning to reduce the tax on agarwood produced by agarwood farms.

The ministry is work-ing to set the tax on agar-wood produced at the farms at less than 25 per cent of the local price, according to the ministry.

The ministry has en-couraged commercial plantations of agarwood in Myanmar in an attempt to protect Aquilaria agallocha and Aquilaria malaccenis, which produce agarwood, as many Aquilaria agallo-cha and Aquilaria malacce-nis trees naturally grown in forests have been cut down by poachers.

Farm registered at the ministry and have paid the tax on agarwood are al-lowed to export the agar-wood, one of the most ex-pensive forest products in the world. It is highly val-ued for the making of per-fumes.

Myanmar has banned illegal trading in agarwood since 1947.

According to agarwood farmers in Myanmar, 1 viss (1.63 kg) of first-grade agarwood can fetch from K20 million to K30 million, but a tree that is less than 50 years old cannot produce quality agarwood.

Since 1995, Aquilaria malaccensis, the prima-ry source, has been listed

(See page 3)

By Aye Min Soe

Tuesday, 2 December, 20142l o c a l n e w s

Nay Pyi Taw

Mandalay

Sittway

Yangon Thaton

Today’s MyanMar news siTes

Mandalay, 1 Dec—The First Private School Sports Meet in Manda-lay Region kicked off at Mandalar Thiri Stadium in Chanmyathazi Township,

nay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec — Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association organized a talk on commu-nity health at Basic Educa-tion Middle School Branch in Payataung Village, Ot-tarathiri Township, on 30 November.

Secretary of MMCWA Daw Tin Tin Win and doc-tor-in-charge of Myitta San-yay clinic Dr Daw San San Hlaing explained purposes of operating the mobile clinic. Dr Myo Min Oo and

Locals participate in combating drug resistant malaria

ThaTon, 1 Dec —World Concern Myanmar (Mon Project Office) or-ganized the community movement in combating the drug resistant malaria disease.

At the monastery in Kyungale Village of Tha-ton Township, Mon State held the health educative knowledge talks, songs, play and quiz on 30 No-vember, with participation of the local people.

“The health project has been carried out in re-spective villages. Now, we organized the ceremony for all villages on a wider scale,” in-charge of World Concern Myanmar (Mon Project office) Dr Aung

Kaung Khant said.Medical officers and

staff gave malaria test to the

attendees free of charge.The paintings and

posters were displayed for

public observation on drug resistant malaria disease.

Thet Oo (Thaton)

Private school students take part in sports meet in Mandalay

Mandalay Region, on 30 November.

On behalf of the Chief Minister of Mandalay Re-gion, Mandalay Region Minister for Social Affairs

Dr Win Hlaing launched the sports meet.

In the final match of high school level football event, Saya Zaw team emerged champion with a

2-1 win over Pyinnya Sa-nein.

Deputy Director of Sports and Physical Ed-ucation Department U Wai Zin, Secretary of the Organizing Committee U Khin Maung Cho and founders of the private schools presented prizes to the winners in the table tennis and football tourna-ment.

Region Education Of-ficer Dr Soe Myint Tun gave the championship trophy to Pyinnya Sanein private school.

Region Minister Dr Win Hlaing presented championship shield to Saya Zaw team in the high school level football tour-nament.

Tin Maung (Mandalay)

Pregnant women get prenatal health knowledge

Dr Lin Lin Khet highlight-ed prenatal health care and birth-spacing programme.

They presented iodized salt and textile to mothers and nutritious snacks to the aged. They performed eye tests on 385 people from Phayataung and Potet vil-lages, health care on preg-nant women and health care services to the local people.

Of them, 10 patients were referred to Nay Pyi Taw General Hospital (1000-bed).—Shwe ye Yint

Mohnyin, 1 Dec — A ceremony to drive stakes for construction of new Mohnyin City Hall was held in the designated plot, west of Technological Col-

Mohnyin to get new town halllege in Mohnyin Town-ship, Kachin State, on 29 November.

Kachin State Minis-ter for Finance Mohnyin Township Hluttaw repre-

sentative U Nyunt Aung and officials drove stakes in the designated places.

Manaw Ayeya Com-pany will construct the 196 feet long and 121 feet wide two-storey RC hall, spend-ing K978.9 million allotted by Kachin State Govern-ment. The construction is expected to complete in 2015.

Seinle Yadana Hall in Mohnyin where the depart-mental personnel and local people attended the com-memorative ceremonies was built in 1990s.

GNLM-001

Mohnyin

Myanaung

Tuesday, 2 December, 2014

N a t i o N a l3

(from page 1)sides, they discussed the improvement of bilateral ties, peace-making efforts, rehabilitation tasks during the post-conflict period, the reform process of the Southeast Asian country, environmental conservation and management of natu-ral resources, the education sector, the energy sector, poverty alleviation pro-grammes, the tourism in-dustry, trade and investment and the general election.

Union Minister Dr Kan Zaw and Norwegian For-eign Minister Borge Brende signed a memorandum of understanding at the pres-ence of the two leaders for cooperation in development programmes between the two countries.

President U Thein Sein . . .

President U Thein Sein and the first lady then had a luncheon with the king and the queen.

The Norwegian gov-ernment wrote off US$534 million of Myanmar’s debt to the northern European

country, and also prioritized Myanmar for its interna-tional development pro-grammes.

Norway is one of the donor countries involved in the peace-making process of Myanmar, in which the Oslo Peace Centre and the Myanmar Peace Centre are working closely.

The Norwegian Red Cross Society and some hu-

manitarian groups are pro-viding aid for IDPs and is-suing citizen scrutiny cards for Kayin people in the Bago region. Norway has opened its foreign mission in Myanmar, and the latter will set up its embassy in Oslo in early 2015.—MNA

Thura U Shwe Mann meets Norwegian KingNay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec

— Speaker of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and Pyithu Hlut-taw Thura U Shwe Mann met Norwegian King His Majesty Harald V and Her Majesty Queen Sonja at the Hluttaw building on Mon-day.

During his welcome speech, Thura U Shwe Mann said that the visit of His Majesty is an evidence of good relations between the two countries, and it is believed as an appreci-ation of Norway for the democratic reforms and peace-making processes in Myanmar.

The speaker noted that while Myanmar is striving for these steps, the country and people hope the contin-uous supports of Norway in these efforts. King Harald V also thanked for warmly welcome of Myanmar offi-cials, saying that his visit was aimed to promote ties between the two countries.

The king then pledged

the support of their country in the transitional period of Myanmar, in which some reform processes should be done immediately, while

some steps may take time. He also said his expec-

tation on free and fair elec-tions in Myanmar.

The meeting was at-

tended by the union min-isters, members of Hluttaw affairs committees and the ambassadors to both countries.—MNA

President U Thein Sein holds discussions with

Norwegian His Majesty King Harald V at

Presidential Palace in Nay Pyi Taw.—mna

Norwegian Minister and Union Minister Dr Kan Zaw sign MoU in the presence

of President U Thein Sein and Norwegian King Harald V.—mna

Norwegian King His Majesty Harald V and Her Majesty Queen Sonja seen with Speaker of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and Pyithu Hluttaw

Thura U Shwe Mann.—mna

(from page 1)in the list of potentially threatened species by the Convention on Interna-

Tax for agarwood to be . . .tional Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

GNLM

Union Minister meets Chinese Transport Minister

Nay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec—Union Minister for Con-struction U Kyaw Lwin re-ceived Minister of Transport Mr Yang Chuan Tang and party of China at Sedona Hotel in Yangon on Sunday.

They discussed con-struction of infrastructures for silk road project and Rui-

li-Kyaukpyu road.The union minister

inspected progress of Kok-kowa Bridge on Htanta-bin-Lamudan-Hleseik road in Htantabin Township and Shwepaukkan Bridge link-ing Dagon Myothit (East) Township and Shwepauk-kan Township.—MNA

Agerwood saplings seen at a nursery.

Tuesday, 2 December, 20144l o c a l n e w s

Mandalay, 1 Dec —Chief Justice of Mandalay Region High Court U Soe Thein held a talk with a delegation led by Mr Zhang Jiannan, Judge of Supreme People’s Court (SPC) in China in Mandalay on 28 November.

In the evening, Chief Justice U Soe Thein host-ed a dinner to the Chinese

Mandalay, 1 Dec — The final match of the Mandalay Region Chief Minister’s Trophy inter-ba-sic education school foot-ball tournament was held at Mandalar Thiri Stadium in Mandalay on 29 Novem-ber.

Meiktila District clinched the title with a 3-2 victory over Mandalay

Mandalay, 1 Dec — A ceremony to open the Charity Haemodialysis Center was held at Myint-

Meiktila District secures championship trophy in inter-basic

education school sports meetDistrict in the final match.

Mandalay Region Education Officer Dr Soe Myint Tun presented best player awards in respective places, Director of Basic Education Department No 2 U Khin Maung Myint, individual medals and cash awards to the players of Mandalay District team, and Director U Myint of

No 2 BED, individual medals and cash awards to players of Meiktila District team.

On behalf of the Man-dalay Region Chief Min-ister, Region Minister for Social Affairs Dr Win Hlaing awarded champi-onship trophy to Meiktila District team.—Tin Maung (Mandalay)

Free clinic opens Charity Haemodialysis Center in Mandalay

myat Phyusin free clinic on 74th street between 36th and 37th streets in Mahaaung-mye Township, Mandalay,

on Sunday morning.Chairman of the Clin-

ic Management Commit-tee Police Col Hla Myint

(Rtd) made a speech, and Renal Specialist Dr Khin Maung Kyaw explained the purpose of opening the Charity Haemodialysis Center.

Secretary of the com-mittee Mandalar U Soe Myint briefed all the at-tendees on tasks of the clinic and future plans.


Chinese judge and party visit Mandalay Hill,

Taungthaman Bridgeguests at Rupar Mandalar Resort. On 29 November, the Chinese guests visited Mandalay Hill and paid homage to Hsutaungpyae Pagoda on the hill and vis-ited Taungthaman Bridge. In the evening, they left Mandalay International Airport for China.


Sittway, 1 Dec — The Supreme Court of the Union held a coordination meeting on courts and me-dia relations with region and state high courts at the hall of Rakhine State High Court in Sittway on 30 No-vember.

Chief Justice of Ra-khine State High Court U Kyauk said that infor-mation teams have been formed at region and state high courts so as to give information to the peo-ple and reply to queries raised by media. The me-dia teams are to abide by the rules, regulations and directives of media ethics.

Head of Rakhine State Judicial Officer U Khin Maung explained direc-tives from the courts and media relations coordina-tion meeting between the supreme court of the union and region and state high courts.

Rakhine State IPRD

Judicial officers

discuss courts and media relations in

SittwayClinic gives free health care

services to localsMyanaung, 1 Dec —

A mobile medical team provided health care ser-vices to local people in Tagwa Village, Myanaung Township, Ayeyawady Re-gion, on 29 November.

In commemoration of the first anniversary of Po Yar Zar Library in Tag-wa Village, three doctors,

nurses and traditional med-icine practitioners gave health care to the people free of charge. They had given medical treatment to the locals at the opening ceremony of the library.

Library wellwisher U Nay Lin, wife Daw Aye Aye Thwe and family do-nated the cost of medical

treatments.Myat Dana clinic is

kept open at the Dham-mayon of Chanthagyi Pa-goda in Kyangin to give medical treatment to the people. About 150 people receive treatment at the clinic every Sunday.

Nay Win Zaw (Myanaung)

Chief Minister on inspection tour of Gwa,

Kyeintali in Rakhine StateSittway, 1 Dec — Ra-

khine State Chief Minister U Maung Maung Ohn on 27 November inspected medical store, labour room and patient wards at Gwa People’s Hospital and pre-sented cash assistance to patients.

At Gwa Basic Educa-tion High School, the chief minister instructed teach-ers to improve education standard of the students.

He also met township level officials and social

organizations at the hall in Gwa.

In the afternoon, the chief minister viewed al-lotment of land plots re-leased by the Tatmadaw along Gwa-Kyeintali road and Thandwe-Kyeintali road.

At Kyeintali BEHS, the chief minister fulfilled the requirements of water supply and presented so-lar lamps and stationery to them.

Rakhine State IPRD

Doctors and

health staff give

medical checkup

to a local at Myat

Dana free clinic

in Myanaung

Township.

Tuesday, 2 December, 2014 5r e g i o n a l

Indian volunteers from a non-governmental organization participate in an AIDS awareness programme on the eve of World AIDS Day in Calcutta, capital of eastern Indian state West

Bengal, on 30 Nov, 2014.—Xinhua

Photo taken on 27 Nov, 2014, from a Kyodo News helicopter shows Kansai Electric Power Co’s

Takahama nuclear plant in the town of Takahama along the Sea of Japan. The utility said on 1 December that it has started special checks on the No 1 (L on the

front) and No 2 (R on the front) reactors to enable their operation beyond a 40-year limit set for their lifespan.

Kyodo news

KEPCO begins special checks seeking to keep old nuclear units

Osaka, 1 Dec — Kansai Electric Power Co on Monday launched special checks on its two aging nu-clear reactors at the Takaha-ma plant, seeking to operate them beyond the limit of 40 years despite public con-cerns over the safety of old nuclear facilities in Japan.

Under tighter safety re-quirements adopted after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear cri-sis, reactors are not allowed to operate more than 40 years in principle to ensure safety. The nuclear regulator may grant a one-time exten-sion of up to 20 years, but utilities seeking to extend the operational periods must conduct special checks that set a high hurdle to clear and require hefty costs.

Seven of Japan’s 48 nu-clear reactors, including the Takahama Nos 1 and 2 units on the Sea of Japan coast in Fukui Prefecture, are around 40 years old. Kansai Electric was the first power company that announced its intention to keep old reactors in op-eration after the Fukushi-ma meltdowns, while the government has sought to

promote shutdowns of old facilities.

Kansai Electric has judged that keeping the two reactors would contribute to improving its earnings that have deteriorated due to a surge in fossil fuel costs in the absence of nuclear pow-er, despite massive costs for upgrading equipment and enhancing the safety of the plant. Currently, all the reac-tors in Japan remain offline.

Under the special checks, which are expected to take up to four months, the utility serving Osaka and surrounding areas will scrutinize the state of reactor pressure vessels — which contain the nuclear fuel — and other key equipment.

But the company will then need to apply for the Nuclear Regulation Author-ity safety screening based on the new regulations and ob-tain approval to continue the units’ operations, a process necessary for any reactor before being allowed to go back online.

Kansai Electric plans to finish the special checks and apply for the NRA screening

as early as next spring.The Takahama No 1

unit became 40 years old in November, and the No 2 unit will be 40 years old November next year. The pro-nuclear government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged utilities to quickly

decide on whether to scrap their aging reactors, appar-ently in an attempt to ease concerns over the safety of nuclear power by promoting the shutdown of old facilities and bring relatively new re-actors back online.

Kyodo News

Lao Ambassador to Japan Khenthong Nuanthasing (L) and Takio Yamada, director general of the

Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, unveil a logo to commemorate the 60th anniversary in 2015 of the

establishment of diplomatic relations during a national day reception at the Lao Embassy in Tokyo

on 30 Nov, 2014.Kyodo news

Japan, Laos unveil cherry-elephant logo for 60th anniversary of ties

TOkyO, 1 Dec — With high economic growth in Laos having attracted in-creased Japanese invest-ment in recent years, the governments of the two countries unveiled a logo Sunday to commemorate the 60th anniversary next year of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

Carrying an image of an elephant and cherry blossom, a symbol of Laos and Japan, respectively, the logo was unveiled by Takio Yamada, director gener-al of the Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department at the Japa-nese Foreign Ministry, and Lao Ambassador to Japan Khenthong Nuanthasing during a national day re-ception at the Lao Embassy in Tokyo.

Speaking to Kyo-do News at the reception, Khenthong said the two governments are arrang-ing a visit by Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Tham-mavong to Japan next year, possibly in March, to com-memorate the anniversary.

The logo, designed by a Japanese designer based in Kagawa Prefecture in west-ern Japan, will be used in a series of commemorative events in Japan and Laos, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The event came after Laos presented four ele-phant cubs to Kyoto City Zoo on 17 November for public viewing in March next year. In return, Japan plans to plant about 220 cherry trees in Laos in Feb-ruary, according to a minis-try official.

With Laos register-ing real economic growth of around 8 percent in re-cent years, the number of Japanese investors in the country has doubled from about 60 in 2012 to 122 as of November this year, according to Japanese gov-ernment data.

The latest investors in-clude Nikon Corp and Toy-ota Boshoku Corp, a group company of Toyota Motor Corp.

To strengthen informa-tion gathering, and assist

Japanese investors and pro-spective investors in Laos, the government-backed Japan External Trade Or-ganization opened an office in the capital Vientiane in April.

Japan aims to strength-en ties with Laos and other

members of the Associa-tion of Southeast Asian Na-tions, which have pledged to advance connectivity for further development as the 10-member bloc prepares to establish a more inte-grated ASEAN Communi-ty in 2015.—Kyodo News

kuala lumpur, 1 Dec Malaysian Airlines Sys-tem Bhd (MAS) and four others have been ordered to file their statement of defence over the suit filed by two children of a miss-ing MH370 passenger against them, it is report-ed here on Monday.

According to a report by the local English Dai-ly “the Star,” High Court deputy registrar K Pavani ordered all defendants to file their defence before on 15 December.

Pavani has set 12 Jan-uary for the matter to be heard before a trial judge, said the children’s lead counsel Dr Arunan Selva-raj. Arunan said they were now in the midst of iden-tifying witnesses, adding that they want answers to various queries over the missing plane.

“The plane is said to have ended at the In-dian Ocean, so what is the conclusion?” Arunan said. “We are interested

to know what transpired when the plane went miss-ing on March 8,” he add-ed.

In the suit, the plain-tiffs have also named the civil aviation direc-tor-general, the immigra-tion director-general, the air force chief and the government as defend-ants.

The two boys, aged 13 and 11, had on 31 Oc-tober filed the civil claim through their mother Ng Pearl Ming, 38. Their father, Jee Jing Hang, 41, was a businessman on board of the Bei-jing-bound flight.

In the statement of claim, the boys said their father had entered into an agreement with MAS for safe passage to Beijing when he paid the airfare.

They claimed that MAS had breached the agreement when the plane failed to land in Beijing at 6:30 am on 8 March.

Xinhua

Malaysia’s court orders MAS to enter defence

Tuesday, 2 December, 20146w o r l d

Japan has opportunity to end

deflation: Abe

Tokyo, 1 Dec — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday in a televised debate with the leaders of seven other po-litical parties that his eco-nomic policies have given Japan the opportunity to pull out of deflation.

“We have seized the chance to break out of 15 years of deflation,” Abe said in the debate host-ed by the Japan National Press Club a day before official campaigning be-gins for the 14 December lower house election.

“The employment sit-uation is improving, and salaries are starting to go up,” Abe said as he wrote his campaign slogan on a board: This (Abenomics) is the only way.

Banri Kaieda, head of the main opposition Dem-ocratic Party of Japan, said he cannot put up with an-other four years of rule by Abe’s Liberal Democratic

Leaders of Japan’s eight political parties, including

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (4th from L), shake hands

before their debate session at the Japan National Press

Club in Tokyo on 1 Dec, 2014. It was held prior to the

14 Dec general election.

Kyodo News

Party, adding, “It’s time to turn the tide.”

“The economy will expand through the sta-bilization of employment and the promotion of a child-rearing programme,” Kaieda said.

Abe dissolved the House of Representa-tives on 21 November and called the election to seek a fresh mandate for his “Abenomics” policy mix of aggressive monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and growth-oriented reforms.

The leaders of the eight political parties also discussed Abe’s recent decision to postpone a planned consumption tax hike by 18 months to April 2017, its impact on Japan’s management of swelling social security costs and the exercise of the right to collective self-defence, or defending allies under armed attack even if Japan itself is not.—Kyodo News

Russia’s Defence Ministry establishes Arctic Strategic

CommandMoscow, 1 Dec — A

new Joint Strategic Com-mand, dubbed North, on Monday became op-erational in the Russian Arctic on the basis of the Northern Fleet.

A Russian Defence Ministry source told TASS the command starts taking under its control various formations, military units and vessels that were ear- Arctic coast

lier part of the Western, Central and Southern mil-itary districts, and “this process is due to last for two or three weeks.”

According to the source, the force group-ings of the new command have been already formed on Russia’s insular territo-ries in the Arctic, includ-ing the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, the New Si-

berian Islands, the Wran-gel Island and also Cape Schmidt.

“These groupings form the Joint task force that has been equipped with modern weapon-ry, including the Rubezh coastal missile systems and the Pantsir-S1 an-ti-aircraft artillery weapon systems,” the source said.

Itar-Tass

Russia’s lower house speaker to discuss bilateral ties in Vietnam

Moscow, 1 Dec — A delegation from Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, led by Speaker Sergey Naryshkin, is due to discuss coopera-tion between Moscow and Hanoi during the official visit to Vietnam on 2-3 De-cember.

The Russian lawmak-ers are expected to meet with Vietnam’s top govern-ment officials “to discuss topical issues of bilateral cooperation,” the Russian lower house of parliament said.

Naryshkin is also

Sergey Naryshkin

scheduled to make a speech before the students of the Hanoi University.

Russian First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Ivan Melnikov, said last week the visit is due to fo-cus on “strengthening co-operation in the parliamen-tary activity.”

The visit comes as Russia and Vietnam pre-pare to mark important dates in the history of bi-lateral relations: the 65th anniversary since the estab-lishment of diplomatic rela-tions in late January 2015, the 40th anniversary since

the liberation of southern Vietnam and unification of the country; the 70th anni-versary since Vietnam pro-

claimed independence and the 70th anniversary since the victory in WWII.

Itar-Tass

Tough first year raises doubts Australian PM will last full term

sydney, 1 Dec — Aus-tralian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is nearing the end of his first full year in office hobbled by missteps and a souring economy that have plunged his approval ratings to historic lows, increas-ing speculation he may not survive to a second term. Faced with a collapse in commodities prices and an unruly upper house Senate that has held Abbott’s first budget hostage since May, voters have abandoned his conservative government more quickly than any other in three decades. The drum beat of bad news, most re-cently the thrashing handed to Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition in state elections in Victoria on Saturday, has sparked calls for Treasurer Joe Hockey and Defence Minister David Johnston to be thrown out.

However, even a cab-inet reshuffle may be too little, too late, with the oppo-sition Labour Party increas-ingly painting Abbott as a hypocrite over policy shifts that include deep cuts to the

popular Australian Broad-casting Corporation.

Abbott was a ruthlessly effective opposition leader against Labour Prime Minis-ters Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, but those qualities are less desirable in a prime min-ister, Dr Andrew Hughes of the Australian National Uni-versity told Reuters. “Tony Abbott’s brand is so hard and it’s so negative. It makes you wonder whether he was a one-use only brand,” he said. Abbott has had signif-icant accomplishments this year, concluding free trade deals with Japan, South Korea and China, and host-ing the G20 leaders summit last month. Still, Labour

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott

has surged ahead to lead the government by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent in the latest Newspoll released on 18 November.

A cabinet reshuffle is likely after the Victorian election, Hughes said, but a leadership swap may already be unavoidable.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who has performed well this year, is seen as a possible leader. “If those numbers don’t budge, they’re going to have to consider it. They’ve got no choice,” Hughes said. Aus-tralia, by far the world’s biggest exporter of iron ore and coal, has been battered by a worldwide fall in com-modity prices. Iron prices have plunged 44 percent so far this year to under $76 a tonne. Abbott warned about ballooning deficits in May when he released an un-popular budget packed with deregulation moves, new levies and spending cuts, but the public has never accept-ed his plan. On Monday, Deloitte Access Economics released a report predicting

that, based on a combina-tion of Senate intransigence and plummeting revenues, there was no chance for the balanced Budget Abbott pre-dicted for 2017-18.

“Australia’s Budget boom of the last decade is ending, not with a bang, but with a whimper,” Deloitte said. On Monday, Abbott described the government’s performance in the past week as “ragged”. That included defense minister Johnston saying he would not trust a government-owned subma-rine firm “to build a canoe”, which led to calls for his sacking. “Obviously I take responsibility for everything in the end. I mean, the buck stops here,” Abbott told re-porters. Treasurer Hockey, once considered a successor for Abbott, has been hurt by the budget impasse and will be a likely target in any re-shuffle. Opposition leader Bill Shorten said on Monday he expected that a scheduled mid-year fiscal update this month would confirm that budget as Hockey’s first - and last.—Reuters

Tuesday, 2 December, 2014 7w o r l d

The frigate HMS Argyll of the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, arrives at Havana, Cuba, on 30 Nov, 2014. The frigate HMS Argyll of the United Kingdom’s Royal

Navy, is on a friendly visit in Havana.—Xinhua

Pope Francis says mankind has not learned lesson on nukes

AboArd the pApAl plAne, 1 Dec — Pope Fran-cis on Sunday expressed concern over the continued threat posed by nuclear

weapons nearly 70 years after the end of World War II, saying “mankind has learned nothing” from the atomic bombings of Hiro-shima and Nagasaki.

Speaking to reporters aboard a flight returning from a visit to Turkey, Pope Francis said nuclear energy has benefitted man-kind greatly but has also been used to “destroy hu-manity.”

If nuclear weapons were used today, “we would be forced to start from zero just like Hiroshi-ma and Nagasaki,” he said in Italian.

The pope, who leads 1.2 billion Roman Catho-

Pope Francis meets with reporters on 30 Nov, 2014, during a flight returning

from a visit to Turkey. Kyodo news

Colombian rebels free army general and two other hostages

bogotA, 1 Dec — Co-lombia’s Marxist guerrillas freed an army general and two other captives on Sun-day, paving the way for peace negotiations in Cuba to resume in the quest to end five decades of war.

President Juan Manuel Santos halted the talks two weeks ago after the Revo-lutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) seized five hostages, including General Ruben Dario Al-zate.

Santos insisted there would be no more negotia-tions until all five hostages were freed.

The rebels released two soldiers last week and the other three — Alzate, a soldier and a civilian lawyer — were set free on

Sunday in a jungle area of Choco Province on Co-lombia’s Pacific coast. The government said they were in good health.

“It’s clear this decision contributes to returning to a favourable climate for continuing the talks (and) shows the maturity of the process,” Santos said in a statement.

His chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, said late on Sunday that mem-bers of the government team would return to Ha-vana for a two-day meet-ing with FARC leaders, although he stopped short of saying it marked a full resumption of talks.

Confirming the hos-tages’ release, the FARC’s team in Havana reiterated

its demand for a ceasefire during peace talks, a re-quest Santos has repeatedly said is out of the question.

The FARC said the two sides need “to redesign the rules of the game” with-out clarifying what that meant. FARC leader Rod-rigo Londono, known as “Timochenko”, said Santos violated an agreement gov-erning the talks by bringing them to a halt.

Alzate, 55, and his fel-low captives were seized as they disembarked from a boat in a violent and im-poverished jungle region of Choco. The FARC declared him a prisoner of war.

The two soldiers freed on Tuesday were taken during combat in the east-ern province of Arauca

three weeks ago.At the talks in Ha-

vana, the government and the FARC have reached partial agreement on land reform, ending the illegal drugs trade and political participation for demobi-lized rebels. Alvaro Uribe, a still-popular former pres-ident who is now a sena-tor, has slammed the talks, claiming the rebels are seeking impunity and had milked the hostage-taking for media coverage.

Around 200,000 peo-ple have been killed in Co-lombia’s 50-year conflict. The last peace effort ended in a shambles in 2002 when the FARC used a demili-tarized zone to expand its fighting force and take hos-tages. —Reuters

Colombia’s Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon (L) speaks with General Ruben Dario Alzate (R) in an army base in Rionegro Antioquia Province on 30 Nov, 2014.—ReuteRs

lics, also said the current prevalence of conflict across the world is tanta-mount to a third world war. He said a system of money worship was behind this, adding that the trafficking of weapons is “one of the strongest businesses” right now. Regarding terrorism in the Middle East and Africa, the pope said such acts are the work of Is-lamic fundamentalists and should not be seen as rep-resentative of the religion as a whole.

He called on academ-ic, religious and political leaders within Islam to speak up against terrorism.

Kyodo News

Mubarak verdict fuels protests, mockery in

EgyptCAiro, 1 Dec — Pro-

tests erupted at universities across Egypt on Sunday, condemning a court deci-sion to drop criminal charg-es against Hosni Mubarak, the president whose ouster in the 2011 uprising raised hopes of a new era of polit-ical openness.

Hundreds of demon-strators gathered at Cairo University, waving pic-tures of Mubarak behind bars and demanding the “fall of the regime”, the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings that shook governments from Tunisia to the Gulf in 2011.

Police stood ready at the gates to bar students that sought to take their demonstration into the streets.

An Egyptian court on Saturday dropped its case against Mubarak over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ended

Anti-Mubarak protesters gesture after former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s verdict, in front of barbed

wire, soldiers with armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and police vehicles as they close one of the entrances

which lead to Tahrir square in downtown Cairo on 29 Nov, 2014.—ReuteRs

his 30-year rule.The ruling was seen by

activists as the latest sign that the rights won during the revolt are being eroded.

While the decision could be met with a re-buke from Washington, it is unlikely to upend a rela-tionship that has strength-ened during the US-led campaign against Islamic State. Cairo’s strong public support for the campaign demonstrates how far Egypt has come in restor-ing its place as a premier US partner in the Arab world since last year’s au-thoritarian crackdown in Egypt and military takeo-ver.

Although the United States was a proponent of the Arab Spring, Washing-ton in June renewed ties with Cairo and its current government, led by anoth-er strongman, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.—Reuters

Tuesday, 2 December, 20148o p i n i o n

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will however denounce the use of children for po-litical purposes as a scandalous way of manipu-lating public opinion.

As a signatory to the Convention of the Rights of Children (CRC), Myanmar should ex-ercise its prerogative to warn all of its political parties to refrain from using children in political activities. The CRC states that children have to be protected “from all forms of physical or men-tal violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation.”

Everysocietywillfinditintolerabletohavethe underaged become lured into or compelled to be involved in political activities. Bearing that in mind, the government, as well as all political par-ties, should provide a safe haven for children so that they can continue their routines such as go-ing to school, playing sports and enjoying other childhood activities with friends and families.

Let alone the act, even the thought of us-ing children for political gain is aberrant be-haviour. The onus is therefore on all of us to keep children out of any kind of political move-ment. So, it is imperative that all politicians should leave them alone and let them finishtheir schooling. Otherwise, it would be hypo-critical of them to maltreat children, who are innocent in every sense of the word.

By Kyaw Thura

Stop using children for political gain

It is shocking that children get used in the vanguard of recent demonstrations in some parts of Myanmar. From a logical point of

view, children are unable to even spell ‘politics’, let alone know what it means to them. There must be unscrupulous politicians behind the curtain orchestrating the demonstrations as a means to voice their demands. True politicians

Tommy Pauk is the pseudonym 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/Interpreterforforeignfirms.

Malversation and red tape By TOMMY PAUK

Both malversation and red tape are det-rimental to a certain

country’s prestige and de-velopment. These practices prevail in many countries in the world irrespective of whether they are rich or poor. Malversation is the corrupt administration and red tape is the bureaucratic routine. Ordinary people in these countries are reluc-tant to go to public offices as there are lots of paper work and bureaucracy. When people need to take official documents, recom-mendation or permits from public offices, they have to go there and deal with civil servants or government employees. In this situa-tion, inevitably people en-counter the practices of malversation and red tape committed by some offi-cials. The office work and procedures are always sur-rounded by red tape. Even then, they do not perform their duties properly. So, the people usually get an-noyed, confused and frus-trated with the misconduct of the authorities con-cerned. The worst thing is that the bureaucrats and civil servants in the admin-istration behave haughtily to the public concerned. Even though they are paid to serve for the interests of their own people and citi-zens, they concentrate on personal gain and benefits from their work illegally. They deliberately delay the office work submitted or applied by public for some approval of the officials or permits. They use delaying tactics to take bribe from

the public. They use their authority or power in a dis-honest or illegal way in or-der to get an advantage for themselves. They shame-lessly behave in such a way instead of performing the public services dutifully and honestly.

For their disgusting misconduct, they lose pub-lic confidence and trust. The people cautiously deal with them to gain official documents or permits or approval through red tape. The corrupt officials ask for bribe from the people. Subsequently, the people unwillingly bribe the offi-cials concerned to get their job done properly, correct-ly, timely and smoothly. Otherwise, the service will take a long time and red tape is utilized by corrupt officials intentionally. When we study this case, the people are coerced by the corrupt officials to give bribe. The use of coercion is the tactic of the corrupt personnel. The ordinary people are scared to com-plain about it because the corrupt personnel can cause so much trouble when they need to apply for public services next time.

The corrupt officials may be graduates or hold-ers of many degrees from Institutes, but their bad character and misconduct ruin their reputation badly. They do not serve the peo-ple’s affairs and interests with their knowledge, skill and capacity effectively. Thus, they do not become outstanding and model government officials. The corrupt officials usually ne-

glect morals, code of con-ducts for civil services and ethical values. If a certain society is corrupt the other clean societies will not as-sociate with it for anything. They are totally not worthy of their higher or lower po-sitions they are assigned to perform the duty in the public offices.

Their low mentality, selfishness, misconduct, hoity-toity manner tarnish the image of the govern-ment and the nation con-cerned. Such practices should not be existent in any civilized and humane society across the world. Otherwise, such a country cannot develop and people will be unhappy. If the cor-rupt officials change their mindsets and quit from malpractices, they will surely gain the trust and due respect from the public concerned. As for the duti-ful, model, honest and out-standing officials, every citizen honors them for their prestige and human dignity. Concerning a brib-ery case, the person who takes and the person who gives bribe are equally in-volved and guilty. Punitive actions must be taken against them. If the malver-sation and red tape still pre-vail in a certain country, the foreign investors are reluc-tant to invest in that coun-try. Naturally, the foreign investors think that they might encounter a series of inconveniences, uncertain-ty, difficulties and losses of investment in that particu-lar corrupt country. Nowa-days, public wish to have good governance and clean government which could guarantee the comfort and

convenience of their daily life in any society or coun-try in the world.

To eliminate the scourge of malversation from the face of the Earth, the United Nations Con-vention against Corruption (UNCAC) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 31 October, 2003. The assembly also designated 9 December as International Anti-corruption Day, to raise awareness of corrup-tion and the role of the Convention in combating and preventing it. The con-vention entered into force in December 2005. It opens to all countries and regional economic organizations. The number of signatories reached 140 (as of 1 No-vember 2007) and the num-ber of ratifications / Acces-sions reached 125 (as of 29 September, 2008).

Myanmar became the 165th State Party to UN Convention against Cor-ruption framework on 20 December 2012 by ratify-ing the UNCAC. The Con-vention entered into force for Myanmar on 19 January 2013.

Nowadays, the gov-ernments in some countries carry out the tasks for elim-ination of corruption as their national task. For ex-ample, the mainland Chi-nese government has launched the operation ‘Fox Hunt’ to crack down on corruption over the past year. The operation has al-ready brought charges against 50 high ranking of-ficials. The Chinese gov-ernment has also cracked down on corruption that was practiced by both high and low ranking officials. The mainland Chinese gov-ernment takes punitive ac-tions against the corrupt

officials (even death penal-ty was given).The actions reveal that corruption must be eliminated in order to protect a wide range of cor-rosive effects on any socie-ties. On the other hand, public servants must be able to act as model of dig-nity and honesty so that public trust can be built. The global governments re-alize that such immoral practices corrode their own identities and cultures so they ought to combat the red tape and malversation in their countries and re-gions. Majority peoples are the victims targeted by the corrupt officials those who are assigned to perform public affairs or public ser-vices. The misconduct, malpractice, misappropria-tion and corruption are to-tally unacceptable and un-pardonable in the civilized societies. Severe punish-ment must be given to those who are found guilty for corruption in public ser-vices. Their shameless be-havior and notoriety make their own people frustrated. Therefore, we do not con-sider those corrupt govern-

ment officials gentlemen or gentlewomen. Despite re-ceiving the monthly sala-ries, they grab public mon-ey and public property for their illicit prosperity. In fact, they are perpetrators. The public prefers to see and deal with the honest and virtuous government officials all the time so that they will not encounter malversation and red tape.

Actually, UNCAC ap-peared on the world stage out of the desire and de-mand for eliminating the corruption and bribery by the entire world people. So elimination of bribery and corruption becomes a glob-al concern or issue. All state parties which ratified UNCAC are obliged to comply or cooperate with the principles and activities laid down by UNCAC. Likewise, we all are re-sponsible for combating the corruption and bribery in our respective societies in order to avoid exploita-tion and injustice. May all the governments in the world be clean, honest and kind to their fellow-coun-trymen!!!!


n a t i o n a l9

Appointment of Luxembourg ambassador agreed on

Nay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec—The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has agreed to the appointment of Mr Robert Lauer as Ambassador Ex-traordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar with residence in Bangkok.

Mr Robert Lauer was born in Luxembourg in 1971. He obtained the Bachelor of Arts in Politics & International Relations from the University of Lancas-ter, UK, in 1993 and the Master of Arts in Slavonic & East European Studies from the University of Lon-don, UK, in 1995. He joined the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2000. He then served in various capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassies of Luxembourg in Brussels and Vienna. At present, he has been serving as the Ambassador Ex-traordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to the Kingdom of Thailand. He is mar-ried and has three children.—MNA

Norwegian King and Queen arrive in Nay Pyi Taw

Nay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec— His Majesty King Harald V of Norway and Her Majes-ty Queen Sonja arrived at Nay Pyi Taw International Airport on Monday morn-ing.

They were welcomed by Union Minister for Foreign Affairs U Wunna Maung Lwin and wife, Un-ion Minister for Rail Trans-

Vice-Senior General Soe Win poses for documentary photo with Vietnamese and ASEAN army chiefs at the dinner.—Myawady

Professor Ms Kelly Vassar of the US speak-ing at opening ceremony of basic English profi-ciency course.—Mna

President U Thein Sein holds talks with Norwegian King Harald V at Presidential Palace in Nay Pyi Taw. (News on page 1) —Mna

Staff under training of basic English proficiency courseNay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec

— With the aim of enhanc-ing English proficiency of staff from departments and enterprises under the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Information and US Embassy jointly conducted the basic Eng-

lish proficiency course at the hall of Information and Public Relations Depart-ment on Monday, with an address by Union Minister for Information U Ye Htut.

It was also attended by Professor Ms Kelly Vassar of the US and officials of

Vice-Senior General Soe Win meets Defence Minister of Vietnam

Nay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec — Deputy Command-er-in-Chief of Defence Ser-vices Commander-in-Chief (Army) Vice-Senior Gen-eral Soe Win, together with army chiefs of ASEAN countries, met with Viet-namese Defence Minis-ter General Phung Quang Thanh at the meeting hall of the Ministry of Defence of Vietnam in Hanoi on 26 November.

Also present were My-anmar Military Attaché to Vietnam Brig-Gen Nyunt Swe, Deputy Chief of Peo-ple’s Army of Vietnam Lt-Gen Nguyen Quoc Khanh and General Director of Training Lt-Gen Nguyen Duc Than.

At the meeting, the Vi-etnamese defence minister greeted the army chiefs of the ASEAN and held dis-cussions on cooperation among armed forces of the ASEAN, mutual under-standing and role of armed forces in the integration of the region.

Then, the army chief of Thailand, which will host the meeting in 2015, expressed his thanks on be-half of the army chiefs.

After the meeting, the Vietnamese defence min-ister and ASEAN army chiefs exchange gifts and posed for a documentary photo.

The vice senior gener-al and ASEAN army chiefs also visited No 102 Regi-ment and No 308 Division in Sontay Province in the afternoon. The command-er of the regiment greeted ASEAN army chiefs and

conducted them round the regiment.

Then, the army chiefs were welcomed at No 308 Division by the command-er of the division who briefed them on the history of the division.

In the evening, Vice-Senior General Soe Win and wife Daw Than Than Nwe and ASEAN army chiefs attended the dinner hosted by Deputy

Chief of the People’s Army of Vietnam Lt-Gen Nguyen Quoc Khanh and wife at the Melia Hotel in Hanoi.

Also present at the dinner were ASEAN army chiefs and wives who at-tended the 15th ASEAN Chiefs of Army Multilat-eral Meeting and their del-egations.

After the dinner, the army chiefs and wives ex-changed gifts.—Myawady

portation U Than Htay and wife, Myanmar Ambas-sador to Norway U Kyaw Zwar Min and officials to-gether with the Guard of Honour.

National races and stu-dents welcomed the Nor-wegian King and Queen along both sides of the air-port road by waving minia-ture flags.—MNA

Nay Pyi Taw, 1 Dec—The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has agreed to the appointment of Mr Pericles Boutos as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Greece to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar with residence in Bangkok.

Mr Pericles Boutos was born in Athens, Greece in 1958. He graduated in Economics from the London School of Economics, University of London, and also obtained the Master of Science in Monetary Econom-ics at the same school. In 1986, he joined the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He then served in his vari-ous capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greek Embassies and Consulate-General in Vienna, Venice, Helsinki and Novorossyisk, Russian Federation. He has been serving as the Director of the Directorate for Telecommunications and Information Technologies since 2012. He is married and has two children.—MNA

Appointment of Greek Ambassador agreed on

the Ministry of Information from the Ministry, Myan-ma Radio and Television, IPRD, News and Period-icals Enterprise, Printing and Publishing Enterprise and Myanma Motion Pic-ture Promotion Depart-ment.

Twenty trainees are attending the three-week course.—MNA


Afghan forces ill equipped to fight Taleban without NATOingly deadly suicide bomb-ings and assaults on mil-itary and civilian targets, most of the country is un-der government control, al-beit loosely in some areas.

“The Afghan national security forces are win-ning, and this is a hugely capable fighting force who have been holding their ground against the enemy,” Lt Gen Joseph Anderson, second-in-command for coalition forces, told a re-cent press briefing.

Yet wary of the threat posed by the Taleban as thousands of troops, and most of their sophisticated arms and equipment, head for the exit, Washington appears to be hedging its bets.

President Barack Oba-ma recently freed those few thousand US soldiers remaining post-2014 as part of a 12,000-strong NATO force to engage the Taleban in combat if nec-essary. Incidents in recent days illustrate how Afghan forces will struggle with reduced Western support, particularly from the air, however much they may have progressed.

They also underline how fragile stability re-mains in Afghanistan,

where the West is desperate to prevent the hardline Is-lamist Taleban movement from returning to power 13 years after it was toppled for protecting al-Qaeda.

When insurgents at-tacked a foreign guest house in central Kabul last Thursday, Afghan com-mandos killed the attack-ers, but international heli-copters and special forces helped in the mop-up oper-ation that lasted hours.

Taleban fighters also entered Camp Bastion, a large base in the southern Helmand province handed over to Afghan troops a month ago by withdrawing US and British forces. It took Afghan soldiers three days to drive the insurgents out.

Gen John Campbell, commander of internation-al forces in Afghanistan, said the US would provide limited close air support next year and new aircraft to allow the Afghan Air Force to attack the enemy and evacuate the wounded.

But that takes time. It will be at least three or four years before a home-grown air force can replace US planes and helicopters, said Maj Gen John McMullen, the US officer in charge of

developing Afghan air ca-pabilities.

The prospect of less frequent intervention by fighter jets and attack hel-icopters across the coun-try’s often hostile terrain is a daunting one.

“If we had air support, we could very easily defeat the Taleban and we would not face a big number of fatalities,” said Mohebul-lah, police chief of Baraki Barak district in the eastern province of Logar.

In August, hundreds of Taleban mounted one of its most brazen attacks in recent years in Logar, just south of Kabul.

Mohebullah, who goes by one name, said his men were fighting bravely but complained of being out-gunned. Officers are armed with AK-47 rifles and a few rocket-propelled gre-nade launchers, but he said insurgents had mortars and machine guns.—Reuters

Kabul, 1 Dec — Af-ghan district police chief Ahmadullah Anwari only has enough grenades to hand out three to each checkpoint in an area of Helmand Province swarm-ing with Taleban insur-gents who launch almost daily attacks on security forces.

“Sometimes up to 200 Taleban attack our check-points and if there are no army reinforcements, we lose the fight,” said An-wari, in charge of one of

Afghanistan’s most vola-tile districts, Sangin.

“It shames me to say that we don’t have enough weapons and equipment. But this is a bitter reality.”

As most foreign com-bat troops prepare to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 after 13 years of war, the experiences of Anwari and other police chiefs and army commanders across the country are NATO’s biggest worry.

The United States, which provides the bulk of

NATO troops in Afghani-stan, has poured some $61 billion into training a nas-cent 350,000-strong secu-rity force, seeing it as the lynchpin of a plan to exit its longest war.

US and Afghan com-manders have praised the bravery and effectiveness of local soldiers, police and others in the face of a Taleban onslaught that has killed more than 4,600 Af-ghan security force mem-bers already this year.

And, despite increas-

Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers take part in a training exercise at a military base in Kabul on 24 Nov, 2014. —ReuteRs

Israel PM to decide soon whether to call early electionJerusalem, 1 Dec

— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will decide in the next few days whether he can heal his fractured coalition govern-ment or call an early elec-tion, one of his advisers said on Monday.

The government is split on a range of issues, including the 2015 budget, high living costs, policy to-wards the Palestinians and a Jewish nation-state bill that critics say would dis-criminate against Israel’s Arab minority.

The divisions have prompted speculation that Netanyahu will bring for-ward a national election not

scheduled until 2017.Netanyahu is expected

to meet leaders of parties in his coalition on Monday and Tuesday, political offi-cials said, to assess whether the policy differences can be smoothed over.

“In the coming days, Netanyahu is going to find out whether he can gov-ern within the current co-alition,” the adviser, Nir Hefetz, said on Army Ra-dio.

“If he reaches the con-clusion he can run Israel the way he sees fit in this government, then he will continue. If not, he will return the mandate to the voter because that is his re-

sponsibility,” Hefetz said.On Monday, Netanya-

hu plans to hold talks with Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the far-right Jewish Home party,

and also with Finance Min-ister Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid, the political officials said.

He intends to meet Justice Minister Tzipi

Livni, head of the centrist Hatnuah party, on Tuesday.

An opinion poll pub-lished by the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper on Sun-day showed that, although Netanyahu’s popularity was declining, he was still very likely to win a fourth term as prime minister if an election were held today.

The poll showed Ne-tanyahu’s approval rating had slipped to 35 percent, compared with 42 percent at the end of the July-Au-gust war against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip, but he still led the race against other potential con-tenders.

Reuters

Ottawa, 1 Dec — Canada is trying to confirm reports that a Canadian cit-izen has been captured in Syria, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.

“Canada is pursuing all appropriate channels” to seek further information and is in touch with local authorities, the spokesman said in a statement.

Israeli media reports, including Haaretz newspa-per quoting a website asso-ciated with Islamic State, said a Canadian-Israeli woman, Gil Rosenberg, has been captured. The reports cited jihadist websites and have not been confirmed by Israeli officials.

“I cannot confirm that and I hope that it isn’t true,” Israeli Defence Min-ister Moshe Ya’alon told an Israeli television chan-nel when asked about the reports. Rosenberg, 31, told Reuters that she was in Syria in November. A source linked to the YPG, the Kurds’ dominant fight-ing force in northern Syria, said earlier this month that she was their first female foreign recruit and had crossed into Syria to fight Islamic State militants.

Reuters

Kabul, 1 Dec — A suicide bomber targeted funeral ceremony in Burka district of Afghan north-ern Baghlan province with Pul-e-Khumri as its capi-tal, 160 km north of Kabul, on Monday, leaving seven persons dead and injuring 10 others, district governor, Taj Mohammad Taqwa

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Suicide attack kills seven, wounds ten in N Afghanistansaid. “A terrorist strapped explosive device on his body blew himself up among hundreds of people who were offering funeral prayer on a ground in Bur-ka district at 11:30 am local time leaving seven people dead and injuring 10 oth-ers,” Taqwa told Xinhua. Two police personnel are

among those killed in the blast, the official said, add-ing the injured include two police personnel and eight civilians.

The official also said that the number of casu-alties could go higher as some people are said to have already taken home their dead and injured rel-

atives. Taqwa also put the attack on Taleban mili-tants, saying the armed outfit as part of malicious design to terrorize people has resorted to any kind of barbaric acts. Taleban militants spare no one in-cluding children and wom-en, Taqwa said, adding the Taleban insurgents target

innocent people, detonate bomb inside mosque, at-tack funeral ceremony and do whatever they can to terrorize people. Taleban militants who are fighting the government largely re-lying on suicide and road-side bombings have yet to claim responsibility for the deadly attack.—Reuters

Canada says citizen may have been

captured in Syria


b u s i n e s s & h e a l t h11

AIDS campaigners say pandemic has finally reached tipping point

Beach goers look at a red ribbon sand sculpture created by Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik to create awareness about AIDS on the eve of World AIDS Day on a beach in Puri in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on 30 Nov, 2014.—ReuteRs

London, 1 Dec — The world has finally reached “the beginning of the end” of the AIDS pandemic that has infected and killed millions in the past 30 years, accord-ing to a leading campaign group fighting HIV.

The number of peo-ple newly infected with HIV over the last year was lower than the number of HIV-positive people who joined those getting access to the medicines they need to take for life to keep AIDS at bay.

But in a report to mark World AIDS Day on 1 De-cember, the ONE campaign, an advocacy group work-ing to end poverty and pre-ventable disease in Africa, warned that reaching this milestone did not mean the end of AIDS was around the corner.

“We’ve passed the tip-ping point in the AIDS fight at the global level, but not all countries are there yet, and the gains made can easily stall or unravel,” said Erin Hohlfelder, ONE’s director of global health policy.

The human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS is spread via blood, semen and breast

milk. There is no cure for the infection, but AIDS can be kept at bay for many years with cocktails of antiretro-viral drugs. United Nations data show that in 2013, 35 million people were living with HIV, 2.1 million people were newly infected with the virus and some 1.5 million people died of AIDS. By far the greatest part of the HIV/AIDS burden is in sub-Saha-ran Africa.

The AIDS pandemic began more than 30 years ago and has killed up to 40

million people worldwide.The United Nations

AIDS agency, UNAIDS, says that, by June 2014, some 13.6 million people globally had access to AIDS drugs, a dramatic improve-ment on the 5 million who were getting treatment in 2010.

“Despite the good news, we should not take a victory lap yet,” said Hohlfelder.

She highlighted several threats to current progress, including a $3 billion short-fall in the funds needed each

year to control HIV around the world.

“We want to see bold new funding from a more diversified base, including more from African domestic budgets,” she said.

ONE also noted that HIV is increasingly concen-trated among hard-to-reach populations such as injecting drug users, gay men and sex workers — groups who are often stigmatized and have trouble accessing treatment and prevention services.

Reuters

AbbVie adds children’s AIDS drugs to shared patent pool

London, 1 Dec — US drugmaker AbbVie has added two HIV medicines for children to a shared pat-ent pool in an initiative that should speed the develop-ment of cheap new pediat-ric formulations for use in poor countries.

It is the latest win for the non-profit Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), which aims to persuade leading drug companies to share rights to their products with generic manufacturers in India and elsewhere.

Until now, AbbVie has not participated in the scheme, although the MPP has signed HIV drug agree-ments with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Roche and ViiV Health-care, which is majori-ty-owned by GlaxoSmith-Kline.

Despite major advanc-es in treating HIV/AIDS, only a quarter of the 3.2 million children with the virus - 90 percent of whom

live in sub-Saharan Africa - currently receive drugs.

One major obstacle is the fact that existing syr-up-based formulations need refrigeration, making them unsuitable for much of Af-rica, and their unpleasant taste is an added problem. The licensing agreement for AbbVie’s lopinavir and ritonavir drugs, both of which are specifically recommended for children, gives a green light to oth-er players to develop im-proved treatment options. The license also allows for the development of fixed-dose combinations using different drugs already covered by MPP deals with other companies. The MPP-AbbVie agreement covers 102 countries and also permits distribution in areas where AbbVie does not hold patents, such as in India where the company has withdrawn its patent applications for lopinavir and ritonavir.—Reuters

Gold tumbles after Swiss referendum, oil hits five-year lowTokyo, 1 Dec — Gold

prices tumbled on Monday after Swiss voters over-whelmingly rejected pro-posals to boost gold reserves in a referendum, joining the broad rout in commodities that sent oil prices to five-year lows and copper to four-year lows.

Sinking oil and com-modity prices are causing massive realignments in markets, hurting assets tied to the resource sector, from Australian mining shares to the Malaysian ringgit, while benefiting importers such as Japan and China.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares out-side Japan fell 1.0 percent, with resource-heavy Aus-tralian shares hitting a six-week low.

Gold fell more than two percent at one point to $1,142.90 per ounce, its lowest level in more than three weeks, while silver also took a hit, falling more than six percent to a five-year low below $14.50 per ounce.

The Swiss measure,

had it been approved, would have compelled the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to more than double its gold reserves and banned it from ever selling the metal, threat-ening its ability to defend a 1.20 euro cap on the Swiss franc imposed at the height of the euro zone crisis.

The Swiss franc dipped to 1.2042 on the euro from 1.2018 at the end of last week, though the Swiss currency is supported by in-vestors who still regard it as one of the safest currencies in the world. It last stood at 1.2036.

“The result should of course temporarily relieve the pressure on the SNB’s currency floor, albeit whilst doing little or nothing in our opinion to reverse the funda-mental downward trajectory of EUR/CHF,” said JPMor-gan analyst Paul Meggyesi.

Oil prices hit five-year lows, unable to find a bot-tom despite their biggest fall in 2 1/2 years last week after OPEC held back from cut-ting output in the face of a supply glut.

US crude fell more than two percent to a five-year low of $64.10 per barrel, with the fall from June ex-ceeding 40 percent.

Copper also fell to as low as $6,230.75, piercing below its March low to hit its lowest levels since mid-2010.

The Australian dollar fell more than one percent to

a four-year low, of $0.8417, and so did the Malaysian ringgit, which fell to 3.424 to the dollar.

Adding salt to com-modities’ wounds, Chinese official manufacturing data suggested growth is slow-ing in China, demand from which has supported com-modity prices for years.

Sliding oil and raw

material prices have stirred deflation fears in the euro zone and Japan, cementing expectations that the Eu-ropean Central Bank and the Bank of Japan will take more steps to support their respective economies.

The dollar, taking ad-vantage of such concerns, attracted bids against the euro and yen.

The euro was slightly weaker at $1.2437 after hav-ing fallen on Friday on data showing annual inflation in the euro zone cooled to five-year lows of 0.3 percent in November.

Many traders expect the ECB may signal further ac-tion later this week to ward off deflation.

The dollar also hit a seven-year high of 119.03 yen and the dollar index, which measures the green-back against a basket of major currencies, rose to 88.451, a four-year high.

“Given that the Fed is going to raise rates next year, the monetary policy divergence should support the dollar,” said Osao Iizu-ka, the head of FX trading at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.

The yen’s fall and low-er commodity prices helped Japanese shares, with the Nikkei rising to seven-year highs. Mainland Chinese shares also gained, with Shanghai Composite Index hitting a three-year high.

Reuters

Gold bars and Swiss Franc banknotes are seen in this illustration picture taken at the GSA in Vienna on 13 Nov, 2014.—ReuteRs

A screen displays the share price for

pharmaceutical maker AbbVie on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on

18 July, 2014.ReuteRs


Test run for new bullet train servicein Hokkaido starts

Hakoda, 1 Dec — Test runs for train cars to be used by a new bullet train service in Japan’s north-ernmost prefecture of Hok-kaido started on Monday, Hokkaido Railway Co and the Japan Railway Con-struction, Transport and Technology Agency said.

The trial run of the 10-car so-called “H5 series” train is being conducted ahead of the spring 2016 launch of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, which seeks to connect southern Hokkaido and Tokyo in about 4 hours and 10 minutes.

On Monday, the train cars will spend 3 hours to make a 4-kilometre round trip between a car base in the town of Nanae and the city of Hokuto. Workers will check whether elec-tric power for the bullet train is properly supplied to train cars. The train cars will also be tested in areas including a tunnel connect-ing Hokkaido and the main

island of Honshu. The new bullet train will run at a maximum speed of about 260 km per hour when in

An “H5 series” bullet train leaves a depot in Nanae, in Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, on 1 Dec, 2014, for a test run. The trial run is being

conducted ahead of the spring 2016 launch of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, which seeks to connect southern Hokkaido and Tokyo in about 4 hours and 10 minutes.

Kyodo News

service in Hokkaido. The train cars will also be tested at speed, gradually increas-ing from 30 km per hour.

The trial for the cur-rent fiscal year will contin-ue through 1 March.

Kyodo News

Vucic: Good relations with Israel, trade should increase

Jerusalem, 1 Dec — Serbia and Israel share good bilateral ties, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated on Sunday upon arriving in Israel for an official visit, and ex-pressed the expectation that the visit would pro-duce significant results on the political and economic levels.

We have a relative-ly low exchange of goods with Israel and we want it to increase substantially, Vucic told reporters in Je-rusalem ahead of the talks with Israeli top officials.

Speaking about the political aspect of the two-day visit, the Serbian prime minister said that he will ask Israel for support in the US and other countries where Israel has major im-portance and influence.

The Serbian prime minister underscored that he expects the visit to pro-duce important results in the political and economic terms.

We will discuss our bilateral political relations, which are positive and are on the right track, the prime minister said.

When it comes to economy, Vucic noted that Serbia can learn a lot from

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic

New S-400 air defence systems regiment to go on combat duty in Moscow Region by yearend

moscow, 1 Dec — Another regiment of S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems will be put on com-bat duty to protect Moscow by the yearend, Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (ADF) Commander Alex-ander Golovko told jour-nalists on Monday.

“Another Moscow Region air defence missile regiment of the ADF has already received the reg-imental set of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile system and will go on air defence combat duty by the end of the year,” Golovko said. Russia marks the Day of Aerospace Defence Forces on 1 December.

Itar-TassS-400 Triumf air defence missile . Fourth S-400 missile defence regiment put on

combat duty near Moscow. — Itar-tass

Israel, especially in terms of the investments in agri-culture and real estate.

Vucic said that the meeting with Israel’s top officials represents major recognition for Serbia.

This is a major recog-nition for Serbia and a mat-ter of great importance for the country, the prime min-ister said and added that he will do all he can to ensure that Serbia is presented in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the best way.

Vucic will begin his two-day stay in Israel by visiting the Yad Vashem Memorial Complex in Je-rusalem and meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu, the Ser-bian government Office for cooperation with the media released.

The prime minister will also meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, after which he will attend the ceremony of tree plant-ing in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Na-tions.

On the second day of his visit to Israel, Vucic will confer with Minister of Foreign Affairs Avig-dor Lieberman and former president Shimon Peres.

Tanjug

singapore, 1 Dec — Oversea tourists now have an option to buy the Flashpay card, a card that can be used on public transportation in Singapore, via Alipay before leaving home, thanks to a partnership between Singa-pore’s NETS and China’s Alipay, according a statement announced on Monday.

To make outbound travel more seamless for Chinese tourists planning a trip to the Lion City, NETS and Ali-pay launched the first overseas transport card that can be purchased right off Alipay’s mobile wallet, which has 190 million active users across China.

Those who’d like to purchase the card could simply log into their registered account via Alipay Wallet. An e-voucher will be sent to their account, with which they can collect their Flashpay card at designated “Changi Rec-ommends” counters at Changi Airport upon touchdown.

The cobrand Alipay Flashpay card costs 50 Singa-

pore dollars ( about 38.45 US dollars), comprising a card cost of 5 Singpaore dollars and a stored value of 45 Singa-pore dollars. Customers are allowed to purchase up to five Alipay FlashPay Cards. Those who buy the card between 27 November and 31 March, 2015 will receive a 20- Sin-gapore dollar voucher to use at Changi Airport.

Ang Sok Hong, Senior Vice President of NETS said, “The availability of our cobrand transit card on Alipay will, we hope, boost the ease of trip planning and out-bound travel for tourists coming to Singapore.”

According to the World Tourism Cities Federation, Chinese tourists are most concerned about transportation when travelling abroad and tend to prefer taking public transportation overseas.

Added to that is an increase in online travel transac-tions amongst Chinese travellers. The same report notes that the Chinese travelers are becoming more comforta-

ble with making travel arrangements online as opposed to going to a travel agency. In 2013, Chinese Online Travel Agents’ revenue was 11.76 billion Yuan (191.3 million US dollars), an increase of 26.2 percent over the previous year.

This is not the first time Alipay joined hands with NETS. In June this year, the two collaborated on a pro-ject to allow Singapore consumers to make direct debit payments for purchases from Taobao Marketplaces and Tmall.com, two of China’s most popular online shopping websites. “We are excited to work with NETS again in this effort to respond to the growing needs of China’s outbound travellers,” said Wendy Sun, head of Business Development for Alipay in Southeast Asia. “This trans-portation card will provide Chinese tourists a hassle-free travel experience and we look toward to making this col-laboration a great success.”—Xinhua

Singapore’s NETS, Chinese Alipay launch transport card for oversea tourists


a d v e r t i s e m e n t & g e n e r a l13

Weather report

Weather report

FORECAST VALID UNTIL EVENING OF THE 2nd December, 2014: Isolated light rain is likely in Tanintharyi Region and Mon State, weather will be part-ly cloudy in Manda-lay, Bago, Yangon and Ayeyawady Regions, Shan, Kayin and Rakh-ine States and generally fair in the remaining Re-gions and States. Degree of certainty is (60%). STATE OF THE SEA: Seas will be moderate in Myanmar waters.

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THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR MINISTRY OF ENERGY

MYANMA OIL AND GAS ENTERPRISE ( INVITATION FOR OPEN TENDER )

( 20 /2014 ) Open tenders are invited for supply of the following respective items in United

States Dollars and Myanmar Kyats. Sr.No Tender No Description Remark (1) IFB-100(14-15) Spares for Nissan PE-6 Diesel Engine US$ (13)Items (2) IFB-l0l(14-15) Mechanical Spares for ZJ 70L,ZJ 50D & US$ EMSCO Drilling Rigs ( 14 ) Items(3) IFB-102(14-15) Annular Blow Out Preventers and Hydrill US$ Blow Out Preventers (5) Items (4) DMP/L-029(14-15) Spares for Driller Console of ZJ 50D & ZJ 70L Ks Drilling Rigs (1) Lot

Tender Closing Date & Time - 30-12-2014, 16:30 Hr Tender Document shall be available during office hours commencing from 1st

December, 2014 at the Finance Department, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, No(44) Complex, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

Myanma Oil and Gas EnterprisePh .+ 95 67 - 411097 / 411206

CLAIMS DAY NOTICEMV ANAN BHUM Voy No ( 118 )

Consignees of cargo carried on MV ANAN BHUM VOY NO ( 118 ) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 2.12.2014 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of M.I.P 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 Claims Day now declared as the third day after final discharge of cargo from the Vessel.

No claims against this vessel will be admitted after the Claims Day.

SHIPPING AGENCY DEPARTMENT MYANMA PORT AUTHORITY

AGENT FOR: M/S MOL SINGAPORE PTE LTD

Phone No: 2301185

CLAIMS DAY NOTICEMV KoTA RAJIN Voy No ( 895 )

Consignees of cargo carried on MV KOTA RAJIN VOY NO ( 895 ) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 1.12.2014 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of 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.




AGENT FOR: M/S ADVANCE CONTAINER LINES

Phone No: 2301185

CLAIMS DAY NOTICEMV DyNAMIC oCEAN - 18 Voy No ( - )

Consignees of cargo carried on MV DYNAMIC OCEAN - 18 VOY NO ( - ) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 1.12.2014 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of S.P.W (2) where it will lie at the consignee’s risk and expenses and subject to the byelaws and conditions of the Port of Yangon.




AGENT FOR: M/S G LINK EXPRESS PTE LTD

Phone No: 2301191/2301178

CLAIMS DAY NOTICEMV KUo HSIUNG Voy No ( 1025 )Consignees of cargo carried on MV KUO HSIUNG

VOY NO ( 1025 ) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 1.12.2014 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of H.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.




AGENT FOR: M/S CHINA SHIPPING LINESPhone No: 2301185

Chinese border soldiers march on a snow mountain during the winter military training in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,

on 30 Nov, 2014. Soldiers went through harsh environment as the local temperature dropped to minus 25 degrees Celsius here.—Xinhua

14 women file damages suit over Kanebo’s skin-whitening cosmetics

Nagoya, 1 Dec — Fourteen women in central Japan filed a suit on Mon-day with the Nagoya Dis-trict Court seeking about 190 million yen in damag-es from Kanebo Cosmetics Inc, saying their skin broke out in white blotches af-ter using the company’s skin-whitening products.

Their lawyer said around 19,370 people nationwide had reported developing the symptoms as of late Octo-ber. Similar lawsuits have already been filed with the Sendai, Shizuoka and Hiro-shima district courts. The plaintiffs in Aichi and Gifu prefectures, in their 30s to 70s, have developed marks

on their faces and necks after using products con-taining a skin-whitening substance dubbed “Rho-dodenol,” according to the latest lawsuit.

They said there is no prospect of any improve-ment in their symptoms.

Kanebo declined to comment on the suit, saying

it has yet to receive a writ-ten complaint.

A woman in her 70s, one of the plaintiffs, said at a Press conference on Monday, “I wish to recover quickly from the skin con-dition and I hope Kanebo will work on the issue be-fore it produces any new products.”—Kyodo News

Tokyo, 1 Dec — The Justice Ministry’s Pub-lic Security Intelligence Agency on Monday filed a request with the Pub-lic Security Examination Commission seeking the renewal of a three-year sur-veillance of two successor groups to the AUM Shin-rikyo cult, whose members staged the sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 that killed 13 peo-ple and injured thousands.

The two groups are Aleph with a member-ship of some 1,450 and

Security agency seeks renewal of 3-yr surveillance of 2 AUM successors

Hikarinowa, or the Circle of Rainbow Light, with a membership of about 200, both as of the end of Sep-tember. The current sur-veillance term is scheduled to expire at the end of Jan-uary.

The two groups pos-sess 32 facilities in 15 of the country’s 47 prefec-tures, including Tokyo, Osaka and Hokkaido, agen-cy officials said.

The seven-member examination panel is ex-pected to make its decision after listening to the two

groups. If the surveillance term is renewed, the Pub-lic Security Intelligence Agency is able to raid the two groups’ facilities.

AUM’s founder Shoko Asahara, 59, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumo-to, has been sentenced to death and remains on death row. Aleph was named as such in 2000. Hikarinowa was established in 2007 by Fumihiro Joyu, 51, who was formerly the de facto spokesman of the AUM Shinrikyo cult.

Kyodo News

Tuesday, 2 December, 201414 e n t e r t a i n m e n t

Shantanu Moitra ‘very happy’ with ‘PK’ music

MuMbai, 1 Dec — Music composer Shantanu Moitra is “very happy” with his work in the forthcoming Aamir Khan starrer ‘PK’ and hopes people will love it.

“I am very happy to have used the classic waltz, lyr-ical, lilting music and duets for ‘PK’,” he told PTI during his visit here for the launch of his debut book in English ‘On the Wings of Music’.

My use of music in ‘PK’ goes with my belief that a rich baritone like Nat King Cole has an eternal appeal,” said Shantanu, who has previously composed music for ‘Parineeta’, ‘Lager Raho Munnabhai’, ‘Hazaron Khwahi-shen Aisi’, ‘Madras Cafe’ and ‘3 Idiots’.

“The experience of composing for ‘PK’ has been ex-cellent,” said the music composer, who has won the Na-tional Film Award this year for best music direction for Tamil film ‘Na Bangarru Taali’.

‘PK’ has been directed by Raj Kumar Hirani and also stars Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt and Sushant Singh Rajput. It is scheduled to be released on 19 December.

PTI

“The experience of composing for ‘PK’ has been excellent,” said the music composer.—PTI

Stoppard called ‘greatest living playwright’ at London theatre awards

London, 1 Dec — Tom Stoppard was given a special award as “the great-est living playwright” on Sunday at the 60th London Evening Standard Theatre Awards in recognition of more than a half century of work that has won him an Academy Award and four Tony Awards.

The 77-year-old Czech-born author, whose plays include “Arcadia”, “The Real Thing” and “Rosencrantz and Guilden-stern Are Dead”, also co-wrote the screenplays for the movies “Shakespeare in Love”, “Brazil” and “The Russia House”.

“The James Plays”, a seven-and-a-half hour tril-ogy by Rona Munro based on the lives of the first three King Jameses of Scotland, was named best play.

A collaboration be-tween the National Theatre in London and the Nation-al Theatre of Scotland, the trilogy starred Jamie Sives of “Game of Thrones”

fame and Sofie Grabol, star of the Danish TV thriller “The Killing”, and took on added relevance for being staged in the same year as the failed Scottish inde-pendence referendum.

Tom Hiddleston was named Best Actor for the title role of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” at the Don-mar Warehouse theatre in London. Gillian Anderson was named Best Actress for her performance as

Blanche DuBois in a reviv-al of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named De-sire” at the Young Vic.

The award for best musical went to “The Scottsboro Boys”, a Broad-way transfer staged in Lon-don by the Old Vic and the Garrick Theatre.

The nod for best direc-tor went to Jeremy Herrin for his stagings of plays based on Hilary Mantel’s best-selling historical nov-

els “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies”, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Aldwych Theatre in London.

Actress Laura Jane Matthewson won the Emerging Talent award for her performance in “Dog-fight”, a misogyny drama presented at the Southwark Playhouse about US Ma-rines vying to pick up the ugliest woman.

The Best Design award went to Es Devlin for her stage design for “American Psycho” at the Almeida Theatre, while the award for most promising playwright went to Beth Steel for “Wonderland” at the Hampstead Theatre.

Singer Kate Bush re-ceived the Editor’s Award for her “Before the Dawn” comeback concerts in Lon-don, staged 35 years after her last previous live per-formance.

Reuters

British playwright Tom Stoppard (R) speaks as British director David Hare watches during the annual

Literature Festival in Jaipur, capital of India’s desert state of Rajasthan on 22 Jan, 2012.—ReuTeRs

David Beckham and son unhurt in car crashLondon, 1 Dec — Retired English football star David

Beckham and his teenage son Brooklyn were involved in a car crash outside Arsenal’s training ground in Hertford-shire, north of London, but did not suffer any injuries, ac-cording to a source close to Beckham.

“David and Brooklyn did not suffer any injuries and as I understand it both passengers in the other vehicle were unharmed. David and Brooklyn were shaken by the accident but thankfully OK,” added the source, who de-clined to be named.

The Telegraph newspaper said Beckham, 39, the for-mer England captain, was picking up his 15-year-old son when his Audi RS6 was involved in a collision with an-other car but were saved by the deployment of the car’s airbags.

Brooklyn, who plays for Arsenal under-16s, had just finished a match against Brighton’s under-16s, the Tele-graph said in its online edition.

Reuters

David Beckham and his son Brooklyn Beckham watch a model present a creation during the Victoria

Beckham Spring/Summer 2015 collection during New York Fashion Week in the Manhattan borough of

New York on 7 Sept, 2014.—ReuTeRs

Fans bid farewell to beloved Mexican comic

‘Chespirito’

Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake to leave Los Angeles

Mexico city, 1 Dec — Thousands of fans bid a final farewell to beloved Mexican actor and screenwriter Rob-erto Gomez Bolanos at a large-scale memorial in Mexico City on Sunday.

Gomez Bolanos, known as “Chespirito,” a word play on ‘Little Shakespeare’ for his diminutive stature and his prolific scripts, died at his home in Cancun on Friday age 85. Fans, many of them young children, brought white flowers and balloons to a mass held at the Azteca national football stadium where for hours they sang tributes to him and performed Mexican waves.

Entire families dressed up in the costumes of his most enduring comic characters, such as “El Chapulin Colo-rado” (The Red Grasshopper) which inspired Bumblebee Man, the Spanish-speaking character from the US animat-ed sitcom The Simpsons. Gomez Bolanos, whose shows are still aired regularly although he stopped recording material in the 1980s, was on Saturday honoured at the offices of broadcaster Grupo Televisa, for which he had worked most of his career.—Reuters

Los angeLes, 1 Dec — Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake are reported-ly planning to move to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee because they don’t want to raise their baby in Los Angeles.

The couple are said to be expecting their first child together and are eager to raise their family away from the spotlight so want to leave Los Angeles, reported OK! magazine.

“Justin and Jessica want their kids to have a hometown and a family base, and they definitely don’t want to raise them in Los Angeles,’ a source said. “Being near Justin’s home-

The coffin with the remains of the late screenwriter Roberto Gomez Bolanos is seen next to a giant picture of him before a mass held in his honour at the Azteca

stadium in Mexico City on 30 Nov, 2014. ReuTeRs

town is ideal because his mom, Lynn, is even more excited about this baby than

they are — and Justin’s grandmother Sadie is on cloud nine. Justin’s used to

living in a small town and says he had a great child-hood because of it.”—PTI

“Justin and Jessica want their

kids to have a

hometown and a family base,

and they definitely

don’t want to raise

them in Los Angeles,’ a source

said.PTI


g e n e r a l15

* Local News* Products of Myanmar

- Seashells Products* World News* My Life & My Art* Local News* Leading Ladies:

Entrepreneur: Chaw Khin Khin

* World News* A Way of Life:

Karate-do* Local News* Hand Down Arts

Heritage * World News* Short Cut: Moe Ne’

keep its tradition alive* Local News* Food Trip(Episode-2)* World News* In The Studio “Lann

Sa (Part- I)* Local News* Myanmar Traditional

Identity (Episode- 2) Myanmar Chinthe (Myanmar Lion)

* World News* Mogok: The

Colourful Land of Rubies

* Local News* Leading Ladies:

Lady Pilot* World News* Sagaing: Gold Leaf* Local News* Taste of Myanmar

(Shan Noodle Salad)* World News* The Iron Rider* Local News* Youth of the Future:

(Puppet) * World News* Simple Living With

High Spirit

(2-12-14 07:00 am~ 3-12-14 07:00 am) MST

MITVMITVMYANMAR INTERNATIONAL

6:00 am* Paritta by Hilly

Region Missionary Sayadaw

6:30 am* Physical Exercise7:00 am* News / Weather

Report7:20 am* People Talks8:00 am* News / International News8:35 am* TV Drama Series9:45 am* Business News10:50 am* TV Drama Series 11:30 am* Tamyethnar

Takwetsar12:00 noon* News/ International News /

Weather Report 2:45 pm* Traditional Boxing3:00 pm* News4:30 pm* University of

Distance Education (TV Lectures)

— First Year (Myanmar)

5:15 pm* Songs of Honour

International Day of Persons With Disabilities

6:40 pm* Documentary7:00 pm* News7:20 pm* Documentary9:00 pm* News 9:30 pm* Current Affairs* Mono Classical

Songs* TV Drama Series

(2-12-2014, Tuesday)

Valencia’s Shkodran Mustafi (L) and Barcelona’s Neymar fight for the ball during their Spanish first

division soccer match at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia, on 30 Nov, 2014.—ReuteRs

Barca win as Depor fan death shocks La Liga

Madrid, 1 Dec — Bar-celona left it late to snatch a 1-0 win at Valencia on Sunday after Atletico Ma-drid’s 2-0 victory at home to Deportivo La Coruna was overshadowed by the death of a visiting fan hours before kickoff.

A 43-year-old Depor-tivo supporter had to be pulled out of the freez-ing Manzanares river near Atletico’s Calderon arena after dozens of rival fans, who police said belonged to radical “ultras” groups, battled in the streets.

The man, who was identified by Deportivo as Francisco Javier Romero Taboada, suffered cardiac arrest, hypothermia and head injuries and died short-ly after 2 pm local time (1300 GMT) when he failed to respond to efforts to re-vive him in hospital.

“It’s disgusting, such scum have no place in foot-ball,” Atletico chief ex-ecutive Miguel Angel Gil Marin said on the club’s website (www.clubatletic-odemadrid.com).

“I just hope that they identify those responsible so they can’t repeat actions as regrettable as these,” he added, just one voice in widespread condemnation of the violence.

Barca and Valencia each had plenty of chanc-es in a scrappy game at the Mestalla that was set-tled when Sergio Busquets pounced on a loose ball and smashed it high into the net in the fourth minute of

added time.The ugly side of La

Liga was again on display when Lionel Messi, who had a quiet night after set-ting a La Liga scoring re-cord last weekend, appeared to be struck on the head by a plastic bottle thrown from the crowd during the goal celebrations.

The Argentina captain did not look to have been hurt and gave the thumbs up as he left the pitch.

B a r c a ’ s v i c t o r y trimmed the gap to Real Madrid back to two points after the leaders set a club record of 16 straight vic-tories in all competitions when they won 2-1 at Mal-aga on Saturday.

Real have 33 points from 13 matches, with Bar-ca on 31 and champions Atletico on 29 in third. Va-lencia dropped to fifth on 24 points, two behind Sevilla who thrashed visiting An-dalusian rivals Granada 5-1.

Barca should have been ahead in the 14th minute when Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves produced a superb save to deny Luis Suarez, who is yet to open his account in La Liga since his ban for biting expired at the end of October.

The Uruguay interna-tional, who joined from Liverpool in the close sea-son, then had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside in the 69th minute.

Barca keeper Claudio Bravo was also on fine form and conjured brilliant stops against second-half efforts

from Sofiane Feghouli and Alvaro Negredo.

“We are never satisfied with a draw and we pushed until the end,” Busquets said in an interview with Spanish television.

“The ball fell to me after Alves saved and I put everything into the shot,” added the Spain midfielder.

After the shocking events outside the Calderon in Madrid, midfielder Saul Niguez put Atletico ahead two minutes before halftime and playmaker Arda Turan made it 2-0 10 minutes into the second half.

It was Atletico’s fifth victory in their last six La Liga outings as they seek to defend the Spanish title they won last season for the first time in 18 years.

“We came into the game after two wins and we wanted to continue the run,” defender Diego Godin told Spanish TV.

“Our opponents respect us and they know we are a difficult team to play here at home,” added the Uruguay international, who said the troublemakers outside the ground “do not represent football or any team”.

“This curse must be eradicated from football,” he said. “The Atletico and Depor fans do not deserve to have their image damaged by a few.”

Vil larreal cl imbed above Malaga into sixth with a 2-0 win at struggling Cordoba, who are without a win and stay bottom on seven points.—Reuters

Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard sits on the bench before their English Premier League soccer match against

Stoke City at Anfield in Liverpool, northern England on 29 Nov, 2014.—ReuteRs

Lo n d o n , 1 Dec — Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has dismissed as “nonsense” talk of a falling out with manager Brendan Rodgers after he was dropped from the start-ing lineup for Saturday’s victory over Stoke City.

Gerrard was left out of the first 11 for the match at Anfield as Liverpool arrested a run of three con-secutive Premier League defeats with a nervy and hard-fought 1-0 victory that arrived courtesy of a late goal from Glen Johnson.

It was the 16th anni-versary of the 34-year-old midfielder’s debut for the

Merseyside club and he was keen to play down a reported rift.

“Just to set the record straight media talk of a fall out between us 2 is NONSENSE ..have a nice Sunday,” he wrote on In-stagram, accompanying a picture of him and Rodgers in training.

Gerrard came on as a late substitute in a more attacking role as Liverpool went in search of the open-ing goal, having largely dominated the match with-out finding a breakthrough.

Liverpool manager Rodgers had preferred Lu-cas Leiva in the anchor

midfield position that Ger-rard has recently occupied as he sought to help plug holes in a leaky defence, as well as handing a well-earned rest to his captain who had been a virtual ever-present.

Gerrard’s role had come under scrutiny from fans and pundits this season as teams sought to nullify his influence and curb his ability to pull strings from a deep midfield position.

Without the incisive running of strikers Luis Su-arez, who joined Barcelona in the close season, and the injured Daniel Sturridge, Gerrard’s trademark long

passes have often lacked a target, reducing his in-fluence in the quarter-back role.

The introduction of Lu-cas, as well as Kolo Toure at centre back, seemed to shore up Liverpool’s rear-guard, and both drew praise from Rodgers in the wake of Saturday’s clash.

“Lucas Leiva has come into the team and been out-standing in his two games — very tenacious, aggres-sive and can pass the ball. Kolo Toure’s experience coming into the team has been good for us,” the man-ager told reporters.

Reuters

Liverpool’s Gerrard rubbishes talk of Rodgers rift

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Tottenham Hotspur’s Roberto Soldado (C) scores his teams second goal past Everton’s Tim Howard (L)

during their English Premier League soccer match at White Hart Lane in London on 30 Nov, 2014.

ReuteRs

Manchester City’s Eliaquim Mangala (TOP) fouls Southampton’s Shane Long resulting in a second

yellow card and being sent off during their English Premier League soccer match at St Mary’s Stadium

in Southampton, southern England on 30 Nov, 2014. ReuteRs

Clinical City crush Southampton, Spurs beat EvertonLondon, 1 Dec —

Champions Manchester City galvanized their pur-suit of Premier League leaders Chelsea on Sunday with an emphatic 3-0 vic-tory over a Southampton side who have surprising-ly come between the lead-ing title protagonists.

With table-topping Chelsea held to a 0-0 draw against Sunderland on Saturday, victory for City at fortress St Mary’s took them above Southampton into second place with 27 points from 13 matches,

six behind Jose Mourin-ho’s pace setters.

Tottenham Hotspur came from a goal down to beat Everton 2-1 with goals from Christian Erik-sen and Roberto Soldado moving Spurs up to sev-enth with 20 points.

After a less than con-vincing start to the at-tempted defence of their title, City’s display against Southampton saw them back to their free-flowing best as goals from Yaya Toure, Frank Lampard and Gael Clichy con-

demned Ronald Koeman’s high-flying side to a first home defeat of the season.

“We beat a very good team,” City manager Ma-nuel Pellegrini, speaking to Sky Sports, said.

“They were second in the table and deserved that position.”

“It was important to have a clean sheet again, they had just one chance in the 90 minutes and that is important for the trust in our team.”

“It was close in the first 45 minutes and we continued working as a team in defence and attack until we scored.”

City screamed for a penalty for a foul on Aguero in a goalless first half when Jose Fonte’s hefty challenge wiped the Argentine out in the box. Incredibly Aguero, making his 100th Premier League appearance, was booked for diving.

But Ivorian midfield-er Toure, so often City’s go-to man on their way to the title last season, put his side in front after 51

minutes when his low shot from the edge of the area flicked off Saints defend-er Toby Alderweireld and past Fraser Forster.

When French de-fender Eliaquim Mangala received a second yellow for a foul on Shane Long it seemed Southampton had a lifeline but that was snatched away when Lam-pard ghosted through into space and buried his shot low into the corner after being picked out by James Milner.

Clichy hammered the final nail into South-ampton’s coffin when he turned the ball home in the 88th minute.

“I’m disappointed because in the second half the beginning was a bit better than the start of the game,” Koeman told Sky Sports after his side dropped to third.

“You know that if you do some mistakes you are punished for that. It was not good enough today and we have to realise that. The difference was the quality.”

Everton’s Kevin Mi-rallas produced a stunning strike from 20 metres to open the scoring at White Hart Lane in Sunday’s clash between the two Europa League represent-atives.

Tottenham equalized six minutes later when Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard palmed Harry Kane’s shot into the path of Eriksen, who kept his

composure to score.In first half stoppage

time, Soldado scored his first league goal since March when he raced on to Aaron Lennon’s astute pass and powered a shot past Howard.

Everton applied pres-sure late on but Spurs stayed strong to avoid their third consecutive league defeat at home.

Reuters

FIFA President Sepp

Qatar will host 2022 World Cup — no matter whatManiLa, 1 Dec —

FIFA President Sepp Blat-ter said on Sunday that the 2022 World Cup will defi-nitely remain in Qatar — no matter who tries to strip the Gulf state of what will be Asia’s second finals.

“It was a lovely com-bination between Repub-lic of Korea and Japan (in 2002), it was a great suc-cess, it was a big success,” Blatter said, addressing the Asian Football Confedera-tion’s Annual Awards and the confederation’s 60th an-niversary ceremony.

“But we have the next one, it’s 2022 — it is Qa-tar. Believe me, with all that has been said, what is told around the world and by whom? By those who do not know exactly what has happened around foot-ball.”

“The World Cup 2022 will be played in Qatar.”

Amid public uproar, FIFA’s chief investigator Michael Garcia and chief judge Hans-Joachim Eck-ert remain at loggerheads over whether the 430-page report that dissected the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids ought to be published in full.

Blatter, though, has

now come out and said any attempt to deny Russia and Qatar their right to host the next two World Cups will not be successful.

The Swiss also praised AFC President Shaikh Sal-man bin Ebrahim Al Khal-ifa’s leadership through current waters, saying the Bahraini is the right man to steer the continent in these controversial times.

“He’s the kind of president coming out of turmoil in this confedera-tion,” Blatter said. “He’s a young president and he’s just come into the execu-tive committee, to bring back the Asian Football Confederation to the right place.”—Kyodo News

Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Juninho (19) celebrates with his teammates after he scored against the Seattle Sounders FC during the second half of the Western

Conference Championship at CenturyLink Field.—ReuteRs

Juninho strike sends Galaxy into MLS Cup final

Los angeLes, 1 Dec — LA Galaxy reached the MLS Cup final on Sunday after a 2-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders put them through to the championship game on the away goals rule.

Galaxy, who pro-gressed after a 2-2 draw on aggregate, will meet the New England Revolution in the final and will be looking for a record fifth MLS title at their own stadium on 7 December.

In freezing tempera-tures in Seattle, the Sound-ers, trailing 1-0 from the first leg in Los Angeles, opened the scoring in the 27th min-ute when a Clint Dempsey effort fell to Brad Evans, who slid the ball home from close range.

Five minutes lat-er former Fulham striker Dempsey put Seattle 2-0 up with a shot that took a slight deflection and snuck under Galaxy goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, who will be disap-pointed he failed to smoth-er the ball. The artificial surface made it difficult for both sides to keep posses-sion but there was no short-age of action or tension after the break.

Galaxy striker Robbie Keane went close with a curling shot that Sounders’ keeper Stefan Frei pushed wide, but LA got the deci-sive goal in the 54th minute when midfielder Juninho crashed home a first-time ef-fort from 20 yards that went in off the post.

This is the first year that MLS has included the away goals rule in their playoffs, although that aspect would have been irrelevant if not for some fine work from

Frei, who did well to keep out a Landon Donovan shot and a header from Stefan Ishizaki Roared on by a 46,758 crowd, Seattle threw themselves into a series of late attacks but when their best chance fell to Dempsey, he volleyed wide.

The result means that

Donovan, who has an-nounced he will retire at the end of the season, has the perfect farewell opportunity with the title-decider at his home field.

“I’m excited and so proud of our guys,” the league’s all-time top scorer told ESPN.

“After a bad 10 minutes in the first half, what char-acter to respond. We have been at Juninho to score all year and we deserved it.”

The Sounders, who had

the league’s best regular season record, have been unable to reach an MLS Cup final in the six seasons they have been in the league.

Reuters

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