The assistance, which will benefit about 200,000 villagers, is being given as part of Thailand’s support for Myanmar’s poppy eradication campaign, according to a press statement issued by the embassy on March 1.

MYANMAR officials are participating in a six-day international meeting that began on March 3 in Paris in an attempt to draft plans for the establishment of a tsunami warning and mitigation system for the Indian Ocean.

“The ceremony is being held to raise public awareness about meteorology,” said U Tun Lwin, the deputy director-general of the department under the Ministry of Transport.

The airline expanded its schedule at the beginning of 2005 to include year-round flights to Myitkyina and Putao on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and to Myeik and Dawei on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

A MARINE science research and training station has been established by Pathein University in Pathein township, Ayeyarwaddy Division, with the aim of helping a new generation of marine science students keep abreast of international developments in their field.

The sixth such course to be offered, the 23-day program will be held at the department’s hall in Yangon. Successful candidates will each receive a certificate as a qualified nursery school teacher.

IN a move to improve road safety during Thingyan, traffic police in Yangon will for the first time use breath analysers to test the blood alcohol levels of drivers taking part in water festival activities, said Daw Ohn Kyi, a traffic police inspector.

Every year 150,000 baskets of registered seed are distributed by the Myanma Agriculture Service (MAS) to cooperative farmers, who can replant them to produce a total of six million baskets of certified seed.

THE principal of Yankin Education College, U Mai Aung, has told 800 graduating primary teachers that education played an essential role in the nation’s development.

U Tin Hlaing, the president of the Parami Group Co., Ltd., said the system has been in development since January and will detect and report any threat, such as fires or break-ins, while the occupants are away.

The vice president of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation, U Han Htun, said permanent and seasonal water resources covered about 9.4 million hectares and there was another 115,687 hectares of reservoirs.

A PROJECT launched in eight Chin State townships in 2003 has demonstrated the potential for increasing meat production from domesticated wild cattle known as mythun, said a senior official with the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.

“Myaing township was chosen because it won the most systematic farming method award given by the ministry last October to mark United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation Day,” he said.