TALKS to prepare for the launch of a direct air service between Kathmandu and Yangon are in their final stages, the Nepalese ambassador, Mr Victory SJB Rana, said last week.

OFFICIALS from Myanmar and Bangladesh are due to hold talks in Yangon next month on finalising a draft agreement for a proposed cross-border highway, said an official at the Bangladeshi embassy.

MYANMAR has joined other members of the international community in expressing condolences to Sri Lanka over the assassination of its foreign minister, Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar.

THE Myanmar Red Cross Society launched the first training courses under its branch development program at Pathein in Ayeyarwaddy Division last week.

THE planting of the monsoon paddy crop reached more than 66 per cent of the targeted area set by the government by the end of July, show figures from the Department of Agricultural Planning under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

MASSIVE crowds converged on Taung Pyone village near Mandalay last week for the country’s most famous nat (spirit) festival.

EARLY diagnosis and treatment is essential to help reduce death rates from malaria, a national consultant with the World Health Organisation’s malaria control program said earlier this month.

SENIOR officials at the Health Ministry have called on the media to help raise awareness about safe blood issues.

THE government will take action against traders in the garment industry who abuse the system of tax exemptions for imports of raw materials intended for the manufacture of value-added export products, said Colonel Khin Maung Lin, the director general of the Customs Depart-ment under the Ministry of Finance and Revenue.

SPECIALISTS from the Ministry of Forestry and the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in the United States have completed a survey in the western Bago Yoma (ranges) as part of an elephant conservation project.

MYANMA Insurance under the Ministry of Finance and Revenue began work early this month on developing a website, an official said last week.

THE Indian embassy has donated books to a public library being established by the prominent author, Saya Paragu.

I BOUGHT my first refrigerator five years ago. The retailer explained how to use and maintain it. It was covered by a 12-month warranty, but that was not the main reason why I decided to go ahead with the purchase.

I went to primary school in my village. When I was 11 I became a novice and later, as a monk, I studied Pali. In 1947 I went to India, where I studied Hindi and Sanskrit for about five years at the Hindi Institute at Benares (Varanasi).