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Reporting by Naw Say Phaw
Jul 23, 2008 (DVB)–Passengers waiting to fly to Burma from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport today were furious when Myanmar Airways International made a last-minute announcement that flights had been suspended.
A crowd of angry customers complained about the airline’s poor handling of the situation in failing to inform passengers in advance and arrange for substitute flights.
"We were told the flights have been cancelled today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and now we are stuck at the airport," said a passenger.
"They haven’t arranged any substitute flights for us and I'm not sure if they will tomorrow so I'm just going to take a Thai Airways flight home."
An air ticket agent in Bangkok said the suspension of MAI flights could be due to Thailand's One-Two-Go airline grounding its planes.
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english.dvb.no
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A number of Burmese cartoons were censored by the authorities this morning for allegedly violating policy. The cartoons were exhibited for a fund raising drive in an exhibition entitled 'Wakeup from Storm' for Cyclone Nargis victims.
Five officials of the Cartoon Exhibition Supervisory Committee under the Ministry of Information came and inspected the cartoons exhibited at 'Lawkanat' gallery in Pansodan Street, Rangoon this morning. They ordered the removal of four cartoons from a total of 146 cartoons drawn by 64 cartoonists.
"Two officers and three staff members came and poured over the cartoons for about two hours from 10:30 a.m. Then they ordered the removal of four cartoons and gave signed authorization certificates," one of the organizers of the fund raising exhibition, who wished not to be named, told Mizzima.
The censored cartoons were drawn by cartoonists Win Aung, October Aung Gyi and Aung Kaung. The organizers of the exhibition did not object to the censorship on the Cyclone Nargis theme before it was opened to the public, one of the cartoonists said.
"This is an usual phenomenon. Four or five cartoons are removed at every exhibition. It's not surprising. The officials order us to remove paintings and cartoons when they feel it violates their policy," he said.
"I saw three to four cartoons that were censored. It depicted the cyclone as a consequence of deforestation. The cartoons with such themes are considered excesses so they censored it," cartoonist Aupikye, one of the organizers, said.
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mizzima.com
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New Delhi – The Malaysian police arrested a Burmese national following a failed attempt at committing suicide outside the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, a Burmese activist, quoting police sources said.
While there was no eyewitness, a Burmese labour rights activist, Ye Min Tun said the Malaysian police summoned and informed him about the incident.
According to the Malaysian police, Saw Noung, the Burmese national, on Tuesday afternoon first hurled a petrol bomb at the Burmese embassy but the bomb exploded before hitting the building.
"He then doused himself with petrol and was about to set himself ablaze, when the Malaysian police in plainclothes grabbed and took him away," said Ye Min Tun, quoting the police.
Officials at the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur, however, declined comment.
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mizzima.com
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Oversea Chins (Zanniat) help Mautam victims in Falam Township
July 23, 2008 - The Chin community, particularly from the Zanniat clan settled overseas recently provided monetary assistance to victims of Mautam (famine from bamboo flowering) in Falam Township in Chin state, Burma.
"So far, the Zanniat community in Norway sent Kyat 800,000 to Falam Township in Chin state," Pu Sena, adviser of the Zanniat Welfare Organization based in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram state, northeast India said.
Pu Sena added that Zanniat communities in USA, Canada and Australia are also collecting funds for the victims of Mautam in Falam Township.
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khonumthung.com
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Relief Must Focus on Remote Areas: Holmes
By SAW YAN NAING
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
After visiting cyclone-hit areas of Burma’s Irrawaddy delta on Tuesday, John Holmes, the United Nations’ chief humanitarian relief official, said that aid efforts must now shift their focus to more isolated areas.
“We must focus now on reaching the most vulnerable communities in remote areas, especially along the southern coast of the delta,” Holmes said in a statement released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday.
During his visit to the cyclone-affected township of Bogalay, the UN relief official visited shelters for cyclone victims and saw children going to school, said Laksmita Noviera, public information officer of OCHA in Rangoon.
“He is very happy to see the progress happening in the field in affected areas,” Noviera told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
During his trip to the delta, Holmes was accompanied by Burma’s deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Thu, and representatives of UN agencies, said Noviera.
She also said that Holmes held a meeting in Rangoon on Wednesday with humanitarian aid donors and international nongovernmental organizations, as well as UN agencies providing assistance in the cyclone-hit region.
Holmes is scheduled to visit Naypyidaw, Burma’s new capital, on Thursday and is expected to meet with several government officials, including ministers from the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Department and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement.
After meeting with Burmese authorities in Naypyidaw, the UN humanitarian relief official will leave Burma on Thursday. Before returning to New York, he will hold a press conference at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, said Noviera.
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irrawaddy.org
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