Author: Tun Wunna

A Vietnam War veteran lost his Golden Gate Estates home to a fire Sunday night. Seventy-one-year-old Donald Cline felt an intense heat against his back while inside his kitchen at his home. “I thought maybe I didn’t close it or turn it off. I checked that; everything was OK. I checked the stove, everything was OK. Then I started seeing smoke,” Cline said. Cline claimed that the fire started after he began to heat up a piece of pizza in the microwave.Cline suddenly felt the kitchen getting hotter and knew he had to get out. He returned into the kitchen…

Swedish-Finnish engineering services supplier AFRY has withdrawn from Myanmar’s hydropower projects, citing the junta’s human rights abuses. The business cited last month’s UN report recommended that firms operating in Myanmar should study the junta’s rights record. AFRY has operated in Myanmar for over 20 years, working on 13 hydropower projects, including three incomplete schemes, the company stated on April 21. The Nordic firm was paid US$4.7 million in service fees for consulting on the Upper Yeywa and Middle Paunglaung projects from February 2021 to September 2022, according to Justice For Myanmar (JFM), based on leaked tax filings from the whistleblower…

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, organised an international workshop on “Experience in reporting under the UPR mechanism.” In his remarks, Director of the MoFA’s Department of International Organisations Pham Hai Anh noted that since joining the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, Vietnam has shown its seriousness and responsibility, with more recommendations accepted by the country, reaching 83% of the UPR third cycle recommendations, higher than the average of other countries. In early 2022, Vietnam submitted its voluntary midterm report on the implementation of the UPR third cycle recommendations to…

The second largest opposition party framed next month’s elections as a generational choice between what it called “a dark present and a bright future”. Thailand goes to the polls on May 14 for the first election since the kingdom was rocked by major student-led pro-democracy protests in 2020 calling for political reform. The election is shaping as a clash between incumbent ruling parties, backed by Thailand’s conservative military and royalist establishment, and more reformist and progressive opposition groups. “Election day is a choice between the dark present and a bright future,” Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit (pic), the billionaire co-founder of the Move…

According to Conflict Intelligence Team, Russia sent ancient T-54s to Ukraine due to operable modern tank shortages swirling. “The train [with T-55s] has recently departed from the town of Arsenyev, Primorsky region, where the 1295th Central Tank Repair and Storage Base is located,” OSINT team said. They also noted that the deployment and use of T-62 tanks by the Russian Armed Forces during the current invasion has been documented since the summer of 2022, but it is the first recorded instance of T-54/55 tanks withdrawal from storage. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of…

The dragon has got its claws on Myanmar, a country suffering diplomatic isolation following the February 2021 coup, backing the military junta in its bid to bleed the nation dry of natural resources, this is how Roland Tatum has described the plight of erstwhile Burma, in his opinion piece for Mizzima News. China rushed in as a knight in shining armour to shield Myanmar, beset by a global boycott and turmoil following the overthrow of the legitimate elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, Tatum says, reminding, “However, such a saviour’s act seldom comes for free”. “The dragon, the…