Fire kills girl at Yangon beauty spa
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A female worker was killed in a fire at Three Season Beauty Spa & Health in South Okkalapa Township, in Yangon last Monday.
Su Mon, an 18-year-old girl, suffocated to death after the fire broke out while she was washing her clothes in the bathroom.
“The fire started after an electrical wire from the rice cooker overheated in the kitchen, which was not being watched,” said Zaw Tun, head of Red Cross in Yangon Region.
“I only knew the back the building’s first floor was on fire, after I heard people shouting. When I went outside, I saw a lot of smoke and the door was on fire. All the girls from the massage parlour ran outside,” said a man who lives besides the building.
Twenty-eight fire engines, three administrative vehicles, and six support vehicles arrived at the scene and were able to extinguish the fire by 12:50pm. Four vehicles from the Red Cross also provided support to the firemen.
The fire destroyed property worth 2.3 million Kyat (Bt75,860). The police have opened a case against a person in charge of the spa, Win Myint San.
“The owner ran away when the fire broke out. The person who we have charged said he’s not the owner,” said inspector Tayzar Min from South Okkalapa Myoma Police Station.
Last week, a fire broke out at Venus Garden Spa on the top floor of Gandamar Wholesale Shopping Centre, killing three men and four women.
Committee to discuss public feedback on constitution
Parliament’s constitutional review committee will hold a meeting in Nay Pyi Taw on January 7 to discuss pubic suggestions on constitutional reform, said the committee’s general secretary last Monday.
General Secretary Aye Mauk said the committee, consisting of 109 MPs – including seven from the opposition National League for Democracy – would continue to receive suggestions from the public up to December 31 and submit a report to parliament on January 31.
Details would be discussed during the upcoming meeting, he added.
“Our committee has scheduled to hold a meeting on January 7. The committee members will be arriving in Nay Pyi Taw in early January to study the public suggestions. At the meeting, we will point out a large number of suggestions related to chapter by chapter of the Constitution,” said Aye Mauk.
The committee on December 6 announced that from November 8 until December 5, it had received 440 letters with 2,512 suggestions from the public, political parties and various organisations.
“We will discuss how to review suggestions to report to parliament, how to take further action if there are any points in the suggestions that the MPs accounting for 75 percent of the total parliamentary seats can decide through voting,” he added.
Ceremony to honour prisoners killed during interrogation
A ceremony will be held on January 2, 2014 to honour the families of political prisoners who died under interrogation by the former military junta.
The event will be held at the Royal Rose restaurant in Yangon and is being organised by the Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and the Former Political Prisoners Association.
“The aim of holding this ceremony is to give strength to the rest of the families of those died in interrogation camps,” said Bo Kyi of AAPP.
Over 160 people died under interrogation during the previous military junta, and many families still suffer for the loss of loved ones. Pictures of those who died will be made into vinyl posters and presented at the ceremony.
“We would like to encourage them by showing that we still remember. The amount of the cash we will provide to them is nothing much, but we want to know them that those died will always in our hearts. They sacrificed their loved ones against the political system,” added Bo Kyi.
A small amount of assistance has been provided by AAPP and the Former Political Prisoners Association to support ex-political prisoners, but up to now nothing has been provided to the families of those who died.
Primary school teachers to receive ICT training in Korea
Twenty outstanding primary school teachers will attend technology-training courses in South Korea, according to education officials in Yangon.
Sejong City Office Education in South Korea will also provide information, communication and technology (ICT) training to basic education schools to help upgrade Myanmar’s education sector.
The Ministry of Education will select teachers for the training and the programme will start in April 2014.
“South Korea is now implementing the Smart Education system, that’s why they offer to share the ICT techniques to teachers who will teach computer studies at the schools,” said Khin Aung Yi, assistance director of Yangon South District Education Office.
The teachers will be tested on ICT in both written and oral exams after which 20 teachers will be selected for the 14-day programme.
More than 300 teachers from 2,712 schools will participate in the selection to be held in January to get the opportunity to attend the ICT technical training course in Korea.
Sejong City Office Education has already provided 60 computers to the No.3 Basic Education Department in Yangon, which will in turn hand them over to various basic education schools.
