Volume XXI, Number 236 6th Waxing of Nadaw 1375 ME Sunday, 8 December, 2013

THE MOST RELIABLE NEWSPAPER AROUND YOUNew Light of Myanmar

Athletes Village ready to offer food for mind, body and soul

By Alan AdamsThere was a lull in the

action in the massive kitchen located off the beaten path at the 2013 SEA Games’ Athletes Village. The cooks had finished preparing lunch and were catching their breath before turning their attention to high tea and then supper.

“We have to make sure they have a full belly,” Aung Sithu Soe, who is one of the two dozen chefs overseeing a staff of 170 charged with feeding athletes and officials from the 11 countries at the SEA Games, said. “We want to make sure they have

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec — Myanmar grabbed two more gold medals in traditional Chinlone competitions and picked up first two gold medals and one silver medal in Wushu competitions today.

Vice-President Dr Sai Mauk Kham enjoyed the Wushu and Chinlone contests held at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor-stadium, here and presented prizes to winners.

In the first-day matches of Wushu event, Myanmar stood first, scoring 9.64 points in the men's Duilian competition of Wushu Taolu, followed by the Philippines and Thailand at second and third place, scoring 9.62 and 9.60 points respectively.

Kyaw Zin Thit and Wai Phyo Aung took home gold medal in the men's two-person Duilian competition of Wushu Taolu event.

Next, men’s Taijiquan competition followed.

Aung Sithu of

Myanmar captures more gold medals from Wushu, Chinlone competitionsMyanmar captured gold medal while Achmad Hulaefi of Indonesia won silver medal and Xuan Hiep Tran of Vietnam bagged bronze medal in men’s Changquan competition.

At the prize-giving ceremony, the Vice-President and officials presented prizes and gifts to winners.

Thuy Vi Duoung brought first SEA Games gold to Vietnam while Sandi Oo of Myanmar took silver and Eyin Phoon of Malaysia bronze in women’s Jianshu competition of Wushu Taolu event.

The final matches of men’s and women’s chinlone competitions took place at 10 am.

The final match between Myanmar and Lao women’s chinlone teams ended 289-204. Myanmar stood first, Laos second, and Cambodia and Malaysia joint-third in the women’s chinlone competition.

At the final match between Myanmar and

Cambodia of men’s chinlone competition, Myanmar secured first place, reaching 359 points

while Cambodia came second with 291 points. Singaporean and Malaysian team took joint-third place

Nay Pyi Taw,7 Dec—The quarter-finals of Wushu Sanshou competition of the 27th SEA Games started at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium (A) this afternoon.

A total of 30 men and women athletes from

Wushu Sanshou competitions start at Wunna Theikdhi

Sports Ground (A)Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos took part in the 48 kg, 52 kg and 56 kg events. Chi Leng Lim from Malaysia, Divine Wally (See page 8)

Vice-President Dr Sai Mauk Kham awards one of winning athletes at the prize presentation ceremony. —mna

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec — Myanmar Wushu ath-letes added two more gold medals and one silver med-al to the medal tally of the

Myanmar dominates medal tally with two gold

medals, one silver from Wushu event

Wushu athletes play against each other at quarter-final of Wushu Sanshou competition of 27th SEA Games at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium (A).—mna

in the competitions.Vice-President Dr

Sai Mauk Kham and President of Asian Speak

Takraw Federation awarded winning teams at the prize presentation ceremony.

MNA

enough energy to win a medal.”

“We started with 100 people in the Village and then 200 and now we have 750. There will be 2,400 at one point (between December 11-16) and it will be crazy. We’re catching our breath now.”

A well-fed athlete is a happy athlete, and the kitchen is one—and some would say the most important—of the many services offered at the sprawling Athletes Village, which covers a 415-acre site.

The Athletes Village is shelter from the storm of pressure the athletes feel to win a medal at the SEA Games. It’s also a meeting place for different cultures to mix, and organizers have gone all out to make sure there is something for everyone. There are telecommunication services, minimarkets, a variety of restaurants, a state-of-the-art workout gymnasium, barber shops and beauty salons, souvenir stands and a message

area.There’s also a religious

house where prayer rooms are offered for Buddhists, Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

When an athlete wants to be entertained, there’s a nightly musical program in an area far away from the sleeping quarters featuring musicians from the many regions of Myanmar and from throughout Southeast Asia.“We want the athletes to be comfortable and provide them with a variety of things to do,” Ye Myint Htun, vice-mayor of the Village, said. “The priority is on the athlete.”

“The Athletes Village is a multicultural society,” continued Ye Myint Htun. “We take care of all participating athletes and officials. Offering a helping hand is symbolic of Myanmar characteristics.”

(See page 7)

27th SEA Games this morn-ing.

Kyaw Zin Thit and Wai Phyo Aung of host (See page 9)

Sunday, 8 December, 20132 New Light of MyanmarLocaL News

New Light of Myanmar

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec—In commemoration of 65th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Myanmar and Thailand, the opening of artificial limb workshop donated by Thailand’s Prosthesis Foundation to National Rehabilitation Hospital under the Ministry of Health took place at the hospital at the corner of Kyaikwaing Pagoda and Mindhamma Streets in

Thailand’s Prosthesis Foundation donates artificial

limb workshop

N a y P y i T a w , 7 Dec—Union Minister for

Union Commerce Minister addresses plenary session of 9th WTO Ministerial Conference

Commerce U Win Myint attended plenary session

of 9th WTO Ministerial Conference at Nusu Dua Hall in Bali of Indonesia on 5 December.

At the session, Minister of Trade and Industry of Rwanda Mr. Francoi Kanimba acted as the chair and the trade ministers of WTO member countries made speeches.

In his address, the Union minister said that Myanmar joined Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) which is supported by WTO for

development of the member countries in April 2013. He pledged that Myanmar will further cooperate with WTO for success of EIF. Myanmar is striving for success of integrated trade system and is hoping for beneficial results for all countries from the conference, he added.

He also attended a dinner hosted by Indonesian Trade Minister Mr. Gita Wirjawan at Taman Bhagwan Hotel in Bali.

MNA

Mayangon Township on 3 December, with an address by Union Minister Dr Pe Thet Khin.

The Union minister spoke words of thanks for donating artificial limbs and braces and related items by the foundation, expressing his wish for further cementing relations between the two countries.

Tha i Ambassado r to Myanmar Mr. Pisanu Suvanajata and Secretary General Assistant Professor Therdchai Jivacate of the foundation explained the purpose of donation and handed over documents related to the artificial limb workshop.

The Union minister and Thai ambassador formally opened the signboard of workshop and viewed making of artificial limbs at the workshop.

Thailand’s Prosthesis Foundation provided 100 sets of machine worth 2.9 million Baht for prosthetic limb technology and Siam Cement Group renovated the workshop at a cost of US$ 4700.—MNA

100 KVA transformer installed in Dabayin

Electrification

DabayiN, 7 Dec—The 300 KVA transformer being used in Dabayin was not enough for the power consumption of the local people in Dabayin of Shwebo District in Sagaing Region.

Township Electrical Engineer U Myint Naing

Oo submitted the report to demand a new transformer for the township.

A 100 KVA new transformer was added to the township on 4 December and it launched electrification for power consumption of the dwellers.

MMAL-KK (Dabayin)

Entertainment performed for raising fund of IDPs in Bhamo

bhamo, 7 Dec—Video and film actors Khin Hlaing and Dein Daung and party performed entertainment at the Manau Ground of Kachin Literature and Culture Committee in Bhamo of Kachin State recently.

I t was a imed a t raising fund for all-round development of three-storey

Dhammayon as school for the children at 2nd-Mile Aungtha Catholic Church.

They performed one more entertainment for the internally displaced persons at the save venue, fetching K 1.8 million.

They donated the cash from the entertainment to IDPs at Sikhangyi relief

camp in Mansi Township where 364 IDPS are taking shelters at Sikhangyi relief camp in Mansi Township and over 5000 IDPS at the relief camp in Manweingyi Village.

They donated cash to the funds of the relief camps on 3 December.—MMAL-Hsimeekhon Nan Yi

Photos, Wall Magazine, Book Show hails XXVII SEA Games

Union Minister Dr Pe Thet Khin views display of equipment for artificial limbs at the workship.—mna

yaNgoN, 7 Dec—As a gesture of hailing the XXVII SEA Games, the Photo, Wall Magazine and Book Show was held at Information and Public Relations Department in Thanlyin Township of Yangon South District on 4 December.

At the ceremony, the Hluttaw representative, the deputy commissioner of the District General Administration Department

and the Region Hluttaw representative formally opened the show.

The Chai rman of Yangon South District S a s a n a N u g g a h a Association donated five sets of mini book corners, K 65000 for books of two months, the head of District Directorate of Road Transport and the manager of Kanbawza Bank (Thanlyin), one set each of mini book

corner and K 13000 each for one month books.

The show was held as a gesture of hailing the SEA Games with documentary works of preparations for the games, sports venues and fictures of games.

Plans are underway to stage the shows in Seikkyi-Khanaungto, Twantay, Kayan and Than ly in townships—MNA

Flags of sponsored companies and hot-air balloons are decorated along

Wezayanda Road in Yangon on 5 December as a gesture of hailing the

XXVII SEA Games.—mmaL-Tin Win Lay (Kyimyindine)

Rural development tasks oversaw in MogaungmogauNg, 7 Dec—

Head of Kachin State Rural Development Department and the State Engineering Team inspected actual

progress of rural roads and bridges construction and supply of water to the local peope in 2013-14 fiscal year.

O f f i c i a l s g a v e instructions on timely completion of the tasks meeting set standards.

MMAL-062

Fund-raising Activities

Rural Development

Artists

seen with

national

races at

enter-

tainment

for IDPs

of Bhamo.

Union Minister U Win Myint speaking at 9th WTO Ministerial Conference.—mna

Sunday, 8 December, 2013 3New Light of MyanmarWORLD

US welcomes Japan’s secrecy law

Lawmakers of the ruling block clap their hands after the House of Councillors enacted a controversial law to prevent leaks of state secrets during a plenary session

in Tokyo on the night of 6 Dec, 2013. —Kyodo News

Washington, 7 Dec — The United States wel-comes the enactment of Japan’s new law aimed at preventing leaks of state secrets, as information security plays a critical role in the alliance between the countries, a State Depart-ment spokeswoman said on Friday.

“We welcome pro-gress on strengthening policies, practices, and procedures related to the protection of classified information,” the depart-ment’s deputy spokes-woman Marie Harf told reporters.

“A foundation of our alliance is also a shared

commitment to universal values, freedom of expres-sion, freedom of the Press,” Harf said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling camp pressed ahead with the bill for the law in parliament Friday despite mounting opposi-tions in the public.

Kyodo News

US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel gestures as he speaks to military servicemembers aboard the USS

Ponce in Manama on 6 Dec, 2013.—ReuteRs

Hagel reassures Gulf allies US committed to regional security

ManaMa, 7 Dec — Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel toured a US war-ship in the Gulf on Friday and declared Washington’s commitment to Middle East security, despite policy dif-ferences over Iran and Syria that have angered Gulf al-lies.

His visit to Bahrain, in which he will speak at the Manama Dialogue security conference, comes at a time of regional unease over President Barack Obama’s policies — ranging from the cautious US response to Syria’s civil war to the six world powers’ interim deal with Iran on its nuclear pro-gramme.

The ship he toured, the USS Ponce, part of the US Fifth Fleet, is to be

Medvedev not to resign, denies pressure on Ukraine over EU deal

MoscoW, 7 Dec — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday he would lead the government as long as he could, denying reported tensions between him and President Vladimir Putin over the designation of tax crime investigative power.

“I love what I’m do-ing now, this is an interest-ing job. I’m doing it for as long as I can, until there is a presidential decision to that effect,” Medvedev said in an end-of-year interview with leading television channels.

Noting his job was “not very popular,” the prime minister insisted that he had no contradictions with Putin, saying, “I and the president are getting along well.”

Local reports earlier said relationship between the two top Russian leaders

may have deteriorated as Putin backed the transfor-mation of tax crime inves-tigative power from the tax services to the Investigative Committee.

Medvedev endorsed in 2011, when he was the president, the procedure of opening criminal cases over tax crimes only by the ini-tiative of tax services.

He argued against the legislative change last month, but Putin said later that “If someone does not agree with something, there is another way resign from the Cabinet.”

Medvedev said a com-promised version was being discussed, in which authori-ties could open tax evasion cases without the initiative of tax officers but will have to seek related materials from the Federal Tax Ser-vice.

Speaking of the possi-

bility to once again run for the presidency, Medvedev said, “I would like to work more before I make neces-sary decisions that depend on a certain set of circum-stances.”

He went on to say that the government has proven to be quite effective and did not require any drastic changes.

“Our government is an absolutely functional team ... On the whole, I think that there should not be any rad-ical changes,” he said.

Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, Med-vedev said that country’s problems must be solved only by its leadership and society.

He denied that Russia had pressured Ukraine to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union (EU).

Reuters

equipped in 2014 with a new laser weapon designed to deter aircraft and mis-siles as well as attacks by swarms of small boats like those used by Iran, on the opposite side of the Gulf.

“Our history in this area is long and proud. Our commitment to our part-ners in this area speaks for itself and I will assure our partners that we’re not go-ing anywhere,” Hagel told

troops aboard the 40-year-old vessel, recently refitted to be a floating base for an-ti-mine warfare and special operations.

“This region is danger-ous, it’s combustible, it’s unstable,” Hagel said. “But having a steady American hand in this region can help our allies and reassure our allies.”

Jon Alterman, direc-tor of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and Interna-tional Studies think tank in Washington, said Gulf Arab leaders felt US poli-cy was misguided and that when they wanted to air their concerns, there was no one in the Obama ad-ministration to talk to.

Reuters

Iran, powers meet next week on nuclear deal

implementation

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif smiles as he speaks to the media at the International Conference Centre of Geneva in Geneva on 24 Nov,

2013.—ReuteRs

Vienna/Brussels, 7 Dec — Iran and six world powers plan expert-level talks next week to work out details of implementing a breakthrough agreement for Teheran to curb its disputed nuclear programme in re-turn for a limited easing of sanctions.

Officials from Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia are to meet on 9-10 December in Vien-na, where the UN nuclear watchdog agency is based, diplomats said on Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency —which will be tasked with verifying that Iran carries out its part of the November 24 interim accord — “will have some involvement” in the meeting, IAEA spokes-woman Gill Tudor said, without elaborating.

Western diplomats said the experts must iron out nitty gritty matters of im-plementation not addressed in Geneva before the deal can be put into practice.

These include how and when the IAEA will con-duct its expanded inspec-tions and other technical issues.

The landmark agree-ment is seen as a first step towards resolving a decade-old dispute over Iran’s nu-clear programme that has stirred fears of a new Mid-dle East war.

It was designed to halt Iran’s nuclear advances for a period of six months and buy time for negotiations on a final settlement of the standoff. Diplomats say im-plementation may start in January after the technical details have been settled.

Reuters

Egyptian police fire tear gas to end clashes in Cairocairo, 7 Dec — Egyp-

tian police used tear gas on Friday to end clashes in Cairo between supporters and opponents of ousted Is-lamist president Mohamed Mursi, the state news agen-cy MENA said.

Mursi’s supporters have been staging protests almost daily in towns and cities across Egypt since the army deposed him on 3 July in response to mass protests against him.

The Cairo clashes took place in the well-to-do district of Mohandeseen,

when a march by Brother-hood supporters came face-to-face with an opposing crowd.

The Mursi support-ers were holding placards showing the four-finger logo of solidarity with those killed when security forces razed pro-Mursi protest camps in Cairo last August.

“Down, down with military rule!” the protest-ers chanted.

Similar pro-Brother-hood protests were staged in other parts of Cairo along with the Suez Canal cities

of Suez and Port Said. Most of the marches set off from mosques after Friday’s noon prayers. The police arrested 73 pro-Brother-hood protesters in different places for “inciting riots”, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

Two weeks ago a law was promulgated that banned protests near or originating from places of worship, and made it com-pulsory to seek Interior Ministry permission to hold a demonstration.

A ministry official said

no such request had been filed for Friday’s protests. Around 180 Brotherhood protesters were arrested during similar protests last Friday. On Thursday, three prominent liberal political activists were ordered to stand trial for staging pro-tests without permission.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thou-sands arrested since Mursi was deposed and the army installed an interim presi-dent and government in his place.

Reuters

4 Sunday, 8 December, 2013

Science & TechnologyNew Light of Myanmar

chin & Rakhine STaTeS

Planned orbit trim for Chang’e-3 canceledBeijing, 7 Dec — Chi-

nese lunar probe Chang’e-3 will not perform a planned third trimming of its trajec-tory along the earth-moon transfer orbit, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National De-

fence. Chang’e-3, which is carrying moon rover “Yutu” (Jade Rabbit), was successfully launched on early Monday morning from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre.

“The probe’s carrier, an enhanced Long March-

3B rocket, entered the orbit with comparatively high precision, and the first two orbital trimmings were highly exact, which result-ed in the probe being capa-ble of meeting the demands of near-moon deceleration and follow-up orbital con-trol,” said a statement re-leased on Thursday by the administration.

Noting good adapt-ability in the flying control plan for Chang’e-3, the statement added that “it has been decided that a third or-bital trimming is not neces-sary.”

If all goes well, the Chang’e-3 mission will mark the first time for China to send a spacecraft

to soft-land on the surface of an extraterrestrial body, where it will conduct sur-veys of the Moon.

According to the ad-ministration, the variable thrust engine — completely designed and made by Chi-nese scientists — can real-ize continuous variation of thrust power ranging from 1,500 to 7,500 newtons.

It will offer the main momentum for Chang’e-3 as it decelerates before reaching the lunar surface. Chang’e-3 has been in nor-mal operation for about 88 hours as of 6 pm Thursday, with a distance travelled of nearly 350,000 kilometers, according to the statement.

Xinhua

San FranciSco, 7 Dec — Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it had disrupted the largest network of com-promised personal comput-ers, involving some 2 mil-lion machines around the world, since it stepped up its battle against organized online criminals three years ago.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant filed a lawsuit in Texas and won a judge’s order directing In-ternet service providers to block all traffic to 18 Inter-net addresses that were used to direct fraudulent activity to the infected machines.

Law enforcement in many European countries served warrants at the same time, seizing servers expected to contain more evidence about the leaders of the ZeroAccess crime ring, which was devoted to “click fraud.”

Microsoft leads disruption of largest infected global PC network

Such rings use net-works of captive machines, known as botnets, in com-plicated schemes that force them to click on ads with-out the computer owners’ knowledge.

The schemes cheat ad-vertisers on search engines including Microsoft’s Bing by making them pay for interactions that have no chance of leading to a sale. Microsoft said the botnet had been costing advertis-ers on Bing, Google Inc and Yahoo Inc an estimated $2.7 million monthly.

The coordinated effort marks the eighth time Mi-crosoft has moved against a botnet and a rare instance of it doing serious damage to one that is controlled with a peer-to-peer mechanism, where infected machines give each other instructions instead of relying on a cen-tral server that defenders

can hunt down and disable. But the ZeroAccess botnet still had a weakness: The code in the infected ma-chines told them to reach out to one of the 18 numeric Internet addresses for de-tails on which ads to click.

Microsoft recently opened a new Cybercrime Centre in Redmond and is

using new tools in its ef-forts. They are helped by a provision in trademark that allows pretrial seizure of suspected counterfeit goods, including websites that, as in the present case, are spreading tainted ver-sions of the Internet Ex-plorer browser.

Reuters

Men install Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 operating system on their laptops, as Windows 8 goes on sale after

midnight, along a street at the Akihabara District in Tokyo on 26 Oct, 2012.— ReuteRs

Mexico watchdog weighs if America Movil, Televisa dominate sector

Mexico city, 7 Dec —Giant Mexican telco Amer-ica Movil and broadcaster Televisa, the two companies likely to be most affected by the country’s telecoms reform, said on Thursday the regulator has told them it was determining whether they are dominant players in the sector. The notifications are the first step in a process mandated by a telecoms re-form passed by Mexico’s Congress earlier this year that gives the new Federal Telecommunications Insti-tute (IFT) powers to clamp down on dominant players and spur competition.

Televisa, the world’s largest producer of Span-ish-language content, said in a regulatory filing it was analyzing the news and preparing an official re-sponse. America Movil, the telecoms behemoth con-trolled by Mexican billion-aire Carlos Slim, later said that it and its subsidiaries, including fixed-line opera-tor Telmex, have also been placed under review by the watchdog and asked to hand over information about the size of the market. America Movil said it had received a notice “related to the begin-ning of a process toward the

probable determination of being a dominant economic agent in Mexico’s telecom-munications market.

The company had al-ready said it expects to be declared dominant. Ameri-ca Movil shares ended down 1.69 percent at 14.55 pesos ($1.12) before the com-pany disclosed the review. Televisa’s shares closed down 2.1 percent, having fallen more than 3 percent earlier on the news. On Wednesday, the IFT said it had informed unidentified companies it will assess for tougher regulation.

Reuters

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim walks on stage for an event of the Funda-

cion Telmex Mexico Siglo XXI (Telmex Foundation Mexico XXI Century) in Mexico City on 12 Sept,

2013. — ReuteRs

Shitthoung Temple

Rakhine StateCapital SittwayPopulation Over 2.9 millionLanguages Rakhine, MyanmarMajor Industries Agriculture, FisheryHow to get there Car, Air, Boat

SittwayAfter the First Anglo-Burman War of 1826, coastal

Sittway was made the capital of Rakhine State rather than the less accessible former royal capital of MraukU.

Black Sand BeachAlthough not as enticing as a white sand beach, the black sand beach in front of the Sittway Hotel has a moody charm of its own, especially on full moon nights.

Morning Fish MarketThis noisy, lively colourful market is on the jetty

where trawlers unload their catch and is an experience not to be missed.

ThandweThis pretty little town is the gateway to Ngapali

Beach, which boasts one of the best white-sand beaches in Southeast Asia.

MraukUMraukU was the last capital of the Rakhine civilisa-

tion, which was contemporary to the Pyu.The 2nd century Greek geographer Ptolemy referred to the kingdom as Ar-gyre, and it was later referred to by historians as ‘Arakan’.

Shitthoung Pagoda The Shitthaung pagoda was built between 1531 and

1553. Images of the donor, King Min Ba Gri, and his queens are carved on a high corner while minister sur-round them in kneeling postures. The interior walls are lined with over 1000 relief slabs showing scenes from the Jataka stories as well as ordinary people in daily life such as dancers, wrestlers and musicians.

The following is the reproduction of Myanmar Hotels & Tourism Guide 2013. Visit www.tourismguide.com.mm for further information.—Ed

Chin State Capital HakaPopulation Over 0.47 millionLanguages Duhlien, MyanmarMajor Industries Agriculture

How to get there Car, Bus, Air

Face TattooThe ritual of Chin women wearing face tattoos suppos-

edly began as a way of deterring the attention of invaders. When a girl reaches puberty she can choose to be tattooed or not or how little or how much. It is becoming rare to have full-face tattoos; usually they choose a few lines on the fore-head or chin.

HakaThe Chin State capital is about 1,828 metres (6,000

feet) above sea level. The mountains around the capital are famous for their orchids and occasionally new species are found. Temperatures sometimes dip below zero degress Cel-sius in the winter season.

Reh LakeThis heart-shaped lake in the Chin Hills is near the In-

dian broder. People from Myanmar and India consider it a magical lake because according to legend its waters turn red at about the same time as Christmas.

Sunday, 8 December, 2013 5

BUSINESS & HEALTHNew Light of Myanmar

HIV virus returns in two “cured” patients

Washington, 7 Dec — Two patients previous-ly thought to be “cured” of HIV after undergoing bone marrow transplants are now seeing the return of the virus in their blood, US doctors said on Friday. Timothy Henrich, a physi-cian-researcher at the Bos-ton Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said the reemer-gence of the virus demon-strates that HIV reservoirs, latent cells carrying the vi-rus, are “deeper and more persistent” than scientists had realized. “The return of detectable levels of HIV in our patients is disap-pointing, but scientifically significant,” Henrich said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.

“Through this re-search, we have discovered ... that our current standards

of probing for HIV may not be sufficient to inform us if long-term HIV remission is possible if antiretrovi-ral therapy is stopped,” he said. The two HIV-positive patients, who do not want to be identified, received bone marrow transplants as part of treatment for Hodg-kin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the blood, respectively in 2008 and in 2010. In both patients, HIV became un-detectable approximately eight months after trans-plant, and in the spring of this year they agreed to cease antiretroviral therapy to test whether the trans-plant had eliminated the virus from their bodies. In July, the researchers an-nounced that the two have shown no signs of HIV after they were off antiretroviral therapy for 15 weeks and

seven weeks, respectively.But in August, the re-

searchers detected HIV in one of the patients, who then resumed taking medi-cation. The other opted to stay off the medicine but last month, after 32 weeks with no HIV detected, signs of the virus reemerged and the patient also resumed antiretroviral therapy. “I should point out that we were always very careful to say that we were not claim-ing that our patients were cured, and that we would only know with long-term follow-up the extent to which their viral reservoirs were reduced by stem cell transplantation,” Daniel Kuritzkes, a professor with Harvard Medical School working at the hospital, said in an interview with Xinhua. The researchers

said the findings can help scientists better understand how and where the virus persists, and the potential role of the immune system in clearing cells that silently harbor HIV.

“As it turned out, there must have been virus that still persisted in tissues or some location that we could not easily sample,” Kuritz-kes said, adding that the re-occurring virus might come

from such a location. Ac-cording to the researchers, both patients are currently doing well on antiretrovi-ral therapy. “We have a lot more work to do in terms of analyzing samples we have collected from the patients and hope to make a more complete report ... soon,” Kuritzkes said. The re-searchers first presented the preliminary findings Thurs-day at an international con-

ference of AIDS research-ers in Florida. Henrich told the Boston Globe that they decided to release the re-sults before analyzing all the data, so others in the field could know as soon as possible. “We felt it would be scientifically unfair to not let people know how things are going, especial-ly for potential patients,” Henrich was quoted as say-ing.—Xinhua

Volvo Cars posts strong growth in China

stockholm, 7 Dec — Volvo Cars’ retail sales in China rocketed by 69.4 percent in November com-pared to the same month last year, while its global sales was up by 5.8 percent, posted Volvo Car Group on Thursday in a statement. The total global sales of Volvo Cars amounted to 37,945 cars in November, making it the fifth con-secutive month with sales growth, according to the statement of the group.

As Volvo Cars’ num-ber one market, in No-vember 5,995 cars were sold in China, creating a new record as an all-time high sales result for a sin-gle month. The European market also contributed the strong growth, boosted by positive developments in several markets such as Spain and Italy while the Netherlands continued to

represent the majority of European growth. Further-more, in the home market Volvo Cars strengthened its leadership in Sweden, reporting significant growth on a declining market, said the statement.

“We have now report-ed global growth during five consecutive months and we are also showing year-to-date growth versus last year,” said Alain Vis-ser, Senior Vice President Marketing, Sales and Cus-tomer Service at Volvo Cars.” Sweden and China are very strong, Europe shows a positive trend and in the US we now have the right tools to get back on track,” Visser added. Volvo Cars’ best-selling model of November in China was Volvo XC60 with 2,673 cars sold, which was also a record.

Xinhua

Washington, 7 Dec — Dyslexia, one of the most common learning disorders, may be the result of pro blems with brain connec-tivity, according to a study published in the US journal Science on Thursday.

People with dyslexia, estimated to be more than 10 percent of the world’s population, have difficulty in reading, processing spo-ken language, and ulti-mately, learning.Scientists have argued why dyslexics struggle with this process. Some suggested phonetic representations are distorted in the dyslexic brain. An-other theory is that phonetic

Dyslexia may be result of faulty brain connectionsrepresentations are intact in people with dyslexia, just hard to access by other brain regions involved in lan-guage processing.

To investigate the two potential sources, Bart Boets and colleagues from the Catholic University of Leu-ven in Belgium scanned the brains of 22 normal and 23 dyslexic adults.They used functional Magnetic Reso-nance Imaging techniques to look at patterns of nerve ac-tivity in the brain as these in-dividuals responded to cer-tain speech stimuli, noting how accurately sounds were mapped to their related pho-netic representations.” Quite

to our surprise, and probably to the surprise of the broader dyslexia field, we found that the phonetic representations are perfectly intact in adults with dyslexia,” Boets told reporters.

The researchers then performed a second analysis to explore whether connec-tivity in the brain differed between the two groups. They assessed how easily 13 regions involved in lan-guage processing could con-nect to phonetic representa-tions, finding connectivity to be significantly hampered between certain regions in the brains of dyslexics.The worse the connection, the

more poorly the individual performed on reading, spell-ing and other tests, the re-searchers said. According to the researchers, the research suggests that deficient ac-cess to phonetic representa-tions, not quality of these representations, is at the heart of dyslexia.

“Our findings indicate that the speech sound rep-resentations themselves are intact, but a dysfunctional connection between frontal and temporal language ar-eas impedes efficient access to the representations,” said Boets.However, not every-one is convinced.

Xinhua

Beijing, 7 Dec — Da-vid Cameron, UK Prime Minister concluded a three day trip to China, in which he hosted a series of meet-ings to discuss Sino-UK economic and trade condi-tions. In response, Huawei, a leading global information and communications tech-nology (ICT) solutions pro-vider, has commented on its on-going commitment to the UK and Europe. The trip, in which Mr Cameron hosted the Annual Prime Minister’s China-UK Meeting together with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, marked a signifi-cant step in solidifying trade relations between UK and China, where Mr Cameron commented that, “the UK

UK has a first-class investment environment: Huawei UK CEO

will be China’s biggest ad-vocate in the West”.

The delegation com-prised more than 130 elite British business representa-tives, making it the largest ever trade delegation to Chi-na, including V i c t o r

Zhang, CEO of Huawei UK. Mr Zhang said that Huawei has achieved en-couraging growth and suc-cess in the UK, which in part is attributable to the UK’s approach to foreign investment and providing

a welcoming trade en-vironment in which

Sino-UK economic and trade relations continue to grow and develop. Mr Zhang highlighted the UK as home

to an outstand-ing pool of talent

and a hub for world-leading business ser-vices. “Lon-

don is one of the world’s most well-established strate-gic finance hubs, and one in which Huawei has based its global Finance Risk Control Centre (FRCC),” said Mr Zhang.

“As a renowned and influential design hub, it is also an extremely conducive environment for innovation. In partnership with leading British design institutions, Huawei’s London-based global device design centre will guide design concepts for our flagship smartphones and devices”.

In June 2013, Huawei expanded its existing UK operations with the opening of a new UK headquarters in Reading.—Xinhua

Sunday, 8 December, 2013 6 New Light of Myanmar

XXVII SEA GAmES Special2 Days To The Opening Ceremony

XXVII SEA GAmES Photo GAllEry

Myanmar men’s Chinlone players sing the national anthem along

with Vice-President Dr Sai Mauk Kham and Union Sports Minister U Tint Hsan at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium on 7 Dec. 2013.

Photo by Aye Min Soe

Fans sing the national anthem as Myanmar State Flag hoist after Myanmar men’s Chinlone team

wins gold medal at Wunna Theik-dhi Indoor Stadium on 7 Dec. 2013. Photo by Aye Min Soe

Myanmar fans enjoy final match of Chinlone between Myanmar and Laos at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium on 7 Dec. 2013.—Photo by Aye Min Soe

Myanmar rowers do intensive training at Ngalike Dam on 7 Dec. 2013. Photo by Aye Min Soe

Myanmar school children wave miniature flags as they watch final match of Chinlone between Myanmar and Laos at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium on 7 Dec,

2013. Photo by Aye Min Soe

Nyein Chan Ko participates in Taijiquan event at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium on 7 Dec. 2013.—Photo by thurA (toungoo)

XXVII SEA GAmES Special

7Sunday, 8 December, 2013New Light of Myanmar

2 Days To The Opening Ceremony

7New Light of Myanmar

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec — Nay Pyi Taw Airport received flocks of athletes from Thailand and Malay-sia this afternoon.

Thai and Malaysian sports contingents compris-ing sports officers, judges, referees, managers and ath-letes and managers were welcomed at the airport by officials concerned and they were taken to hotel zone and sports village.

Thai, Malaysian sports contingents arrive

in Nay Pyi Taw

“Hope of achieving victory is looking very rosy for our team,” said Maung Maung, 31, a Myanmar rower for canoeing races while he is doing warming up under bright sunshine around 2 am before his dai-ly hard training in the Nga-like Dam in Nay Pyi Taw.

“We’re fully confident of winning at least three gold medals in the individ-ual and double categories of 200-meter and 1000-me-ter canoeing events,” he added.

Myanmar canoeing teams have improved the

Myanmar canoeing rowers ready to paint rosy picture of their history

By Aye Min Soetechnique of the rowing thanks to a coach from China and they are ready to com-pete with its rival Indonesian teams, said U Thura Han, a coach of Myanmar.

Myanmar Rowing Fed-eration took two years to pre-pare for the upcoming 27th Southeast Asian Games and its rowers were undergoing training in Inya Lake in Yan-gon before their three-month serious training in the dam.

Rowers from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambo-dia and Malaysia will take part in the canoeing event which will kick off on 10 De-

cember in Ngalike Dam in Nay Pyi Taw.

In addition to canoeing boat race, the SEA Games comprise traditional boat race, rowing and kayak events. Traditional boat race will be classified into 17 events and will be held from 18 to 21 December.

A total of 42 gold med-als—15 in canoeing and kayak event, nine in rowing contest and 17 in traditional boat race—will be awarded to the winners.

(from page 1)Athletes are also asked

to be respectful to each other.Gambling, smoking,

harassment, discrimination and unacceptable displays of derogatory, cultural, religious and political views are strictly prohibited.

A noise ban kicks in at 10 pm.

Ye Myint Htun was pleased to report there have been no issues.

The grounds are divided up into 10 clusters, and each cluster has 10 buildings. Each building has eight rooms, with two beds per room.

There’s even a noodle stand in each building in case an athlete is hungry and the kitchen is closed.

“We don’t want them to feel hungry,” said Aung Sithu Soe. “It takes a lot of energy to compete.”

Shuttle buses running throughout the day and night ferry athletes and officials to and from their quarters to the buses taking them to venues.

Initially the area was allocates for housing for government employees but the plan was modified for the Athletes Village for the SEA Games.

Construction started in

Athletes Village ready...2011 and when the Games end on 23 Dec, the plan is to convert the Village into facilities for a sports university.

“The preparation for this event is lengthy,” continued Ye Myint Htun. “It took a couple of years to arrange.”

When organizers considered the food catering services for the athletes, it looked no farther than the Myanmar Restaurants Association.

“We have been planning this for six months,” said Aung Sithu Soe. “We basically have the same menu for everyone, but if a country wants a specific dish or something, we do our best to meet their demand.”

When the population of the village swells to 2,400 in about a week, Aung Sithu Soe knows his staff will be put to the test. The first shift will start work at 3:30 a.m. and the last of the kitchen staff will be done around 10 p.m.

As he looked around the room, Aung Sithu Soe thought about what almost anyone would consider an insurmountable task.

“We have to feed 12,000 volunteers for the Opening Ceremony - 12,000 people. It will be crazy busy in here then. But so far no complaints.”

And you can rest assured if there are any complaints, action will be promptly taken.

“We’re ready,” said Aung Sithu Soe.

The remaining sports contingents of other ASEAN countries will ar-rive in Nay Pyi Taw Inter-

national Airport soon, said a staff officer of the Minis-try of Sports.By Ko Myo Shwe Paukkan

Myanmar canoeing rowers undergoing intensive training to achieve success in 27th SEA Games at Ngalike Dam in Nay Pyi Taw.—Aye Min Soe

One of Thai athletes gives answer to interviewers at Nay Pyi Taw

International Airport.

Malaysian athlete

gives an interview to

mediaman at

Nay Pyi Taw Airport. Two Thai participants to SEA Games with broad smile seen at Nay Pyi Taw Airport.

Sunday, 8 December, 20138 New Light of Myanmari n t e r v i e w s

Sunday, 8 December, 2013

Beautiful game, wonderful Myanmar

With first two SEA Games gold medals brought about by national Chinlone teams, Myan-mar sports fans are in a conciliatory mood at the start of the biggest regional sporting event. SEA Games heartbeat has quickened as Chinlone suc-cess has inspired other athletes and helped boost their morale. The sports festival that returns to Myanmar’s soil after a 44-year wait will be a show-case of youth’s talents. Moreover, it is also a great opportunity to make the world known that Myan-mar is wonderful through this beautiful game.

Myanmar is finally ready to host the sports meet in which athletes of the 10-nation bloc and Timor-Leste will partake in 33 sports events and journalists at home and abroad come in flocks to have sports converge. The stories about the SEA Games will dominate regional media coverage. Live television coverage of the games on major sporting events, especially football that can draw the most public attention, will reach every nook and corner not only in the region but also around the world. So, we all have to know that the world will be watching how our players and fans see the sports. They will judge whether we can act fair and square and how much of warmth and friendliness we can give and good discipline and manners we have both in the pitch and on the seats.

It is impossible to whitewash rivals but it is no doubt to win cheers of encouragement from our own people in each and every competition. A huge cheer is a must to reinforce a belief that the home team wins 60 per cent of all games. Only when we throw a great cheer, that acts as a motivator for better performance, for our national teams, will the home field advantage become real. Here one thing to keep in mind about the games is that we could achieve our SEA Games success only by con-cluding it in a smarter way, rather than topping in the medal tally.

Moreover, it is a good time for us to score a good mark that Myanmar is markedly capable of holding the Games prior to the next challenge, ASEAN Summit. So, the onus is on us all to say proudly that “we can do it”, showing the world that it is a beautiful game of wonderful Myanmar.

Q; What is the purpose of your visit to Myanmar?

A; In so many ways, all roads lead to Asia. Fifty years ago, the emerging markets and developing economies accounted for about a quar-ter of world GDP. Today, it is half, and rising rapidly—very likely to two-thirds of global GDP within the next decade. This shift—unprec-edented in scale and speed—is being driven by Asia. By some estimates, developing Asia alone will account for half of global GDP by 2050.

I truly believe that the IMF’s role in Myanmar typi-fies the new Fund. A Fund that engages in long-term, mutually beneficial partner-ships with its members. A Fund that helps countries in-tegrate with each other, find the resources to invest in the future of their people that includes all elements of soci-

The New Light of Myanmar interviews IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde

ety. That is the key reason I am here: to cement our part-nership and to hear from the Myanmar government and people what the Fund can do to help Myanmar become a vibrant part of New Asia.

Q; Myanmar is now chair of ASEAN, what can regional cooperation do to help Myanmar and regional economic prospects?

A; For Myanmar, re-gional integration represents a perfect opportunity for growth and poverty reduc-tion. Its geographical posi-tion and young, competitive labor force will enable it to take advantage of trade integration by exporting to neighboring countries. Growing financial integra-tion will allow Myanmar’s infant financial sector to ben-efit from the skills and sav-ings of its neighboring coun-tries to finance the industries

that will provide jobs and security for generations to come.

Q; How do you see Myanmar’s economic pros-pects? What should be the priorities for Government over the coming year?

A; The economic future looks promising for Myan-mar. Myanmar has rich natu-ral resources, including natu-ral gas, gems, minerals, and forestry products. Its young labor force could be a driving force in the industrialization of the country. Its increasing integration with Asia and the world presents opportunities for income and investment.

But it is still early days in the economic transition, and there are risks ahead. First among these in the economic arena is the incomplete set of macroeconomic policy tools at the authorities’ disposal. In particular, the central bank is still developing monetary policy tools while inflation has risen. More broadly, the authorities’ capacity to manage the wide-ranging economic reform program and cope with strong aid and foreign direct investment in-flows is limited.

The overwhelming pri-ority for the government is to maintain macroeconomic stability while investing in development. This requires building a modern central bank with effective monetary policy tools, spending in the budget only what the nation

can afford, raising more tax-es to allow more spending on health and infrastructure, and developing a sound finan-cial system that channels re-sources to businesses so that they can invest and provide jobs and opportunities for the people of Myanmar.

Q; What can the IMF do to help Myanmar’s econom-ic reforms?

A; The IMF is already working with the govern-ment in all of these areas and we will continue to intensify our support. We aim to bring our regional and global expe-rience and make it available to decision-makers and insti-tutions in Myanmar so that they can make and imple-ment decisions in a way that works for Myanmar.

We do this in a num-ber of ways: through policy advice, hands-on technical assistance and training. In addition to our many teams working to support Myan-mar based in IMF headquar-ters and periodically visiting the country, we have a resi-dent representative in Myan-mar and are building a team of resident technical experts to be on call to help the au-thorities as they develop their institutions. We also have an office in Bangkok with a number of experts largely dedicated to supporting My-anmar.

The Fund never stopped working with Myanmar. We are a long-term partner and look forward to supporting Myanmar’s bold and excit-ing economic and political transition.—NLM

Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker...(from page 16)

The ceremony is annu-ally held from 2 to 12 De-

cember since 2005 and this year's 9th tri-Pitakat recita-tion ceremony was organ-

ized by Myanmar that also held the 8th ceremony.

Speaker of Bihar Leg-islative Assembly Shri U.N Choudhary made a call

on the Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker at The Royal Presi-dency Hotel in the evening on that day. He vouched that India-Myanmar friend-ship has become strengthen thanks to Myanmar people's pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, contributing towards more mutual benefit between the two countries.

On their arrival at Mahabodhi Temple on 3 December, the Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker and party offered Shwekyar robes to the Buddha Image of the Temple and observed seven sacred sites at the temple.

Next, they visited Pre-siding Sayadaw of Myan-mar monastery in Bodh Gaya and donated offer-tories to members of the Sangha.

Later, they also ob-served King Mindon's stone inscription and brick build-ing in Bodh Gaya.

MNA

Speaker of Amyotha Hluttaw U Khin Aung Myint donates picture of Buddha to Dr Ashin Ñanissara at 9th tri-Pitakat recitation ceremony.—mna

(from page 1)from the Philippines, Friska Ria Wibowo of Indonesia and Thi Chinh Nguyen of Vietnam sailed to the semi-finals in women’s 48 kg competition, Dasmantua Simbolon of Indonesia, Van Bau To from Vietnam

Wushu Sanshou ... and Jessie Aligaga of the Philippines advanced to the semi-finals in men’s 48 kg competition, Phithak Paokrathok of Thailand and Harba Sibuea from Indonesia went to the semi-finals in men’s 52 kg event and Khamla Sou Khaphone of Laos, Francisco Soliks from the Philippines, Tom Suepsangat of Thailand and Van Cao Hoang of Vietnam proceeded to the semi-finals in men’s 56 kg contest.

The competitions will continue tomorrow.—MNA

Myanmar and Indonesian athletes competing in Wushu Sanshou event of 27th SEA Games.—mna

9Sunday, 8 December, 2013New Light of Myanmarn a t i o n a l

Myanmar dominates ...

Yangon, 7 Dec—Ministry of Information of Myanmar and Ministry of Culture and Communica-tion of France signed an agreement on mutual co-operation in management of media and film industry at Chatrium Hotel here this afternoon.

It was attended by Union Minister for Infor-mation U Aung Kyi and Minister for Culture and Communication of France Ms Aure’ Lie FILIPPET-TI, France Ambassador to Myanmar Mr Thierry MATHOU and officials.

The Frence Minister said signing a deal is a

Myanmar, France to cooperate in development of media and film industry

crucial step toward the de-velopment of Myanmar’s media and film industry. It is a fruitful result coming out from the cooperation project that has started last two years.

Thanks to a series of reforms, Myanmar is cur-rently on the right track towards massive develop-ment. Especially, Myan-mar people are enjoying the freedom of speech to a greater extent. France is ready to offer technical as-sistances by Frence experts for development of print-ing industries in Myanmar, she added.

Union Minister U

Aung Kyi expressed thanks for France’s assistance. A meeting on development of media and film industry was held with the France Ambassador in October last year. Myanmar could overcome and is dealing with enormous difficulties and challenges faced in its democratization process. He welcomed France’s aids for development of film industry. Myanmar would make close coopera-tion with France in the fu-ture, he reaffirmed.

Afterwards, both min-isters signed the agreement and exchanged the notes and posed for a documen-

tary photo. The two-year long

deal includes eight articles: exchange and the trans-fer of technical expertise, training, media law and monitoring system, dis-tribution of programmee, TV channels broadcasting, setting up of film industry, cash assistance for film production and cash assis-tance from World Cinema Support Fund for joint film production between Myan-mar and France.

Under the deal, both sides are to make coop-eration for development of media and film indus-try. Officials replied to the queries raised by the media.

MNA

(from page 1) Myanmar stood first,

scoring 9.64 points in the men's two-person Duil-ian competition of Wushu Taolu event held at Wunna Theikdhi Indoor Stadium, here, followed by Filipino athletes whose score of the event was 9.62 and Thai athletes whose scores of the event was 9.60.

Aung Sithu of My-anmar bagged one gold medal, scoring 9.70 in the men's Changquan competi-tion of Wushu Taolu event while Indonesian and Viet-namese athlete took home silver and bronze medals, scoring 9.69 and 9.68 re-spectively.

Sandi Oo of Myan-mar picked up first silver medal for home, scoring 9.69 in the women's Jian-shu competition of Wushu

Taolu event in which Vi-etnam bagged its first SEA Games gold and Malaysian was satisfied with bronze medal.

Two Malaysian

Union Minister U Aung Kyi and Minister for Culture and Communi-cation of France Ms Aure’ Lie FILIPPETTI exchange documents at the

ceremony.—mna

Vice-Pres-

ident Dr

Sai Mauk

Kham

poses for

documen-

tary photo

with of-

ficials and

medalists

of Wushu

event.

(news on

Page 1)

mna

Men's Water Polo event of the 27th SEA Games in progress.—mna

naY PYi Taw, 7 Dec— A slight earthquake of magnitude 4.8 Richter Scale with its epicenter outside Myanmar (Anda-man Islands, India) about 410 miles southwest of

Slight earthquake hits outside Myanmar

Kaba Aye seismological observatory was recorded at 07 hrs 36 min 39 sec M.S.T today, announced the Department of Mete-orology and Hydrology.

MNA

naY PYi Taw, 7 Dec—According to the observa-tions at 17:30 hrs MST today, the cyclonic storm "Madi" over Southwest Bay of Bengal is centered at about 280 miles South-east of Chennai, India and about 570 miles Southwest of Cocogyun, Myanmar. It is likely to intensify further into a serve cyclonic storm during next 24 hours and forecast to move North-wards slowly.

Under the influence of

Storm newsthe cyclonic storm, squalls with moderate to rough seas are likely at times off and along Myanmar Coasts. Surface wind speed in squalls may reach 35.40 m.p.h.

The present stage of the cyclonic storm is coded yellow stage and trawl-ers, vessels and ships are advised to advert possible danger by cyclonic cyclone, announced the Meteorol-ogy and Hydrology Depart-ment.—NLM

Wushu athletes took home the first gold medal and one more bronze from the women's Nanquan com-pletion of Wushu Taolu event while Vietnam won

silver of the event. Myan-mar Wushu athletes were narrowly missing out on a medal of this competition.

Winners of men's and women's Taijuquan com-

petitions of Wushu Taolu event will emerge after the two-day event. Nyein Chan Ko Ko and Wai Mar Tun

Thein of Myanmar took part in the event with their impressive performance, it is learnt.—MNA

Sunday, 8 December, 2013

L O C A L N E W S10 New Light of Myanmar

Knowledge on population, households, taking census disseminated

M y e i k , 7 Dec—Jointly organized by Myeik Township Immigration and National Registration Department and Myeik D i s t r i c t I n f o r m a t i o n and Publ ic Rela t ions Depar tment , ta lks on population, households and taking census was held in conjunction with the raising reading habit of people at Myitnge Ward admin i s t r a t i ve o f f i ce in Myeik Township of Taninthayi Region, on 5 December afternoon.

Head of Township INRD U Nay Lin explained matters related to taking census and its aims, needs of correct facts and advantages for the people.

Staff Officer Daw Hla Hla Htay of Myeik District

IPRD briefed the attendees on free borrowing of books at the Myeik District Library, and free WiFi Internet services to readers.

It was attended by about 100 local people and teachers. A local spoke words of thanks.—Kyemon-Zaw Myo Naing (Myeik IPRD)

Membership applications submitted for Prevention of

Violence against Womeny a n g o n , 7 Dec—

South Okkalapa Township W o m e n ’ s A f f a i r s Organization of Yangon East District organized the ceremony to submit membership applications to the Prevention of Violence a g a i n s t W o m e n a n d Anti-Human Trafficking Association at the garment factory in South Okkalapa Township recently.

It was attended by Chairperson of Yangon Region Women’s Affairs Organization Daw Thaung Mya, Chai rperson of Yangon East Dis t r ic t W o m e n ’ s A f f a i r s Organization Daw Moe Thu

Tint and party, Chairperson of Township WAO Daw Khin Thida and party and female workers from the garment factory.

Chairperson of Region WAO Daw Thaung Mya made a speech.

Township Law Officer writer Kyu Kyu Thin and Police Major Ro Lwin of Region Anti-Human Trafficking Squad gave lectures on prevention of violence against women and anti-human trafficking. Responsible persons presented 500 membership applications to the Chairperson of Region WAO.

Kyemon-Zaw Win Myint

Regional development tasks discussed in Monghsat Township

Monghsat, 7 Dec—Speaker of Shan State Hluttaw U Sai Lon Hsai together with Pyithu Hluttaw representatives U Soe Naing and U Win Hsan, Shan State Minister for Lahu National Races Affairs U Sha Mway Hla Shang, Shan State Minister for Akha National Races Affairs U Peter Thaung Sein, Shan State Minister for Development Affairs U Sai Hla Win, met with departmental officials, town’s elders, members of

Township Development Supportive Committee and Development Affairs Committee, members of social organizations and local people at Thiri Yadana Hall in Monghsat on 4 December.

The Speaker and the State Minister for Development Affairs explained regional development tasks.

Shan State Hluttaw representative U Sai Lon, Chairman of Township Development Supportive

Committee U Sai Chit Thaung and Chairman of District Management Committee U Khin Maung Cho reported on requirements for development of the region.

The Speaker and officials attended to the needs. Pyithu Hluttaw representative U Soe Naing made a concluding speech.

Kyemon-Than Zaw (IPRD)

Five suspects arrested in Hlinethaya, Shwepyitha Tspsyangon, 7 Dec—Five

snatchers were arrested in Hlinethaya and Shwepyitha townships on 4 December.

M e m b e r s o f N o 3 Security Company of Yangon Region Police Force at 5.20 am on 4 December discharged duty of arresting snatchers.

They put suspects Min Min, son of U Po Htaung, San Win, son of U Kyaw Than and Kyi Khaing, son of U Than Tun of Ward 20 in Hlinethaya Township, who stepped down from the bus of No 79th line at Tadaphyu Bus Stop on Nyaungdon Street in Hlinethaya Township.

They searched and seized K 11000 from San Win. The suspects confesses that Min Min and Kyi Khaing covered the view of a man on board while San Win snatched money from the man.

Hlinethaya Myoma Police Station opened files of lawsuit against them under the law.

Likewise, the squad member s i n t e roga t ed suspects Tun Tun (a) Shwe Ah, son of U Maung Lwin of Myaingthaya Village of Hmawby Township and Than Htwe (a) Kalar, son of U Tin Nyunt of Bawle Village in Htantabin Township who got down from the bus of No 81st line at Htanchaukpin Village of Shwepyitha Township at 10.50 am the same day.

The pol ice seized K 9000 from Tun Tun (a) Shwe Ah.

According to their confessions, they snatched money from a man on board.

Shwepyitha Myoma Police Station opened files of lawsuit against the two under the law.

Kyemon-Soe Win

Police expose stimulant tablet traffickers in Myawady

Crime

Anti-Narcotic Drives

Myawady, 7 Dec—In accord with the instruction of the Commander of Kayin State Police Force, the police arrested a suspect trafficking narcotic drugs on 4th Pyithaya Street in Ward 4 of Myawady on 2 December.

A squad led by SIP Kyaw Soe of Myawady Police Stat ion, act ing on tip-off, together with witnesses discharged duty on 4th Pyithaya Street. When a suspect woman arrived there, Police Sgt Mya Mya Wai and police investigated the suspect.

Under interrogation, it was reported that the suspect woman was Daw Mi Nge, 48, daughter of U Hla Aung, 4th Pyithaya Street of Ward 4 in Myawady.

The Police Sgt searched

her and seized 50 WY brand pink stimulant tablets packed with plastic bag from the right pocket of the suspect. The stimulant tablets weighed 5 grams worth K 150,000.

After investigation, the suspect bought the tablets from a man last week. He sold the tablets at K 2000 each to her house. So, she bought them to be sold at K 3000 per tablet.

Myawady Myoma Police Station opened a file of lawsuit against her under Sections 15/19(a) of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law.

The police make efforts to arrest the related suspect persons.—Kyemon-Tun Tun Htwe (Hpa-an)

Women’s Affairs

Suspects Than Htwe (a) Kalar and Tun Tun (a) Shwe Ah.

Snatching suspects San Win, Min Min and Kyi Khaing.

Membership

applications

submitted to

Chairman

of Yangon

Region

WAO Daw

Thaung

Mya.

Talks on population,

taking census and

households in progress.

Sunday, 8 December, 2013 11New Light of MyanmarRegionalChinese

President Xi Jinping (R) meets with

South Korean National Assembly

speaker Kang Chang-hee at the Great Hall of the People

in Beijing, capital of

China, on 6 Dec,

2013. Xinhua

Thai premier cancels attendance at ASEAN-Japan Summit

Bangkok, 7 Dec — Thai Prime Minis-ter Yingluck Shinawatra has cancelled her plan to visit Tokyo next week for the ASEAN-Japan Sum-mit, as well as other trips planned for December, due to political uncertain-ty at home, a Thai govern-ment spokesman said on Friday.

Teerat Ratanasevi told

a Press conference that Yingluck decided against visiting Russia on 8-9 De-cember and attending the 12-15 December ASEAN-Japan Summit because antigovernment rallies in Bangkok are continuing.

He said the Russia visit has been postponed, while Thailand will be represent-ed at the ASEAN-Japan Summit by Deputy Prime

Minister and Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan.

Yingluck had also been scheduled to attend the opening ceremony of Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar on 11 Decem-ber, but has assigned the concerned minister to at-tend instead, according to Teerat.

Kyodo News

Indonesian volcano

erupts againJakarta, 7 Dec —

Powerful bursts of hot ash and gravel have erupted twice from one of Indone-sia’s most active volcano, Mount Sinabung North Su-matra, on Friday, official said here.

The eruptions belched the ash up to 1,500 meters high and the seismic activ-ity of the volcano in Karo district remained high, di-minishing hope for 17,094 evacuees in shelters to re-turn home soon, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokes-man of national disaster management and mitigation agency told Xinhua over phone.

Indonesia has been on red alert since the national volcanology agency has raised threat level of the volcano last month and ex-tended evacuation zone to 5 km from 3 km earlier.

Indonesia has issued a warning to international and domestic flights to re-route pathway near Mount. Sinabung since it erupted, with the biggest one on 18 November.

The 2,475-metre high Mount Sinabung first rum-bled back to life in Septem-ber after being dormant for three years. The volcano has erupted intermittently since then.—Xinhua

Cambodia celebrates 2nd Sea Festival in Southern Kep Province

Phnom Penh, 7 Dec — Cambodia marked the second Sea Festival on Saturday in Southern Kep Province after it was called off last year due to the death of the country’s most revered King Father Norodom Sihanouk, an official said.

According to a Press release from the Ministry of Tourism, a number of sports and entertainment events have been prepared for the celebrations. They include live concert, artistic performance, fireworks, food, beverage show, and beach and water sports activities as well as aero show.

“The celebrations have begun with a number of sports activities today and

in the evening, there will be live concert, artistic performance, food show and fireworks,” Kaing Sothea, deputy director of the Promotion and Marketing Department at the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, told Xinhua on Saturday.

He said the two-day event is expected to draw tens of thousands of domestic and foreign visitors.

Tourism Minister Thong Khon said in a recent Press conference that the Sea Festival aimed to promote the potential tourism of the country’s coastline after it was registered as the member of the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the world

US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and South Korean President Park Geun Hye shake hands before holding

talks at the Blue House in Seoul on 6 Dec, 2013.Kyodo news

in May, 2011.Cambodia has a

pristine coastline stretching in the length of 450 km over four provinces of Preah Sihanouk, Koh Kong, Kampot and Kep.

The first Sea Festival was held at the end of 2011 in Preah Sihanouk province and the next edition was postponed following the passing-away of King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

The second Sea Festival was co-organized by the Ministry of Tourism in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia, Kep City Hall and tourism-related business operators.

Xinhua

Crucial TPP session set to begin Saturday in

SingaporeSingaPore, 7 Dec

— Ministers from the 12 Pacific Rim countries in-volved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks will begin a crucial session of negotiations on Saturday afternoon in Singapore, as they make last-minute ef-forts to reach a basic agree-ment by year-end.

The ministers will seek political solutions for con-troversial issues including tariffs, intellectual property rights and reform of state-owned companies at the gathering.

It remains highly un-certain whether all of the remaining problems will be solved during the four days of talks, which are expected to provide the last opportu-nity for the TPP members to achieve their goal of concluding the nearly four years of negotiations by the end of December.

Akira Amari, Japan’s minister in charge of TPP negotiations, will be absent from the session after an-nouncing on Thursday he has been diagnosed with tongue cancer. Japan is in-stead sending Yasutoshi Ni-shimura, senior vice minis-ter of the Cabinet Office.

Japan will likely face

tough bargaining in the area of market access, one of the most controversial fields, with many of the TPP mem-bers piling pressure on the country to remove tariffs on farm products that Tokyo is seeking to protect.

The ministers may hold a Press conference on Tues-day, but most of the sched-ule for the session has not been disclosed and all ne-gotiations will be held be-hind closed doors, fueling criticism that the free trade talks lack transparency.

A negotiation source said earlier that the 12 coun-tries may issue some sort of statement after wrapping up the session, but the details of the agreements may be kept secret for some time to avoid a backlash from vari-ous stakeholders.

If a TPP deal is suc-cessfully concluded, the outcome would be a free trade zone encompassing countries that together account for roughly 40 percent of gross domestic product and one third of all world trade, at a time when China, which is not involved in the TPP talks, is increasing its global presence.

Kyodo News

Exhibition on Chinese modern writer Lu Xun opens in Nepalgoing to study more about him because his poems and works are heart-touching,” said Ramesh Maharjan, a student at the exhibition.

Organized by the Devkota-Lu Xun Academy, the exhibition aims to intro-duce Chinese literature and culture to the Nepali peo-ple, gapping the language barrier.

At the exhibition, all the works of Lu Xun have been either translated to Nepali or English.

His works have been translated to Nepali by Shan-ta Das Manandhar, who was also honored at the exhibi-tion.

Devkota-Lu Xun Acad-emy is a literary and cultural organization, founded by a group of writer, critics, trans-lators, artists, researchers, media personnel and cultural activists in order to foster lit-erary and cultural exchanges between Nepal and China.

The name of the Acad-emy is derived from Laxmi

Prasad Devkota and Lu Xun the best known writers from Nepal and China.

Nini Chapagain, chair-man of the academy, told Xinhua that the sole objective of the academy is to promote the exchange of literature of the two countries and spread it to the masses.

Devkota is famous for his novel “Muna Madan” which is based on the life of Nepali workers who had left home to work in Lhasa.

Xinhua

kathmandu, 7 Dec — In a bid to promote the life and works of famous modern Chinese writer and poet Lu Xun, a two-day exhibition dedicated to him kicked off here on Friday.

Photos portraying his life and famous works are shown at the exhibition, thanks to Beijing Lu Xun Museum. The exhibition is drawing a large number of students and admirers of his work. “I never knew Lu Xun until today, but now I am

A woman takes photos during

the annual Chrysanthemum

and Autumn Flowers Show

in eastern Pakistan’s

Lahore on 6 Dec, 2013. Over 250 types of flowers are

displayed in the show.

Xinhua

Sunday, 8 December, 201312

advertisement & GeneraLNew Light of Myanmar

Claims Day NotiCemV paNja bhum Voy No (001)Consignees of cargo carried on MV panja bhuM

VOY NO (001) are hereby notified that the vessel will be arriving on 8.12.2013 and cargo will be discharged into the premises of a.w.p.t where it will lie at the consignee’s risk and expenses and subject to the byel-aws and conditions of the port of Yangon.

Damaged cargo will be surveyed daily from 8 am to 11:20 am and 12 noon to 4 pm to Claims Day now declared as the third day after final discharge of cargo from the Vessel.

No claims against this vessel will be admitted after the Claims Day.

shippiNg ageNCy DepartmeNt myaNma port authority

ageNt for: m/s wai hai liNe(s) pte ltD phone No: 256908/378316/376797

Fireworks explode during the 29th annual Christmas Lights Across Canada Illumi-nation Ceremony on 5 Dec, 2013 at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada. Hundreds of people gathered at Parliament Hill to listen to choir performances, roast marsh-

mallows and watch fireworks during the ceremony.—Xinhua

Mega Millions jackpot swells to

$297 millionNew York, 7 Dec —

after two straight weeks with no winner, the Mega Millions on Friday night jackpot topped expectations and jumped to $297 mil-lion, with a cash option of $158 million.

the winning numbers from Friday night’s draw-ing were: 11, 29, 44, 63, 64 and 3, Mega Millions said.

there was no immedi-ate word on whether a win-ning ticket was sold.

the largest haul in his-tory was $656 million, won in March 2012 and split be-tween three winning ticket holders in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.

More recently, an anonymous ticket holder in anne arundel County, Maryland, won $189 mil-lion on 1 October, accord-ing to the lottery’s website, www.megamillions.com.

the increase in prize values is partly because of rule changes that lottery officials instituted on 22 October, aimed at creating bigger and faster-growing jackpots.—Reuters

severe storm hits southern sweden

Stockholm, 7 Dec — a severe storm hit southern Sweden on thursday and has cut transport and power in the region, local media reported.

power in about 20,000 families in southern Swe-den has been cut off by Storm Xaver, called Sven in Sweden, which could be the worst to hit Europe in years.

“(we are) sorry to say that many families will have to go without electric-ity for the whole night,” Jakob Holmstrom, com-munication officer from the

local electricity company, was quoted as saying by the Swedish television SVt.

he added that repara-tions might not start until Friday morning.

Meanwhile, trains and buses were all suspended in the Southern part Skane on thursday night. the rail-way and road traffic on the bridge connecting Sweden with Denmark were also blocked, according to me-dia reports.

Residents in the area were suggested to avoid go-ing out unless it was abso-lutely necessary.—XinhuaSand artist Sudar-

shan Pattnaik gives a final touch to his sand sculpture in memory of Nelson Mandela,

former South African leader who passed

away on 5 December in Johannesburg

at the age of 95, on the beach of Puri in eastern Indian state Orissa’s Bhubane-

swar,on 6 Dec, 2013.

Xinhua

irish lenders required to offer solutions to 75 pct of arrears cases by june

DubliN, 7 Dec — Banks are required to of-fer sustainable solutions to 75 percent of custom-ers in mortgage arrears by the end of June 2014, Ire-land’s Central Bank said on thursday.

Under new targets set out by the country’s Cen-tral Bank, it said it wanted solutions to be concluded in at least 35 percent of cases where customers are in ar-rears of 90 days or more by the same date.

the Central Bank had

previously required banks to propose sustainable mortgage solutions for 30 percent of customers in ar-rears over 90 days by the end of September and last month confirmed that this had been met.

Banks are required to propose sustainable solu-tions to 50 percent of cases by the end of the year.

the Central Bank said the new target was in line with the EU/IMF bailout and comes just over a week before the country officially

exits that programme.Ireland has decided

that it will exit the EU-IMF assistance programme on 15 December, without the need to prearrange a new precautionary credit line from EU and IMF partners.

“It makes me feel so sad that he came to help Libyans and ended up mur-dered by them,” Bushra Gleasa, 18 and a student at the school, told Reuters by twitter. “He was not a for-eigner to us. He was one of us,” she said.—Xinhua

us teacher killed libya remembered as force for change

New York, 7 Dec — Ronnie Smith, the ameri-can teacher shot dead by gunmen in Libya, was re-membered on Friday by his students and friends as an inspirational figure making a difference in the troubled North african country.

Smith was gunned down on thursday as he was exercising in the Lib-yan city of Benghazi where he worked as a chemistry teacher for the last year and a half, security sources and school officials said. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the at-tack.

“He was just always so helpful and caring. He was just all around perfect,” abubaker tahar, 16, one of Smith’s students at the International School Beng-hazi, told Reuters via twit-ter. He was one of a num-ber of students who took to social media to share their grief for a teacher they de-scribed as trying to push them to make Libya a better place.

Smith attended woods-tower High School in war-ren, Michigan, and earned a master’s degree in chemis-try from the University of texas in 2006. He was a

devout Christian who was a member of the austin Stone Community Church, which aims to have its followers do good works in the places where they live.

“It was not always sunshine and lollipops, but God’s hand was always leading me and He brought me to where I am today,” he had written on his page at the church’s website.

One of his friends, Lo-gan Gentry, told the Los Angeles Times in an email interview that Smith was aware of the heightened vi-olence in Libya but he was not afraid.—Reuters

Photo taken on 17 May, 2012 shows a giant rose-

wood abacus at an abacus museum in Nantong, east China’s Jiangsu Province. The traditional use of the abacus for calculating in China was newly added to

the list of the World’s Intan-gible Cultural Heritage, an-nounced the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UN-ESCO) on 4 Dec.—Xinhua

Next stage of world Cup ticket sales starts on sunday

coSta Do Sauipe, 7 Dec — the next stage of world Cup ticket sales be-gins on 8 December with all games available except the opening match between hosts Brazil and Croatia in Sao paulo and the final at the Maracana. the ticket-ing window opens at 1200 CEt (1100 GMt) on Sun-day and closes at 1200 CEt on 30 January 2014, FIFa said on Friday in a state-ment. tickets are available at www.FIFa.com/tickets.

Close to 1.1 million tickets were sold in the first sales phase in Novem-ber, mostly to Brazilians,

with americans, austral-ians, argentines, and the English among the keen-est international fans look-ing for seats at next year’s tournament. with Friday’s draw having decided the groups, supporters can now request tickets for specific matches. Soccer’s world governing body is also sell-ing tickets reserved for each set of fans, with 16 percent of those available going to followers of the two com-peting teams. Known as pMa tickets they can only be bought by supporters liv-ing in the competing coun-tries and must be purchased

through a separate national link on FIFa’s ticketing page.

“these pMa tickets will be sold via a special link accessible either from FIFa.com/tickets or from the respective team page in the FIFa world Cup section on FIFa.com,” the governing body said in a statement. “It is important to note that each pMa can decide to only allow their fan club members to get access to these specific sup-porter tickets. this will be the case for England, for example.”

Reuters

Sunday, 8 December, 2013

ENTERTAINMENT

13New Light of Myanmar

Guitar used by Bob Dylan to ‘go electric’ sets auction record

New York, 7 Dec — The electric guitar Bob Dylan played at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when the acoustic trouba-dour shocked traditional-ists with a set of rock and roll, sold for $965,000 on Friday, a world auction re-cord for a guitar, Christie’s said. The 1964 Fender Str-atocaster, along with five song lyrics left on a private airplane by the songwriter and his band in the months after the Rhode Island fes-tival, were part of six lots in a special sale of Dylan material in New York.

“A tremendous amount of international

Singer Bob Dylan performs during a segment honour-ing Director Martin Scorsese, recipient of the Music

Film Award, at the 17th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards in Los Angeles on 12 Jan, 2012.—ReuteRs

interest was generated at the time of the sale’s announce-ment, and today’s result justifies the mythic status of this guitar in the annals of music history,” Tom Lecky, a specialist at Chris-tie’s, said in a statement. An absentee bidder bought the Fender Stratocaster with a classic sunburst finish, its original case and black leather guitar strap for near-ly double its high pre-sale estimate. The previous auc-tion record for a guitar was for Eric Clapton’s Fender Stratocaster, which fetched $959,500 in 2004. Only one of the five lyrics sheets sold for $20,000, bringing the

auction total to $985,000. That was a handwritten and typed version of 1965’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover.”

Friday’s sale came just a day after rocker Bruce Springsteen’s 1974 hand-written draft for “Born to Run” went for $197,000 in New York. Rolling Stone magazine has cited Dylan’s performance at the Newport festival as one of the most notable events in music his-tory, according to Christie’s. “I did this very crazy thing,” Dylan, who was 24, said at the time. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, but they certainly booed. I’ll tell you that.” Dylan, one of rock’s most influen-tial songwriters, wrote and sang “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and the 2001 Oscar-winning “Things Have Changed.” He also used the guitar in 1965 for recording sessions for the album “Bringing It All Back Home.”

The guitar and lyrics, which were found in the guitar case, were authenti-cated and put up for sale by the daughter of Vic Quinto, a New Jersey-based com-mercial pilot who had been hired by Dylan’s manager

to fly his artists. Dylan had claimed ownership of the guitar in 2012 and was involved in a legal dispute with Quinto’s daughter, Dawn Peterson, after she brought it to the attention of the television show pub-lic television show “His-tory Detective,” which authenticated it. Christie’s said the ownership dispute had been settled. No de-tails were available.

“Dylan’s representa-tives were aware of the auction and did not con-test it,” a spokesperson for Christie’s said.Dylan, who was greeted by early folk fans with cries of “Ju-das” at some of his early electric rock shows in the 1960s, is still generating headlines at 72. He was awarded France’s prestig-ious Legion d’Honneur award last month in Paris, but is now being investi-gated there after a Croatian community organization in France filed a legal com-plaint alleging that com-ments he made to Rolling Stone magazine last year violated French racial ha-tred laws. Neither the sing-er nor Rolling Stone issued any comment on the inves-tigation.—Reuters

Disney secures rights for future ‘Indiana Jones’ films

Los ANgeLes, 7 Dec —Walt Disney Co has gained marketing and distribution rights for any future “In-diana Jones” films under an agreement with Para-mount Pictures, the studio that released the first four movies in the blockbuster franchise.

Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc, will retain dis-tribution rights to the origi-nal four films, the com-panies said in a statement on Friday. The “Indiana Jones” movies were pro-duced by Lucasfilm, which Disney acquired in 2012.

Disney has not an-nounced plans for a fifth “Indiana Jones” movie,

though the new deal could make it easier to move for-ward on a new installment. Paramount will receive an undisclosed share of the proceeds from any future films.

The series began with 1981 film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” starring Har-rison Ford as a hero ar-cheologist. Ford starred in three later films, most re-cently “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crys-tal Skull” in 2008. Steven Spielberg directed each of the four movies, which have grossed $1.9 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Reuters

The main gate of entertainment giant Walt Disney Co is pictured in Burbank, California on 5 May, 2009.

Disney is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings on 5 May, 2009.—ReuteRs

Don’t want my head chopped off: Uday Chopra on Rani-Aditya’s

relationshipMuMbAi, 7 Dec —

Actor Uday Chopra has refused to get drawn into the grapevine about the re-lationship between his el-der brother Aditya Chopra and actress Rani Mukher-jee and said he would pre-fer to keep his head intact. The actress is allegedly in a serious relationship with the filmmaker and is always seen with the Yash Raj family through thick and thin.

On whether she would officially be entering the Chopra family, Uday said, “I would not like to comment on that. I have no intentions of getting my head chopped off.” Even as Rani and Aditya have kept the tinsel town guessing about their rela-tionship, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha had addressed the actress as “Rani Chopra” at an event earlier this year setting the rumour mills abuzz about a secret marriage.

The 35-year-old star

has been part of films like Mujhse Dosti Karoge, Saathiya, Hum Tum, Veer-Zaara, Bunty Aur Babli, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, Dil Bole Hadippa which were produced ei-ther by Yash Chopra or his son Aditya or both. Rani and Uday shared screen

space in Mujhse Dosti Karoge which was her first film with the YRF banner. “I have known Rani since years and I have worked with her in Mujhse Dosti Karoge. I was opposite her in that film. She is a great person. It is great to have her around. She is a fam-ily friend and a great sup-port,” Uday said.—PTI

Rani and Uday shared screen space in Mujhse Dosti Karoge.—PTI

Jay Z leads Grammy nominees, Timberlake snubbed in top categoriesLos ANgeLes, 7 Dec—

Rapper Jay Z led all artists with nine Grammy nomina-tions on Friday, but new-comers Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis edged out industry heavyweights for nods in the top categories of the annual music awards.

Jay Z picked up nomi-nations across nine catego-ries in the pop and rap cat-egories, including best pop duo performance for “Suit & Tie” with Justin Timber-lake, and best rap album for his July release, “Magna Carta...Holy Grail.”But the 44-year-old Brooklyn, New York-born rapper failed to land solo nods in the top Grammy categories for re-cord, song and album of the year, scoring only one as a producer on Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D City” record, nominated in the al-bum of the year category.

Lamar’s album will face off against Sara Bari-elles’ “The Blessed Un-rest,” French electro-dance duo Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” Taylor

Swift’s “Red” and Mack-lemore & Ryan Lewis’ “The Heist” for album of the year. Timberlake, 32, who made a return to the musical spotlight this year after a five-year hiatus with the two-part release of “The 20/20 Experience,” picked up seven nomina-tions across the pop, R&B and rap categories, but also failed to make the top three categories.

The Grammy Awards

are the music industry’s top accolades and are voted on by members of the Re-cording Academy for more than 80 categories span-ning all genres. To be eli-gible for nominations this year, artists had to release their music between 1 Oct, 2012, and 30 Sept, 2013. The winners will be an-nounced on 26 January at a live televised ceremony in Los Angeles.

Reuters

American rapper Jay-Z performs at Bercy stadium in Paris, on 17 Oct, 2013.—ReuteRs

Sunday, 8 December, 2013

SPORTS 14 New Light of Myanmar

World Cup draw: what the coaches said

Costa Do sauipe, 7 Dec — Comments from the coaches after Friday’s World Cup draw:Vicente del Bosque (Spain):

“I told some close friends this morning that we would get the Neth-erlands in the first game and that is how it turned out. The Netherlands have changed the way they play but have still got (Rafael) Van der Vaart, (Arjen) Robben and (Robin) Van Persie.”Joachim Loew (Germa-ny):

“In our preparations, we have to get used to the humidity and high temper-atures. I have already been to Fortaleza and Recife, where we will conditions difficult to acclimatize to. We will have to adapt our preparations.”Alejandro Sabella (Ar-gentina):

“It is positive that we didn’t get the Group of Death and we will be play-ing in favourable locations like Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Belo Hori-zonte. Now I have to start doing my homework and study the rivals.From now we have to study every de-tail from an individual and collective viewpoint.”Jose Pekerman (Colom-bia):

“I really respect Japan, Cote d’Ivoire and Greece.

Former Brazilian soccer player Jose Roberto Gama de Oliveira, also known as Bebeto (R), Brazilian soccer player Marta Vieira (L) and the mascot Fuleco (C)

perform during the ceremony of the final draw for the groups and matchups of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil in Costa do Sauipe, Brazil, on 6 Dec, 2013.

Xinhua

It’s been a long time since Colombia has been in a World Cup. We hope to do our part. We performed well in the qualifiers but that is now in the past. Anything can happen in the group phase so we have to be careful.”Paulo Bento (Portugal):

“It’s an even group, but for me the favourites to finish top are Germany be-cause of their potential and their history. Ghana and the USA are also very organ-ized teams with good indi-vidual players with Euro-pean experience.Our goal is to get through to the round of 16.”Sebastian Bauza (Uru-guay, president of football federation):

“It’s obvious that we have a tough group and I don’t think anybody would envy us for the rivals we will be up against. But I’m sure that if you ask the coaches of Italy and Eng-land they will also tell you that they are not overly happy about having to play Uruguay.”Cesare Prandelli (Italy):

“Our target is to win every match we can. If we had drawn three not very good teams everybody would have thought we were favourites, but with a big team like England or Uruguay we have to suffer. We remember the match against England in the

(2012) Euros. We played a fantastic match but Eng-land is now a different team, a more technical team. In any case, England v Italy is the most fascinat-ing match you can imagine in a town like Manaus.”Ottmar Hitzfeld (Swit-zerland):

“It’s an interesting group with high level teams that have different styles. France is a very tough opponent but all the teams pose a threat.Now we have to make the most of the time we have to pre-pare for the conditions that we’re going to face.”Louis van Gaal (Nether-lands):

“We have to play the world champion, we have to play Australia who we have never beaten and Chile was 3-0 up recently against Colombia before it ended 3-3, so that is not a weak team. The opponents are tough, but for the play-ing conditions it is not too bad.”Luiz Felipe Scolari (Bra-zil):

“We can’t worry too far ahead past the group stage. If you start think-ing about the second round you forget about the teams in the first round, which are important. We have to worry about these teams first.”Marc Wilmots (Bel-gium):

“It’s an interesting group,” said Wilmots. “There are no world-class players within our oppo-nents. I’m not saying it will be an easy group, but our first objective to reach the round of 16 is still the same.”Roy Hodgson (England):

“With Uruguay and Italy, we almost have two number one seeds in our group. It does not surprise me at all to get a tough draw. But I am still very positive about the whole affair, as you never know.” —Xinhua

Lakers’ Bryant to make injury comeback on Sunday

thousanDs oak, (Cali-fornia), 7 Dec — Kobe Bryant will make his long-awaited return from injury for the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday at home to the Toronto Raptors, the shoot-ing guard said on his Fa-cebook account on Friday. The 35-year-old posted a two-minute video link that showed his “No 24” jersey fluttering through sunshine, clouds, wind, rain, snow and lightning, then being torn down the middle before be-ing repaired by a beam of light.

Preceded by the inscrip-tion: “Seasons of Legend. Lakers announce Kobe’s return”, the video segment ended by flashing the words: “The Legend Continues…. 8 December.” Bryant has been sidelined since mid-April with a torn left Achil-les’ tendon but was given full medical clearance to

Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant dives for a loose ball during their NBA game against the Chicago Bulls in

Los Angeles, on 10 Mach, 2013.—ReuteRs

resume all basketball ac-tivities midway through last month. The return of the 15-time All-Star and five-time NBA champion will be a significant boost for the Lakers who are 9-9 this season and sit 12th in the 15-team Western Conference.

Bryant practiced with the team for a third straight day on Thursday without suffering any setbacks, and said afterwards that

his range of motion was a lot better. “The last time I practiced (for two days in a row), my range of motion became restricted,” Bryant, known throughout his ca-reer for his determination to play through pain and vari-ous other setbacks, told re-porters. “It became kind of locked up and I wasn’t able to run, change directions or sprint like I wanted to.

Reuters

Fenerbahce sink CSKA as trio of teams reach Top 16

BelgraDe, 7 Dec —Fenerbahce stretched their record in the Euroleague’s preliminary group stage to 7-1 with a 78-74 vic-tory at six-times champions CSKA Moscow on Friday.

CSKA Moscow’s head coach Ettore Messina

reacts during their Euro-league Basketball Final Four third place game

against Barcelona at the O2 Arena in London

on 12 May, 2013.ReuteRs

Elsewhere, Istanbul rivals Galatasaray sealed a Top 16 berth with a 78-70 home win over Unicaja Malaga.

Panathinaikos, who have also lifted Europe’s premier club trophy six times, joined Galatasaray in the second group stage with a 69-63 defeat of Red Star Belgrade and Basque outfit Laboral Kutxa Vito-ria advanced after a 79-63 victory over Lietuvos Ry-tas Vilnius.Having lost to Fenerbahce by 26 points in the reverse fixture, CSKA came out looking for re-venge but were undone by superior long-range artil-lery as the visitors nailed 12 three-pointers while the Russian giants managed only half as many.

“We are where we should have been one month ago but if we keep working hard hopefully we will hit top form some time soon,” CSKA coach

Ettore Messina told www.euroleague.net after see-ing his team suffer a third defeat. Messina’s counter-part Zeljko Obradovic said: “This is still the beginning of the tournament. The Top 16 is ahead and anything can happen. I asked my players to forget the first encounter with CSKA and they showed character.”

Panathinaikos came out on top in their dogfight against Red Star thanks to a blistering first-half perfor-mance from guard Ramel Curry who finished with a personal Euroleague high of 16 points while forward James Gist added 15. Labo-ral Kutxa cruised to their third successive win on the back of 17 points by La-mont Hamilton and 12 from Fernando San Emeterio while former NBA journey-man Carlos Arroyo carried Galatasaray with 22 points and five assists.— Reuters

Mourinho not sure about Oscar nomination for ChelsealonDon, 7 Dec —

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is unsure wheth-er to stick with the attack-ing trio he lauded after the midweek win at Sunder-land or recall his number one playmaker Oscar for Saturday’s tricky Premier League game at Stoke City.Eden Hazard stole the show in the 4-3 victory at Sun-derland on Wednesday, scoring twice and setting up

a goal for Frank Lampard, while Mourinho also spoke glowingly about the contri-butions of the Belgian’s at-tacking partners Juan Mata and Willian.

Brazilian Oscar missed the trip after limping off with an ankle injury dur-ing Sunday’s 3-1 triumph at home to Southampton but is now ready to return for second-placed Chelsea who are four points adrift

of leaders Arsenal. “Oscar is much better and I have to decide whether to play him or not,” Mourinho told a news conference on Friday. The Portuguese is again

without knee-injury victim David Luiz. Fit-again Sam-uel Eto’o could take over from Fernando Torres in attack while out-of-favour England left back Ashley Cole may come back in place of Cesar Azpilicueta. “David Luiz is out, I don’t know when I’ll have him back,’ said Mourinho.

“Eto’o is fine and back with the group. Tomorrow or Wednesday Ashley will

play,” added the Chelsea manager referring to the home Champions League game against Steaua Bucha-rest in midweek. “We’ve been analyzing the three goals at Sunderland and we couldn’t find the real mis-take. We could find the re-bound, the second ball, the ball that hits somebody and goes in the direction of the opponent.

Reuters

Newly reappointed Chelsea manager Jose

Mourinho poses for pho-tographers during a news conference at Stamford

Bridge stadium in London on 10 June, 2013.

ReuteRs

R/489 Printed and published by the New Light of Myanmar press in Nay Pyi Taw, the News and Periodicals Enterprise, Ministry of Information.

Sunday, 8 December, 2013 15

GENERALNew Light of Myanmar

8-12-13 07:00 am ~9-12-13 07:00 am) MST

MYANMAR INTERNATIONAL

(8-12-2013, Sunday)6:00 am1. Paritta By Venerable

Mingun Sayadaw6:25 am2. Physical Exercises6:35 am3. Documentary6:50 am4. SEA Games Songs7:00 am5. News/Weather Report7:30 am6. Talks Show8:00 am7. News/International

News /Daily Highlight Programme

8:30 am8. Amazing World9:00 am9. Teleplay

(SEA Games)9:30 am10. Documentary

(SEA Games)9:35 am11. SEA Games Songs10:00 am12. CHINLONE (Thailand

& Myanmar) (Preliminary) (Men)

11:00 am13. Gitadagale

Phwintbaohn11:50 am14. SEA Games Songs12:00 pm15. News/Round Up of The

Week’s International News/Weather Report/CHINLONE (Combodia & Myanmar) (Preliminary) (Women)

1:00 pm16. Go For Gold

(Basketball)

1:30 pm17. Documentary

(SEA Games)1:35 pm18. Road To 27th SEA

Games (Weight Lifting)

1:40 pm19. Documentary

(SEA Games)2:00 pm20. Sport News/

Basketball (Myanmar & Indonesia) (Preliminary) (Women)

3:00 pm21. Teleplay

(SEA Games)3:30 pm22. SEA Games Songs3:40 pm23. Go For Gold (Boxing)4:00 pm24. Sport News/

Basketball (Cambodia & Myanmar) (Preliminary) (Men)

5:00 pm25. Sing & Enjoy6:00 pm26. News/Weather Report6:30 pm27. Talks Show6:45 pm28. 27th SEA Games

Football (Live) (Singapore & Laos) (Men)

8:40 pm29. News/International

News/Weather Report30. Hit Songs Stars31. Tamyetmar Takwetsar10:00 pm32. Talks Show33. New Melody

MYANMAR TV In rainy Washington, Obama lights national Christmas tree

Washington, 7 Dec — Braving rain and cold, Pres-ident Barack Obama and his family ventured across the street from the White House on Friday to preside over the lighting of the US national Christmas tree.

Obama, his wife,

daughters, and mother-in-law took part in the annual tradition, which featured music by singers Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, and the group Train.

“You are lucky I’m not singing,” Obama joked to the rain-soaked crowd.

The president used the occasion to pay tribute again to Nelson Mandela, the former South Afri-can president who died on Thursday.

“This year, we give a special measure of gratitude for Nelson Mandela, a man who championed ... gener-osity of spirit,” Obama said to applause. “In his life, he blessed us with tremendous grace and unbelievable courage. And we are all privileged to live in a world touched by his goodness.”

At the beginning of the ceremony, Obama initiated a countdown that conclud-ed with the lighting of the large tree — but he started from five rather than 10 to speed up the proceedings in the cold.

Xinhua

US President Barack Obama applauds as he is joined by daughters Malia (L) and Sasha and First Lady Michelle Obama, after lighting the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in Washington on 6 Dec, 2013.—Xinhua

UN urges probe into human rights abuses by traditional hunters in Cote d’Ivoire

United nations, 7 Dec — The United Nations on Friday released a report calling for investigations into serious human rights abuses committed in Cote d’Ivoire by the Dozo, tra-ditional hunters who have killed hundreds of people over the past four years.

The report, produced by the UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire ( UNOCI) in cooperation with the Of-fice of the High Commis-sioner for Human Rights, documented serious human

rights abuses committed by the Dozo during their security activities, Farhan Haq, the acting UN deputy spokesman, told reporters here.

“According to the in-vestigations, at least 228 people were killed and 164 others injured by bullets, machetes and knives, and 162 people were arbitrar-ily arrested and illegally detained by Dozo,” Haq said at a daily news brief-ing here. “In addition, 274 cases of looting, arson and

extortion committed by the Dozo have been verified and confirmed.”

Navi Pillay, UN high commissioner for human rights, said the impunity enjoyed by the Dozo was “unacceptable” and “must be stopped.” She also stressed that the authorities had a duty to seriously in-vestigate the human rights abuses and deploy security forces throughout the coun-try to prevent people from using the Dozo for security reasons.—Xinhua

US fans at 2014 World Cup to see a lot of Brazil — from the air

sao PaUlo, 7 Dec — The World Cup finals in Brazil next year may be as trying for United States soccer fans as it is for their team. US players learned on Friday they will face elite opponents Germany, Ghana and Portugal at the start of the tournament. The other bad news for fans? The venues hosting these matches mean long, expen-sive flights through some of the vast country’s most overcrowded airports.

Far-flung games from the northeastern coast to the Amazon rainforest may force the US team to fly about 9,000 miles in three round-trip flights between the matches and their train-ing facility in Sao Paulo. US coach Jurgen Klins-mann said the itinerary they

are stuck with is “the worst of the worst.” Fans will also book some serious mileage if they want to catch the team’s first three games. American demand for early ticket sales was the high-est of any country outside Brazil, according to FIFA.Brazil’s outdated airports and restrictions on foreign airlines will only magnify the cost and inconvenience of air travel — the only reasonable option given the distances and the dilapidat-ed roads available.

Two domestic flights between the first three US matches could alone cost $1,000 or more, if travelers snap up the deals that web-sites offered on Friday. But prices are already climbing.Between Friday morning and afternoon, when it was

revealed that highly ranked Germany would play back-to-back in Fortaleza and Recife, the cost of flying between those matches shot upward. Airlines raised prices as much as 30 per-cent for the cheapest tickets and over 50 percent for the most popular flight times.Fans face the choice of pouncing on rising ticket prices now or waiting and hoping that airlines will add more routes by 20 De-cember — the deadline for them to submit their World Cup flight plans. Airlines have said repeatedly that they want to optimize their stretched networks for the tournament.

The scarcity of afford-able flights is a legacy of Brazil’s barriers to foreign airlines. Of more than 100

Aerial view of Cuiaba Airport in extensive renovations on 18 Nov, 2013.—ReuteRs

* Local News* School for the Blind

(Kyee Myin Dine)* World News* Talented Musicians* Local News* A Life in the Ring* World News* The Hills of Pho

wintaung And Shwe-bataung

* Local News* Enchanting Rakhine

Land* World News* Porcelain and Glass* Local News* Creator of Imagination* World News* Moving Meditation :

Aikido* 27th SEA GAMES

COMPETITION* Local News* Great Shwedagon-The

Architectural Heritage* World News* Myanmar Sport Special

Canoeing* Local News* A Festival on Buddha’s

Life Story* World News* Marketable Goods-

(Aluminium Glasss & Stainless Steel)

* Local News* Living with the Love

of the Nature* World News* Will you feed the

pigeons* Local News* A Day Out With Sarah

(Episode-2)* World News* Ancient Pagodas In

Myaing Township

countries that have signed an open skies agreement with the United States, Bra-zil is one of only a handful that have not yet put it into practice. Brazil’s aviation minister has also ruled out letting foreign airlines op-erate domestic flights dur-ing the tournament. The possibility was floated by the country’s top tourism official as a way to relieve the pressure of an estimated 600,000 foreign visitors and three million local fans at the World Cup. To make matters worse, there are no direct flights from the Unit-ed States to the Americans’ first group match against Ghana, scheduled for 16 June in Natal. The city sits on the far eastern tip of Bra-zil — closer to Africa than North America — and trav-

el from New York through Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro will take 15 hours or more.

From there to the fa-ceoff with Portugal, in the Amazonian capital of Manaus, there is only one direct, eight-hour flight per day, run by Gol Linhas Aereas. Rivals’ flights take over 10 hours with at least one layover. The airports in Natal and Manaus — cities with populations of about 1

million and 1.8 million, re-spectively — are both run-ning beyond their capacity, according to official data.The United States’ third group match is a showdown with Germany, about eight hours back to the east, in the beachfront city of Recife on 26 June, the last day of the group phase.The players will decide if that is the end of the road for travel-weary US fans.—Reuters

6th Waxing of Nadaw 1375 ME Sunday, 8 December, 2013 New Light of Myanmar

Two days to XXVII SEA Games

Medal TallyCountry Gold Silver Bronze

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec—Vice-President U Nyan Tun received a delegation led by Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of In-ternational Monetary Fund (IMF) at the Credentials

Vice-President U Nyan Tun receives Managing Director of IMFHall of the Presidential Pal-ace here yesterday.

Present on the occasion together with the Vice-Pres-ident were Deputy Min-isters U Thant Kyaw and Dr Maung Maung Thein, Vice-Governor of the Cen-tral Bank of Myanmar U Set Aung and officials.

At the call, they cor-dially discussed assistance of IMF in reform process of banking system and finan-cial sector and monetary policy in Myanmar and fur-ther cooperation in devel-oping financial reform pro-cess of Myanmar in a short time.—MNA

Myanmar 6 1 0

Thailand 2 2 1

Vietnam 1 1 1

Malaysia 1 0 8

Cambodia 0 2 2

Laos 0 2 2

Indonesia 0 1 0

Philippines 0 1 0

Singapore 0 0 1

Brunei 0 0 0

Timor-Leste 0 0 0

Vice-President U Nyan Tun poses for

documentary photo together with

Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and party.

mna

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec —A 24-member Myanmar delegation led by Amyotha

Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker attends 9th tri-Pitakat recitation ceremony in India

Hluttaw Speaker U Khin Aung Myint attended an opening ceremony of the

9th tri-Pitakat recitation at Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, India, on 2 December and presented offertories.

The delegation led by the Amyotha Hluttaw Speaker paid a goodwill visit to the Republic of India from 2 to 6 December at the invitation of Rajya Sabha Speaker Shri Mohd Ha-mid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Smt. Meira Kumar.

The ceremony was also attended by members of the

Sangha from Myanmar, In-dia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, China and Nepal led by Or-ganizing Committee Chair-man Presiding Sayadaw of Bodh Gaya Monastery Agga Maha Pandita Agga Maha Suddhamajotikadhaja Bhaddanta Ñaninda, mem-ber Sayadaws of the com-mittee, Shan national races, monks of IBTC member countries and laypersons.

(See page 8)

yaNgoN, 7 Dec—Thai U-23 Football team beat Ti-mor-Leste U-23 3-1 at their opening match of Group (B) men’s football event of the 27th SEA Games at Thu-wunna Stadium here this evening.

No (2) Thitiphan and No (10) Pokklaw from Thai U-23 scored twice at four

Myanmar rout Cambodia 3-0; Thailand beat Timor-Leste 3-1

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec—Myanmar men’s and wom-en’s Chinlone teams plus two gold medals in Chin-lone events today.

Myanmar women’s Chinlone team won the first prize after defeating Laos with 289-204 points while the third prize went

Myanmar Chinlone teams add two gold medals to tally

to Cambodia and the joint third prize, to Malaysia.

In addition, Myan-mar men’s Chinlone team secured first prize after defeating Cambodia with 359-291 points while Ma-laysia won bronze prize and Singapore, joint bronze prize.—MNA

Nay Pyi Taw, 7 Dec—According to the observa-tions at (09:30) hrs MST today, under the influence of depression over South-west Bay of Bengal, rain or thundershowers will be isolated to scattered in

Untimely rainfall warningMandalay, Magway, Bago, Yangon and Ayeyawady Regions, Shan and Rakhine States during the next (3) days commencing noon to-day, said Meteorology and Hydrology Department.

MNA

Myanmar women's Chinlone team celebrates their victory holding national flag.—mna

Myanmar U-23 football player Zaw Min Tun celebrates victory after scoring goal for Myanmar team.—mna

yaNgoN, 7 Dec— The 27th SEA Games opening and closing ceremonies will showcase Myanmar traditional culture and ASEAN countries’ culture on a grand scale, accord-ing to Director-General U Yan Naing Oo of Fine Arts Department under the Min-istry of Culture.

The showcase includes three sectors—fine arts by the Ministry of Culture, Director Zin Yaw Maung Maung’s script and photo display and technical as-sistance by China Art and Entertainment Group (CAEG).

Altogether 8,000 stu-dents across the country are ready to hold a grand scale event for the upcoming SEA Games.

Sagawah

and thirty three minutes for their team in the first half. Although Timor’s No (8) Atit Daosawang from Thai U-23 added one more goal for his team at 50th minute to lead the group.

Timor U-23’s Brazil-ian coach Emerson substi-tuted some players in the second half and No (23)

Jose Carlos equalized only a goal for his team at 67th minute.

Myanmar’s Zaw Min Tun scored the opening goal at the 16th minute and strikers Kyaw Ko Ko added second and third goals at 34th in the first hald and at the first minute of the sec-ond half.—MNA

SEA Games to showcase Myanmar,

ASEAN cultures