(Extract)

Wheat and rice prices mostly fall around the region

Strong production generally kept domestic prices around the region stable or drove them slightly down for wheat, wheat flour and rice, except in India and Myanmar where government procurement programmes pushed prices higher. Overall, however, prices were mostly higher than at the same time last year, according to FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS).

By C.R. Abrar

Obama Should Press Visiting Burmese President to Keep Past Rights Pledges

(Washington, DC, May 17, 2013) – The United States should use the upcoming visit by Burma’s president to ask tough questions about the slowing pace of human rights reforms and insist on implementation of past commitments, Human Rights Watch said today. President Barack Obama is hosting a visit to Washington, DC, by Burma’s president Thein Sein on May 20-21, 2013.

As cyclone Mahasen headed towards Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India, local authorities and aid agencies such as World Vision helped to minimise the dangers for people in vulnerable, low-lying areas. The Rohinga Muslim community, many living in camps in Burma's Rakhine state, were particularly at risk. Aid workers helped to evacuate 1 million people to shelters during the storm, which weakened without causing major devastation

SITTWE, Arakan State—Many evacuated Rohingya and Buddhist Arakanese began returning to their camps on Friday, after Cyclone Mahasen had missed Burma a day earlier. Although many Rohingyas were glad to have avoided the storm, some complained that life at the camp sites would continue to be extremely difficult.

By Friday afternoon, most evacuated Rohingyas in northern Arakan State had returned to their old camp sites, said James Munn, a public information officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

Some deaths have been reported in Bangladesh, where over a million people were evacuated. The caution was justified: in 1970, Cyclone Bhola killed some 400,000 people, in 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed nearly 4,000.

05/17/2013 18:50 GMT

by Shafiq Alam

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, May 17, 2013 (AFP) - Bangladesh and Myanmar cleaned up on Friday after a killer cyclone wrecked tens of thousands of homes, relieved that the damage was not much worse after the storm weakened as it made landfall.

At least 48 people were either killed by Cyclone Mahasen or while trying to flee its impact, including 31 Muslim Rohingya whose bodies washed up on the shores of Bangladesh after their boat capsized while sailing from Myanmar.

Thursday, 16 May 2013 17:04 Hintharni

Preparations are being made to begin compensating civilians in Shan State affected by the civil war between the Myanmar government and the Restoration Council of Shan State / Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA).

A Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House of Parliament) member from the Shan State-based Kyarr Phyu Party (White Tiger Party) said that from May 15 information was being collected to calculate the total losses in Nant Kham Township.