Following her party’s landmark election win, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi vowed to give her desperately poor country a much-needed face-lift. Wearing plastic gloves, the septuagenarian got to it early yesterday, walking along the edge of an old, pot-holed road in her constituency, Kawhmu, picking up discarded water bottles, plastic bags and instant coffee wrappers. Villagers rushed to help, filling up their own big sacks with garbage. Myanmar emerged from a half-century of brutal military rule in 2011, but years of mismanagement, combined with international sanctions and isolation, had turned it into one of the world’s poorest and most neglected nations. The infrastructure is in shambles and public services, including trash collection and recycling, is virtually nonexistent. After the National League for Democracy Party’s Nov. 8 election victory, Suu Kyi, 70, told winning lawmakers to start by cleaning up their own constituencies. The party’s garbage-collection campaign, she said, was aimed at improving public health, respecting the environment and attracting tourists.
Pakistan | Bomb in market kills 12 in tribal region
A bomb explosion in a market yesterday killed 12 people and injured over 30 others in Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region near the Afghan border, an official said. The bomb exploded as the market in the town of Parachinar was crowded with shoppers buying warm clothes in preparation for winter, said Mahtab Hussain, a local government official. Husain said some of the most seriously injured were airlifted to hospitals in other cities. He predicted the death toll might rise due to the severity of some of the injuries. The nature of the explosion is being investigated but officials believe it was a planted bomb that was detonated by remote control, Hussain said. Parachinar is the main town in the Kurram tribal region, which has been a scene of violence from Islamic militants and sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Suicide attacks and planted bomb explosions have killed scores in the Kurram region. Pakistan’s military has carried out regular operations in the region to eliminate militants and control sectarian strife.
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