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Burmese Women Take to the Air

Air hostesses pose for pictures in front of an aircraft during a launch-ing ceremony for air Bagan’s frst international service at Rangoon International airport in 2007. (Photo: AFP)

For the first time in Burmese aviation history, three women will be granted pilot licenses. The three will fly later this year for Air Bagan, a private Burmese airline owned by tycoon Tay Za. A senior pilot from the airline told The Irrawaddy: “The three women trained for two years at the Integrated Aviation Academy in Malaysia. They will fly both domestic and international airplanes and are licensed to work on private flights.” only 16 countries in the world, including China, the US, the UK, Germany, Spain and Pakistan, have female commercial pilots, and officially just eight countries have women trained as fighter pilots.

Foreign Reporters’ Google Accounts Hacked in China

People gather outside Google’s China headquarters in Beijing on Jan. 14. google vowed to stop bowing to Chinese Internet censors and risk banish-ment from the lucrative market in protest against “highly sophisticated” cyber attacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists. (Photo: AFP)

International journalists in China said their Google e-mail accounts have been hacked in attacks similar to the ones against human rights activists that the search giant cited as a reason for considering pulling out of the country. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China asked its members to be vigilant in protecting their e-mail accounts and computers from attack. Google’s announcement on Jan. 12 that it might quit the huge Chinese market shocked the international business community and cheered many free-speech advocates. Google said a sophisticated attack from China in December targeted the California-based company’s infrastructure and at least 20 other major companies from the Internet, financial services, technology, media and chemical industries. Google did not specify how its e-mail service was hacked into or by whom.

Junta Confers Titles on Cronies

Zaw Zaw (second left) sings karaoke with agroup of regime cronies at a business dinner in Rangoon. (Photo: The Irrawaddy)

Two of the junta’s closest cronies, Tay Za of the Htoo Group of Companies and Zaw Zaw of the Max Myanmar Group of Companies—who have both been placed on international sanctions lists—were awarded one of the country’s highest honors, the title of “Thiri Pyanchi,” on Jan. 4, Burma’s Independence Day. They were honored for their “outstanding work” in helping to develop Burma’s economy. Their close ties to the junta’s top generals have won them lucrative business concessions in a number of key industries, including logging, gems and jewelry, tourism, transportation, civil engineering and construction. They are also involved in international trade, exporting rice, rubber and other agricultural products and importing machinery. They have also invested in the regime’s newly built Yadanabon Cyber City near Mandalay.

Than Shwe Promises Election Will Be Held This Year

Burma’s military leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, again promised that an election will be held this year but offered no date or timetable. However, a Japanese newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, quoted a military source as saying the election would be held on Oct. 10. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Than Shwe to set clear deadlines and dates for the 2010 election.