Despite Burma reached ceasefire deals with ethnic minorities, international rights groups on Wednesday said landmines including anti-personnel mines are still heavily used by the Burmese military and ethnic groups, threatening more than 450,000 refugees and internally displaced persons who want to return home.

Most landmines used in Burma are in the east, where armed conflicts between government forces and ethnic rebels have been fought for more than 60 years.

Both government forces and ethnic rebels have used landmines against each other in Karenni, Shan, Kachin, Karen states and Pegu Division.

Myanmar

In the week after shocking satellite images were released that showed the extent of the devastation in Meiktila following the riots, in which an estimated 41 people were killed and 12,000 displaced, some of the victims who lost their homes have spoken of how immediate aid is being provided, but say that what they really need is the opportunity to go back home.

Hnin Mya's home was gutted by a fire and he is currently taking refuge in a monastery: “Here, we have food and we can use kitchen equipment. People have made donations every day. We can use toilets and we have the required medicines. But now, we have heard that we have to move, so we need to a safe place to stay.”
 

Measures put in place during 2003 outbreak still useful today at SGH, NUH and TTSH

SINGAPORE — On the eighth level of Block 6 at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), a motorised partition will seal off and cut the entire level of 51 isolation rooms into half at the push of a few buttons. This enables the hospital to manage patients suffering from two types of infectious diseases without cross-infecting one another.

A self-sufficient fever zone — with X-ray facilities and an isolation ward — uses a two-door system, creating a buffer from the rest of the emergency area and ensuring that contaminated air does not get out.

Thailand

Same-sex couples wait anxiously for parliament to table legislation conferring the same rights enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.

Imagine if the person you love has passed away at a hospital but you are not allowed to retrieve the body. Imagine if the person you love is being hurt or abused but you are unable to press charges on their behalf. Imagine if you and the person you love have started a business together but when one of you dies, the other has no rights whatsoever to what you have built together.

These are among the key fears that same-sex couples in Thailand are facing today.