President Thein Sein – Bears shit in woods

By our correspondent in Nay Pyi Daw

President Thein Sein was forced to admit that bears shit in woods during a hard-hitting interview by the BBC.

The surprise admission has caused a storm on social media in Burma, with one Facebook user commenting: “At last, the BBC put the difficult questions to our President, and he is exposed.” Another user posted “It is so good to see our President forced to admit the truth at last.”

The President was clearly put on the back foot in the interview, forcing him to make the surprise admission.

Analyst Richard (Independent) South, who is an independent analyst, told Burma Tha Din, “As an independent analyst, I can say that whilst some are interpreting this as another negative development in the reform process, I don’t think that is correct, and is fact is a sign of how more open Burma is becoming.”

U Wirapoo, speaking on behalf of the Ma Ba Tha movement, conceded that the comments could be seen as an insult to Buddhism, but said it was unlikely they would take any action as they really like the President.

Presidential spokesperson and Information Minister U Ye Htut played down the significance of the comment by the President, posting on his Facebook Page: “What is the big deal, it’s not like he was forced to say something really bad, like the Pope is Catholic?”

Solar impulse narrowly avoids gas pipeline crash – exclusive

By our correspondent in Mandalay

Burma Tha Din Network can exclusively reveal that the Solar Impulse solar powered plane narrowly avoided crashing after entering Burmese airspace.

Pilot Bertrand Piccard struggled to control the plane after running into a smog cloud produced by one of Burma’s new coal fired power stations.

“Everything had been going smoothly, I was just cruising over the oil and gas platforms off the coast of Myanmar, but when I got over land I hit the smog cloud and briefly lost control of the plane,” said Bertrand Piccard. “The plane dipped and when we cleared the smog I saw we were heading towards a pipeline. I have to confess I had a moment of fear.”

Bertrand Piccard managed to regain control of the plane, and continued his journey, flying over the camps for 150,000 of Burma’s ethnic Muslim Rohingya minority, displaced from their homes in Rakhine State, which has huge offshore oil and gas reserves, by violence in 2012.

The rest of his journey to Mandalay went smoothly, and he was surprised to be personally greeted by President Thein Sein, who had recently confirmed that the military will continue to play a dominant role in Burmese politics.

“We are in Myanmar to spread the message that renewable energies are the root of prosperity, peace and progress,” tweeted Piccard when he landed. “We have a huge support from the authorities in Myanmar, who are aware of the importance of public relations.”