“I regarded him as my father. We lived together in the same house and I never thought he would leave us. On Monday, the day before his death, he was singing to his friends in hospital. That very evening he was discussing future plans with his pupils.”

She said there were 75 donor groups whose members gave blood on a regular basis, including groups from universities, religious organisations, businesses and communities. There are also about 40 individual donors every day.

“We got the tractors in time to start ploughing, and I think this rainy-season paddy will be great. Last summer’s yield was unsuccessful because I couldn’t hire a tractor until after everybody else had finished ploughing. But this year I was able to share a tractor,”

Addressing guests at a lunch held at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr Ban recalled that during his mission to Myanmar last year in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, he took the opportunity to visit the U Thant mausoleum in Yangon to pay his respects.

“We are going to distribute these plants in Bogale, Mawkyun and Labutta with the help of FON and in Dedaye, Kungyangon and Bogale with the help of Care Myanmar. These plants can not only provide shade, but also enhance people’s small-scale income,”

“It is important for medical professionals not to automatically trust all the information available in this age of information explosion because they are dealing with the lives of their patients.”

“Each and every nation has its own internal problems. Taking action against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for her offence is a matter of internal legal proceedings. As Myanmar is a sovereign nation, it is not fair and proper to interfere in its internal affairs.”

“We have kept the lid on rates for a number of years and while we have raised some parts of our rate card for the fiscal year 2009-2010 we remain an extremely attractive proposition to advertisers,”

Villagers in Natmataung are interested in growing coffee, avocados and fruit trees, a project that is being supported by CARE, UNDP and BANCA with community nurseries, tools, seeds and seedlings and other inputs, as well as technical training.

“After the new engine is installed, the aircraft will be delivered to Bangkok for proper maintenance before it is used to resume flights between Yangon and Chiang Mai on August 2,”

But the foreign crowd is a boon for Singaporean entrepreneurs, providing a number of niche markets that many business people are happy to exploit for a number of reasons.

“To prevent dengue fever, we need to kill larvae that grow in clean water. The life of a grub is 10 days and a mosquito’s life is between 20 and 30 days. It is more difficult to wipe out mosquitoes than larvae from clean water. We add the pesticide Abate to big water tanks in affected areas,”

“In Myitkyina, visitors want to visit Indawgyi Lake and Phakant, the land of jade. We can arrange sightseeing tour to Phakant with government approval. But at Indawgyi Lake, there is no standard hotel or restaurant for tourists,”

“We started the cup competition having to play against strong sides, filled with foreign players (Yadanarbon) and national team players (Kanbawza). Although we lost in the first two matches, we came to know our weaknesses and that was a valuable lesson for us,”

Magway opted to play a longer, more direct game with captain Soe Myat Min the focus of their attacking thrusts. He had a priceless opportunity to level the scores on 43 minutes when he lost his marker at the back post but his header was well saved by Yadanarbon goalkeeper Yin Min Aung.