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The Nation (26/6/98) News



News headlines 

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1:)Pipeline completed

2:)'Elusive' ghost haunts Rangoon

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<bold>Pipeline completed

</bold>

THE troubled 270-kilometre gas pipeline between Thailand and Burma has
been completed, officials said on Thursday. 

Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PTT) spokesman Songkiert Tansamrit said
the last few metres of the Yadana pipeline was laid on Wednesday. 

The pipeline is to supply gas from Burma's Yadana gas fields in the Gulf
of Martaban through Thailand's western Kanchanaburi province to a power
plant west of Bangkok. 

Songkiert said the pipeline would be tested before commercial gas
supplies begin, probably in October. 

Deliveries would begin on July 1. 

Environmentalists had mounted a campaign against the pipeline, arguing it
would destroy virgin forests and wildlife habitats in Kanchanaburi. 

<italic>Agence France-Presse.

</italic>-------------------------------------------------------

<bold>

'Elusive' ghost haunts Rangoon

</bold><italic>Associated Press

</italic>

Rangoon_ Burma's military government has had practice keeping the
political opposition in check, but its security forces recently have been
forced to confront a more elusive target- rumours of a ghost.

	Rumours have spread like wildfire in the capital since last Friday that
a ghost has been terrorising an apartment near a busy road junction,
reportedly smashing glasses, cups and light bulbs.

	Every day, hundreds of curious observers have been assembling in front
of the so-called haunted house at Myeinigoone ward in Sanchaung Township,
about four kilometres from downtown Rangoon. On Saturday, about 1,000
people gathered there.

	The area is also swarming with security officials, in numbers, which are
usually reserved for keeping a close eye on the country's pro-democracy
activists, whose activities are tightly controlled.

	In a strange coincidence that has fuelled rumours about the apparition,
the intersection near the house was the scene of violence 10 years ago
this month during massive anti-government protests.

	Student demonstrations from June 15-21, 1988 were brutally crushed by
the riot police, with a curfew declared and schools and universities shut
down. Battles between pro-democracy demonstrators and the army flared
around the country until September, when the military reasserted absolute
control.

	The crowds outside the house say only that they hope to get a glimpse of
the "poltergeist"- a stone throwing ghost-which has reportedly been
wrecking the belongings inside. The apartment's owner recently moved to
another dwelling downtown.

	Many believe in the existence of ghosts, some are just curious, a few
skeptical, yet people from as far away as Hlaingtharyar- a poor
neightbourhood 15 km northwest of Rangoon- have come to see the "haunted
apartment", travelling by car, bus, rickshaw, bicycle and on foot.

	"I will not go away until I see the ghost," a 50-year old woman said on
Sunday to a policeman who told her to move along. "I came all the way
from Hlaingtharyar just to see the ghost."

	The doors of the haunted apartment in a three-story brick building have
been shut all the time, with security police and local authorities trying
to drive away the crowds while traffic police cope with the usual heavy
traffic aggravated by bystanders spilling over from the pavement.

	Nobody has been found who actually claims to have seen the so-called
ghost nor has any other evidence of spectral doings surfaced, yet the
monsoon rain and the heavy security have failed to keep the curious
crowds away.

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