Yangon blasts

A three-and-a-half year old boy was among four Malaysians injured during bomb explosions in Yangon last Saturday. "The four were at the scene when the bomb exploded. They are part of a 15-member Malaysian group from the Lutheran Church in Setapak who were visiting Myanmar," a Malaysian embassy official said in Yangon. More...

The explosions took place over a 10-minute period on Saturday afternoon, when two upmarket shopping malls were jammed with shoppers and the convention centre was filled with visitors to the final day of a Thai trade fair. Burma's military rulers blamed ethnic rebel groups for the series of bomb blasts in the capital, Rangoon, killing at least 11 people and injuring 162 others.
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Doctors at Yangon General Hospital, admitted they had been ordered not to speak to journalists about the numbers of dead, as others who had witnessed the blasts said it was unlikely that all 162 declared wounded had survived the bombings at two shopping malls and a trade centre. "A news blackout has been imposed," one doctor at the hospital told AFP on Monday. More...

The number of Malaysian church and volunteer groups that have visited Myanmar in the last several years always knew their trips were never a fun vacation. Deadly blasts like these ones will undoubtedly remind people that missions carry risks that outweigh the cost of an air ticket. While I'm shocked and saddened at the number of dead and injured, thankfully Malaysians escaped relatively unscathed.