Word: yangon
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...Maung, 45, knows them well. A member of Burma's Karen ethnic minority, which has fought a simmering half-century war for independence, she grew up in a region that had never been quite at peace. She kept her head down long enough to make it to the capital, Yangon (then known as Rangoon), where she attended medical school in the mid-1980s, then returned home to work in clinics in Karen villages...
...presence still galls the junta in Yangon. In 1997 soldiers destroyed a handful of local facilities that Maung had set up in the hill country in Burma. To replace them, she and her staff have assembled teams of health-care workers who slip into Burma and deliver care, village by village. The volunteers, known as backpack medics, face arrest if caught, and Maung knows that if she steps back over the border, the junta will pounce. So for now, she stays at Mae Tao, providing medical care for a nation of the displaced and hoping to return to the land...
DIED. U NE WIN, 91, reclusive former dictator of Burma, now Myanmar; in Yangon, Myanmar. A leader in Burma's fight for independence, he took power in 1962. His repressive rule helped lead the country into poverty and the status of least-developed nation by 1987. When he died, Ne Win, who once demanded that Burmese currency be issued in notes divisible by his lucky number, 9, was under house arrest for allegedly plotting to overthrow the current regime...
...leading attraction is Rangoon (Yangon). Giant stupas sparkling in the sun have captivated newcomers for centuries. The mesmeric gilded domes of Sule and Shwedagon pagodas tower above the capital. Dawn and dusk walks, past hundreds of kneeling devotees as plumes of incense waft over their prayers, are unforgettable...