DOMESTIC NEWS: Political stability, cessation of armed conflicts, socio-economic development a must: President...Talks on economics on 20 December...Pale drinking water lake under facing (sic) contamination...Office fire in industrial ward of Thakayta Township...Girl pronounced dead in road accident...Safety measures for Yangon- Mandalay up and down trains...Philanthropic works see more youth participation...Motorbike, bicycle collide head-on on Yangon-Pathein Road...Election of new ward administrators in Pyu Township...President U Thein Sein meets townselders, politicians...President U Thein Sein pays homage to Historic Kyaikthanlan Pagoda in Mawlamyine...Mobile clinic opened in Hmawby Township...Drug users, traffickers arrested...Knowledge of sugarcane plants for growers...Book show marks National Day...Dhamma?akka Mudra sand stone Buddha Image consecrated...Shwegondaing Overpass project launched..... EXTERNAL RELATIONS: President U Thein Sein sends felicitations to Bhutani King, Bhutani PM...Thein Sein is ST?s Asian of the Year - The following is the reproduction of the ?Thein Sein is ST?s Asian of the Year? appeared on The Straits Times newspaper on 15 December...Tourists flood Shwedagon Pagoda...Union FM felicitates Bhutan Foreign Affairs Minister...British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs visits relief camps in Rakhine State...Vietnamese delegation visits Shwedagon Pagoda, Chaukhtatgyi Shwethalyaung reclining Buddha Image...Gymnastics referee course No. 1 on 17-20 Dec...ASEAN-India Car Rally starts India Leg..... "PERSPECTIVES": "Nothing but the Noble Truth"