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BANGKOK, Thailand - As much as 25 percent of cyclone relief aid in Myanmar is being lost because of the military government's foreign exchange system, a United Nations official said Friday. Dan Baker, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Myanmar, said he is concerned that the losses could upset donors who have already shown a reluctance to fund the relief effort following the May 2-3 cyclone that killed 84,537 people, according to the government. "This is a big issue. This is a big concern," Baker said. "The donors aren't going to give us money if they know they will (lose) a...

Myanmar cyclone: Burma's junta turns away US aid ships By Thomas Bell, South East Asia Correspondent Last Updated: 1:46PM BST 04/06/2008 Four American navy ships, laden with relief supplies, are steaming away from the Burmese coast because the military junta will not allow them to help starving cyclone victims. On board the boats were 22 urgently needed heavy-lift helicopters, amphibious vehicles and water purification equipment. The Burmese regime claimed that, far from wanting to help the 2.5 million survivors of last month’s cyclone, the US was in fact intent on stealing the country’s oil resources. "I am both saddened and...

Rangoon - The military junta began evicting destitute families from cyclone relief centres on Friday and rejected foreign food aid - because people can survive perfectly well by hunting "large, edible frogs." The New Light of Myanmar "newspaper", a government mouthpiece, also warned that foreign relief workers would snoop inside homes, and condemned donors for linking aid money to full access to the hardest-hit regions in the Irrawaddy Delta. The tirade came as the junta tightened its political grip on the country, extending democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest and announcing that its new constitution has been enacted....

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military government is forcing cyclone victims out of refugee camps and "dumping" them near their devastated villages with virtually no aid supplies, U.N. and church officials said Friday. Eight camps set up by the junta for homeless victims in the Irrawaddy delta town of Bogalay were "totally empty" as the clear-out continued, said Teh Tai Ring of UNICEF, speaking at a meeting of U.N. and private aid agency workers discussing water and sanitation issues. "The government is moving people unannounced," he said, adding that authorities were "dumping people in the approximate location of the villages, basically...

Bangkok - The United Nations will send nearly a quarter of a million condoms into cyclone-hit Myanmar to help needy survivors with no access to contraceptives, a UN official says. So far, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said it had sent 72 800 condoms to survivors struggling to maintain their family planning after the storm hit in early May. A total of 218 400 condoms would be delivered, UNFPA aid advisor Chaiyos Kunanusont said. "We don't want regular use of contraception disrupted. An emergency usually damages the health system, so people don't have access to condoms and contraceptives," said Chaiyos.

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar shunned a U.S. proposal for naval ships to deliver aid to cyclone victims today, according to state-run media, dimming hopes that the vessels could provide a major boost to relief efforts. The New Light of Myanmar, a mouthpiece for Myanmar's ruling junta, said that such assistance "comes with strings attached," citing fears that Washington wants to overthrow the country's government and seize its oil. The United States, as well as France and Great Britain, have naval vessels loaded with humanitarian supplies off the Myanmar coast, and had been waiting for a green light to deliver them....

SINGAPORE, May 20 (Reuters) - The World Bank is not in a position to provide any financial aid to cyclone-stricken Myanmar because the country has not been servicing its World Bank debt since 1998, a bank official said on Tuesday. "The World Bank is not in a position to assist Myanmar at this time," World Bank Managing Director Juan Jose Daboub told reporters, adding that it was the bank's policy not to provide funds to countries that have fallen behind on debt repayments.

Myanmar's junta kept a French navy ship laden with aid waiting outside its maritime border on Saturday, and showed off neatly laid out state relief camps to diplomats. The stage-managed tour appeared aimed at countering global criticism of the junta's failure to provide for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left at least 134,000 people dead or missing. The junta flew 60 diplomats and U.N. officials in helicopters to three places in the Irrawaddy delta where camps, aid and survivors were put on display. The diplomats were not swayed.

All, Mission To The World, the PCA's international ministry, has issued an appeal for funds to aid in the relief of Myanmar cyclone victims. I know that most of us have heard stories about countries and large relief agencies having their hands tied, but God will provide a way for His church to break through manmade barriers. _________________________________________________________________ Horrifying and harrowing stories are emerging in the aftermath of the catastrophic tropical cyclone that devastated much of already poverty-striken Myanmar. Reuters News is reporting as many as one million people left homeless. No one really knows how high the death toll...

Myanmar cyclone death toll will hit 200,000, say British By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon Last Updated: 12:05AM BST 16/05/2008 British officials have said that the number of dead and missing after the Burmese cyclone is expected to rise to more than 200,000. There are more calls for the secret military regime in Burma to allow aid workers into the country, following the deadly cyclone. The Foreign Office said British officials were working on the basis that 217,000 people had died or were unaccounted for. The figure, which a spokesman said was based on new United Nations estimates, is approaching the...

Myanmar cyclone: 130,000 may have died as second storm gathers By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon Last Updated: 11:07PM BST 14/05/2008 The Red Cross said that almost 130,000 people may have perished in the Burmese cyclone disaster, as a second deadly storm gathered off the Burmese coast. There are more calls for the secret military regime in Burma to allow aid workers into the country, following the deadly cyclone. The organisation said that the toll may be 127,990, almost 30,000 higher than the figure estimated by the US embassy in Rangoon. A further 2.51 million people have been left battling to...

Whenever Burma faces a political or humanitarian crisis, Burmese and foreign observers monitor the reclusive military leaders from a distance, trying to gauge their reactions, guessing what shapes their decisions and where possible conflicts within the leadership lie. The question Burma watchers are quietly asking this time is: has the cyclone managed to instil fear in strongman Senior General Than Shwe and his hard-core military cronies? Are they trembling or are they standing firm? It is easy to imagine the pampered generals running from the storm, boarding themselves in their collective bunker and curling up in terror as the cyclone...

Burma's rogue ruling military junta's actions in preventing international humanitarian assistance in the wake of Cyclone Nargis is criminal. There are at least 100,000 dead in the Irrawaddy Delta. More than 1.5 million people are in desperate need of aid. With each day passing, denying international aid and rescue to their own people is nothing short of self-inflicted genocide. There is only a short window to provide aid, else there are sure to be thousands of more deaths due to the break out of diseases such as cholera. The lack of food will cause many more deaths by starvation. With...

Another powerful storm headed toward Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta, where so little aid has reached that the U.N. warned on Wednesday of a "second wave of deaths" among an estimated 2 million survivors. The U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said there is a good chance that "a significant tropical cyclone" will form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy delta area. The area was pulverized by Cyclone Nargis on May 3, leaving at least 34,273 dead and 27,838 missing, according to the government. The U.N. says the death toll could exceed 100,000. An estimated 2 million survivors...

Burma cyclone: Burmese officials selling emergency aid supplies in local markets By Alan Brown in Yangonpauk Last Updated: 7:24PM BST 12/05/2008 Officials in Burma's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta area are appropriating emergency aid supplies and selling them in local markets, it was claimed on Monday. Burmese officials have been accused of selling aid supplies Burmese volunteers who are operating their own private aid missions to the area have said that they are having to hide from local apparatchiks in order to prevent them commandeering their aid and selling it on at markets. The Daily Telegraph learned of the alleged scam from...

Excerpted below: ... On May 6, Jeff Poor wrote for the Business & Media Institute (BMI) a story entitled, "Al Gore Calls Myanmar Cyclone a 'Consequence' of Global Warming," which was subsequently linked on the Drudge Report. Poor claims: "Using tragedy to advance an agenda has been a strategy for many global warming activists, and it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to tie the recent Myanmar cyclone to global warming." Poor wrote that Gore said in an interview on National Public Radio, "The year before, the strongest cyclone in more than 50 years hit...

UN says 102,000 dead in Burma Thailand offers to be a base for relief supplies Thailand will act as a mediator to help with the movement of international relief supplies to Burma, which are being held up by the military junta and are stuck in Thailand, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday. The move comes as the UN says up to 102,000 people could have been killed by Cyclone Nargis and about 220,000 are reported missing. Mr Noppadon said he planned to leave for Burma tomorrow to push for additional assistance and ask the Burmese generals to provide wider access...

The United Nations this week said the refusal of Burma's government to allow workers into the country's devastated agricultural region was unprecedented in the history of humanitarian relief. The human catastrophe produced by Burma's refusal to permit aid in the wake of Cyclone Nargis has stunned the senses of a world that has watched this spectacle for a week. There are uncounted numbers of persons dead, homeless and orphaned. Bodies still float in water. The World Health Organization has warned there could be outbreaks of cholera and especially malaria. U.N. member-state India warned the junta the deadly cyclone was headed...

NEW YORK (AP) - A CNN reporter who left Myanmar on Friday was chased by authorities as he reported on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis but escaped primarily because of the incompetence of the people after him. Dan Rivers hid under a blanket at one police checkpoint and casually covered up his name on a passport to avoid detection another time. He may ultimately have gotten out of the country due to a stewardess' impatience. "I was amazed at the lengths they apparently went just to catch me," Rivers told The Associated Press by telephone from Thailand on Saturday. Rivers'...

Cyclone survivors may have to grow their own food 18:15 09 May 2008 Debora MacKenzie The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is calling for $10 million in emergency farming equipment and seeds for parts of southern Burma devastated by Cyclone Nargis, to help plant the next rice crop. Meanwhile the UN's World Food Programme has stopped emergency food shipments to the disaster zone after the country's military dictators impounded the first shipment on arrival. Cyclone Nargis, which hit southern Burma last Saturday, devastated the delta of the Irawaddy River, the country's main rice growing region. Up to 100,000 may have...

Foreign Aid: Burma's regime signals that allowing aid to its cyclone-stricken people isn't an obligation. As thousands die, why does the U.N. coddle this junta when the only humane response is to throw it out?

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Authorities in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar have seized United Nations aid intended for victims of the disaster, a move that "shuts down" future flights from the organization, according to a U.N. World Food Program official. A child sleeps on the floor as cyclone-affected families shelter in a school in western Yangon. 1 of 3more photos » The organization, which insists on distributing its own relief supplies, said the seizure of two aircraft-loads of food, medcine and equipment, has already hit out at Myanmar's refusal to all access to foreign eis workers. "This is another example of them actively...

BACKGROUNDER Dictators' priority BACKGROUNDER Dictators' priority Bank denial Parachute drops possible Sutha quits Left in the lurch ANALYSIS Burma storm clouds Hillary to junta: Aid trickle begins Burma agony Aid blockade By Christiane Oelrich, dpa While bloated corpses still litter Irrawaddy delta fields, the controlled media promote the referendum. While a million Burmese in deep shock fight for their survival, government ministers give speeches on the "flourishing discipline democracy." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mae Sot - The ruling military junta of Burma has imposed a vacation ban for all officials - but not so every last person can be available to assist survivors...

Burma denies US access Relief supplies from UN starting to get through AP AND BANGKOK POST RANGOON - Relief supplies from the United Nations began arriving in Burma yesterday, but US military planes loaded with aid were still denied access by the country's isolationist regime five days after a devastating cyclone. The military junta also continued to stall on visas for UN teams seeking entry to ensure the aid is delivered to the victims, amid fears that a lack of safe food and drinking water could push the death toll above 100,000. Two planes carrying high-energy biscuits, medicine and other...

Why the Cyclone in Myanmar Was So DeadlyMichael Casey in Bangkok, Thailand Associated PressMay 8, 2008 It was Asia's answer to Hurricane Katrina—though with a reported 100,000 killed, it was many times more deadly. Packing winds upward of 120 miles an hour (193 kilometers an hour), Cyclone Nargis became one of Asia's deadliest storms by hitting land at one of the lowest points in Myanmar (also called Burma) and setting off a storm surge that reached 25 miles (40 kilometers) inland. "When we saw the [storm] track, I said, 'Uh oh, this is not going to be good,'" said Mark...

But what's worse this time is that Gore's blundering attempts to blame global warming for Burma's agony distracts attention from the real causes of this catastrophe - despicable causes we may at least hope to do something about. If Cyclone Nargis had struck not Rangoon, but Melbourne or Tokyo, it is unlikely more than a few dozen people, if that, would have died. And that's because we are free, and rich - as free people tend to be with capitalism. Even Bangkok would have survived this far, far easier. But in Burma as many as 100,000 are now feared dead...

Help for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis is on the way from Water Missions International (WMI). WMI is preparing 44 water purification systems for immediate deployment to aid survivors of last Saturday's deadly cyclone in Myanmar. The 44 Living Water(TM) Treatment Systems (LWTS(TM)) have been requested from other organizations around the United States who are working to get relief to the people of Myanmar. World Vision has requested 20 water systems, Operation Blessing has requested up to 12, and Samaritan's Purse has asked for 12 water systems to be ready for transport this Friday, May 9. According to a media...

World food prices may worsen Burmese disaster 14:49 06 May 2008 NewScientist.com news service Debora MacKenzie As the scale of the disaster in Burma caused by Cyclone Nargis starts to emerge, relief agencies and rich countries are lining up to provide emergency aid. But with agencies already hit hard by soaring food prices, and Burma's own rice crop devastated, it is not clear where the relief will come from. Nargis hit Burma on Saturday, bringing with it a reported oceanic storm surge more than 3 metres high, which is said to have destroyed some low-lying towns. The storm wreaked havoc...

Myanmar cyclone death toll soars past 22,000: state radio 48 minutes ago YANGON, Myanmar - The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm on record, state radio reported. Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Program said. Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles...

via translation - ALERT - New record of hurricane Nargis Official: more than 15,000 dead RANGOUN - The Burmese authorities have revised upwards the death toll of the devastating cyclone that Nargis was Tuesday to more than 15,000 dead, including about 10,000 in the town of Bogalay (south-west), reported the official media.

Fight to aid cyclone victims frustrated by junta By Graeme Jenkins in Rangoon Last Updated: 2:31AM BST 06/05/2008 Burma said last night that it feared that more than 10,000 people had been killed when a cyclone struck the country at the weekend. Desperate Burmese queue for water in Rangoon At least a further 3,000 villagers in the Irrawaddy Delta are reported to be missing, while hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and without drinking water since Cyclone Nargis crashed into the coast on Saturday at 120mph, destroying entire villages and battering Rangoon. As United Nations agencies warned of an...

Cyclone death toll nears 4,000 in Myanmar, state radio says 11 minutes ago YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Almost 4,000 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others are unaccounted for in a single town after a devastating cyclone in Myanmar, a state radio station said Monday. Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools and cut electricity in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. The government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939. The...

Excerpt - YANGON, Myanmar - A powerful cyclone killed more than 350 people and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said Sunday. Some dissident groups worried that the military junta running Myanmar would be reluctant to ask for international help. Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit at a delicate time for the junta, less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a new constitution. Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box. Some in Yangon complained the...

haka, Nov 24 - Several hundred activists of the radical Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir staged protests here before the arrival of two ships of the US Navy for distributing relief supplies among cyclone-affected people. Two warships, USS Essex and USS Kearsarge -- each carrying 20 helicopters and 3,500 marines on board with emergency relief supplies, medical and emergency evacuation teams -- are scheduled to enter Bangladesh waters Saturday and Tuesday. The protesters Friday carried a banner reading 'Prevent American ships from entering the Bay of Bengal in the name of distributing relief' and chanted slogans 'Go back to America'...

Bangladesh cyclone death toll hits 15,000 By Peter Foster, South Asia correspondent Last Updated: 12:23am GMT 19/11/2007 Up to 15,000 people were killed and seven million lives left devastated by the cyclone in Bangladesh last week, aid agencies have said as the full extent of the disaster became clear. In the worst affected districts, 90 pc of homes and 95 pc of rice crops and valuable prawn farms were obliterated by the winds The Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, the country's main humanitarian group, said that more than 3,000 bodies had already been recovered from villages shattered by Cyclone Sidr's 150mph...

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — The official death toll from a savage cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh reached 1,723 Saturday — the deadliest storm to hit the country in a decade. Military helicopters and ships joined rescue and relief operations and aid workers on the ground struggled to reach victims. Tropical Cyclone Sidr tore apart villages, severely disrupted power lines and forced more than a million coastal villagers to evacuate to government shelters. The latest death figure tallied to 1,723, with 474 deaths reported from worst-hit Barguna district and 385 from neighboring Patuakhali, a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Moyeenullah...

Bangladesh cyclone toll at 328 By Anis Ahmed Fri Nov 16, 2007 5:34am EST DHAKA (Reuters) - A severe cyclone killed at least 328 people in Bangladesh, triggering a 15-foot (5-metre) high tidal surge that devastated three coastal towns and forced the evacuation of nearly one million people, officials said on Friday. Local officials and Red Crescent workers said at least 328 deaths have already been confirmed while hundreds more were injured or missing following the cyclone, which struck overnight packing winds of 250 kph (155 mph). "The death count is rising fast as we get more information from the...

One million displaced by 140mph cyclone By Peter Foster, South Asia Correspondent Last Updated: 7:15pm GMT 15/11/2007 More than a million people were evacuated from the coasts of Bangladesh and eastern India today with a cyclone with wind-speeds of up to 140mph due to make land-fall, destroying houses, crops and trees. In an echo of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, meteorologists warned tidal surges of up 20ft could cause devastating flooding across low-lying areas of Bangladesh and the Sunderbans mangrove forest of India’s West Bengal state. In Khulna district alone 250,000 people were reported to have been moved to temporary...

Millions of Bangladeshis were being evacuated from low-lying areas ahead of Cyclone Sidr's expected landfall late Thursday, as the low-lying nation braced for its strongest tropical storm in years. Sustained winds of 149 mph and an expected storm surge as high as 20 feet were in store for the coastal areas and flood-prone Ganges River delta as the cyclone swept in from the Bay of Bengal, officials said. Some 3.2 million people were expected to be evacuated in all, Ali Imam Majumder, a senior government official told reporters in Dhaka. No damage or casualties were immediately reported, but rescue teams...

South Asia rains toll nears 500 amid protests by Asif Hassan 2 hours, 7 minutes ago Pakistani police fired tear gas to disperse a protest by some of the 1.1 million victims of a cyclone Friday, as fresh storms hit India while flooded villages waited for help in Afghanistan. Nearly 500 people have been killed by more than a week of severe weather that has swept across the coastlines, plains and mountains of South Asia with the approach of the yearly monsoon. In Pakistan, 1,000 protesters marched on a government office in the largely-submerged southwestern town of Turbat saying they...

MUSCAT, Oman - Cyclone Gonu battered Oman's coast Wednesday with fierce winds and torrential rains, forcing thousands from their homes and shutting down oil installations before heading toward the world's most important crude oil tanker route. The storm — a rarity in the Middle East — was expected to make landfall on the southeastern Iranian coast late Thursday, according to the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center. But it was likely to spare Iran's offshore oil installations that lie more than 120 miles to the west. In Muscat, the cyclone unleashed sheets of rainfall and howling winds rarely seen in...

MUSCAT, Oman — More people have fled their homes in Oman's eastern coastal towns as a powerful cyclone approaches the oil-rich Gulf area, police officials said Tuesday. Cyclone Gonu, with winds of 160 miles per hour and gusts of 195 miles per hour, is heading northwest through the Indian Ocean toward Oman's east coast. Authorities on Monday evacuated nearly 7,000 people from Masirah, a lowland island off the east coast of Oman, said General Malik bin Suleiman al-Muamri, head of the country's civil defense. He said that a state of emergency was declared in the affected area, including mobilizing army...

Excerpt - MUSCAT, Oman A powerful cyclone approaching the oil-rich Persian Gulf area forced the evacuation Monday of nearly 7,000 people from an Omani island, a government official said. Cyclone Gonu, with winds of 160 miles per hour and gusts of 195 miles per hour, was headed northwest through the Indian Ocean toward Oman's east coast, said Weather Underground meteorologist Tim Roche. ~ snip ~

--I can say with confidence that this forecaster has never seen the likes of this: a Category 4 (130 knots, or 240 kph) hurricane over the northern Arabian Sea. The wind speeds are estimated (as of 0600 Hours GMT) by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). A look at full-disk infrared imagery (from the India Met. Dept.--IMD) helps to afford better perspective on TC Gonu and South Asia:

The world record for most precipitation in a 72-hour period was shattered this month when the French island of La Réunion recorded 12.9 feet (3.929 meters) of rain. La Réunion is a small island in the South Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. Despite the island's small size--about 30 miles across--it has two tall volcanoes that rise over 8,500 feet in altitude. These volcanoes can squeeze prodigious amounts of rain out of the moist tropical atmosphere when strong winds force this moist air up their flanks. La Réunion already held the world record for a 3-day precipitation event, the 3.24 meters...

This one's got some punch, I think. Not great news for the lemurs.

(2nd UPDATE) MUDFLOWS from the slopes of the Mayon volcano, triggered by heavy rains from typhoon "Reming" (international codename: Durian) buried at least eight villages, killing up to 20 people and prompting search and rescue operations for an unspecified number of missing, local and disaster officials said Friday. But the Associated Press, quoting a report by Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal, said that up to 100 people may have been killed or injured in one village after it was swamped by rain-soaked volcanic debris. Padang is on the foothills of the volcano, which erupted in July, depositing millions of...

Commentary So where are all the hurricanes at? I thought this was supposed to be the hurricane season that ended all hurricane seasons, with gargantuan, roiling storms that would make Katrina and Rita look like Lucy and Ethel. Things could pick up this fall, I suppose, but as of now, we're sitting on a big squadoosh. It's killing the guys and gals down at The Weather Channel. You can see them growing more and more antsy as their blue rain slickers gather more and more dust. They have been reduced to covering, and I swear I saw this firsthand, a...

CYCLONE Monica has weakened to a tropical low over the Northern Territory, but is forecast to move back to sea and intensify again before menacing Western Australia. Monica was packing winds of up to 350kph near its core when it last night touched down at Maningrida, in the Territory's far north. However, the category five cyclone significantly weakened once it made landfall and travelled further south and inland than predicted, after fears it would be one of the severest storms to hit Australia. While the clean-up in Maningrida has started, Darwin emerged relatively unscathed today after preparing for the worst....

Australia battens hatches again Glenda's effects are expected to be felt sometime on Thursday Australia is bracing for its second major cyclone in two weeks as a storm with winds of around 280km/h (175mph) headed for its western coast. Cyclone Glenda was expected to hit north-west Australia's Pilbara coastline late on Thursday. A major iron ore port on the Pilbara coast has sent its ships out to calmer waters, and the 10,000 residents of the coastline are preparing their houses. Australia's north-east is still recovering from Cyclone Larry. That storm, which hit the state of Queensland, caused no fatalities but...