<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025".
Myanmar's ruling junta has tightened access to the cyclone disaster zone in the country's south, frustrating aid groups trying to bring help to survivors, reporters and aid agencies said yesterday. Relief groups are furious over the regime's refusal to allow foreign experts into the country to mount a full-scale disaster response, and say they face even more constraints in bringing help to some two million survivors.
High-speed winds brought un-seasonal rain and thunder to the Capital on Wednesday morning, uprooting trees and wreaking widespread havoc that claimed four lives and left several injured.
At severely affected even as civic authorities received numerous complaints of water-logging from various parts of the city. The rains drenched the city for about two hours, measuring up to 6.2 mm and bringing the temperature down to 22
The death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15,000 on Wednesday, as officials warned of calamities downstream from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting point. Tens of thousands of troops, fire-fighters and civilians raced to save more than 25,000 people buried across a wide swathe of southwest Sichuan province under collapsed schools, factories and hospitals after Monday's 7.9 magnitude quake. Many schoolchildren were buried as they were taking an afternoon nap. One body of a boy was found clutching a pen.
The 1.5 million people left destitute by Burma's cyclone are in increasing danger of disease and starvation, experts said on Wednesday, but its ruling junta said no to a Thai request to admit more aid workers. Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej met his Burma counterpart Thein Sein in Rangoon for 2 hours trying to convince him the former Burma should open up for international relief operations and ease visa rules for aid workers.
HONG KONG: On the day of the Sichuan earthquake, I happened to be in Bengkulu, the province of Sumatra, Indonesia, which has been experiencing almost weekly quakes that measure about 5 on the Richter scale, following one that measured 8.5 last September. Despite its magnitude, that earthquake killed just 25 people. This raises the question: What combination of nature, chance, human activity and government competence determines the death toll when a cyclone, earthquake or tsunami strikes?
More than 60,000 people may have died as a result of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and at least 1.5 million are homeless or otherwise in desperate need of assistance. The Burmese military junta, one of the most morally repulsive in the world, has allowed in only a trickle of aid supplies. The handful of United States Air Force C-130 flights from Utapao Air Base here in Thailand is little more than symbolic, given the extent of the need.
China today rushed more troops and air-dropped relief supplies in areas cut off near the epicentre of the devastating earthquake in southwest Sichuan province as the toll mounted to nearly 20,000 with thousands of people still buried, trapped or missing. As troops reached the quake-battered areas, the state media reported that the death toll in Mianyang city alone rose from 3,629 to 5,540 with 18,486 more buried and 1,396 missing. In Yingxiu of Wenchuan County, only 2,300 persons were believed to have survived out of 10,000 residents, official Xinhua news agency said.
Operations at the Three Gorges Dam, China's water conservancy project on the Yangtze River, was not affected despite Monday's quake. In the dam area, about 1,000 km from the epicentre, the quake measured about 4. The dam was designed to withstand quakes up to 7 on the Richter Scale, said a spokesman with China Three Gorges Project Corporation.
Rescuers are racing against time in the search for survivors on Tuesday, a day after a quake struck China's south-western province of Sichuan. The death toll has surpassed 12,000. Premier Wen Jiabao, who flew to Sichuan on Monday, urged the public to have "composure, confidence and courage' in the face of the catastrophe. Mr. Wen is heading a temporary disaster relief headquarters.
