The Bay of Bengal (BoB) region is emerging as an important focal point for climate security risks. This is largely due to a multi-layered interplay of geopolitical, geostrategic, and climate-related regional dynamics. It forms the final leg between West and East Asia. The region is one of the most climate-vulnerable …
The U.N. on Tuesday said only a tiny portion of international relief is reaching Myanmar's cyclone victims, amid fears that the military regime is hoarding high-quality foreign aid for itself while people make do with rotten food. "There is obviously still a lot of frustration that this aid effort hasn't …
The cyclone in Myanmar will hit the import of pulses and consequently push up prices, which are already ruling high. Shipments will be delayed, official sources told The Hindu. Nearly 10 lakh tonnes of pulses are scheduled to be imported this year. These include over three lakh tonnes each of …
YANGON, Myanmar: Aid continued to arrive in Myanmar on Tuesday - a darkly clouded and rainy day here and in the south - but international aid experts and diplomats in the capital expressed concern that the government was not up to the task of delivering the aid effectively. Myanmar continued …
Heavy rains pelted homeless cyclone survivors in Burma's Irrawaddy delta on Tuesday, complicating already slow delivery of aid to more than 1.5 million people facing hunger and disease. As more foreign aid trickled into the former Burma, critics ratcheted up the pressure on its military rulers to accelerate a relief …
The United Nations said yesterday that only a tiny portion of international aid needed for Myanmar's cyclone victims is making it into the country, amid reports that the military regime is hoarding good-quality foreign aid for itself and doling out rotten food. The country's isolated military regime has agreed to …
The cyclone in Myanmar has killed 37,000 people. Another 1.5 million have been rendered homeless. The people badly need help but the rulers, a military junta, have been refusing it. Instead they have gone ahead with a referendum held to legitimise permanent military rule. Already, the military has been in …
Bangkok: Oxfam says the initial estimated death toll of 100,000 in Myanmar as a result of Cyclone Nargis may multiply by up to 15 times if clean water and sanitation are not urgently provided. Oxfam's regional director for east Asia, Sarah Ireland, said in the coming weeks the lives of …
India joined other nations in urging Myanmar to accept international relief for its cyclone-affected people while continuing to send assistance by military aircraft and naval ships. Myanmar's military government acceded to the appeal during a telephonic conversation between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his counterpart Nyan Win. "Mr. Mukherjee …
Myanmar is struggling to feed its people in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis -- in part because the regime has been forcing some farmers to stop growing rice in a plan to produce biofuel instead. In 2005 the military government's leader Than Shwe ordered a national drive to plant jatropha, …
Rice production in Asia, Africa and Latin America is forecast to reach a new record level in 2008, but world rice prices could remain high in the short term, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said Monday. However the destruction of Myanmar's food resources by a deadly cyclone could …
THE first US aid flight has landed in Burma, where some 1.5 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis are still waiting for help. A C-130 military transport plane flew into Rangoon yesterday from Thailand, carrying 12,700 kilograms of water, mosquito nets and blankets. The arrival of the plane follows a week …
Preventing a disease disaster in Myanmar is now a "race against time," as many impoverished victims still await help a week after the brutal cyclone, experts warned Saturday. Reports of diarrhoea and skin problems already have surfaced, and health officials fear waterborne illnesses will emerge because of a lack of …
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has told a U.S. newspaper that he expects the United Nations to "more actively intervene" to help cyclone-hit Myanmar at a time when the military government is reluctant to accept troops from other countries, according to a government official. While noting that the United States is …
The shady streets of Yangon, one of Asia's greenest cities, could have been changed forever by Cyclone Nargis, which knocked down many of its 100-year-old trees. People in Myanmar's biggest city fear the storm's 190 kph (120 mph) winds not only took lives but also ruined livelihoods, dealing a blow …
The number of people reported missing in the Myanmar cyclone was about 220,000, the United Nations humanitarian agency said on Sunday, warning of environmental damage, violence and mass migration. It said assessments of 55 townships in the Irrawaddy delta and other disaster areas found up to 102,000 people could have …
Survivors of Cyclone Nargis are overwhelming army-ruled Myanmar's crumbling health service and it faces a "worst-case scenario" of disease outbreaks unless aid is ramped up, a UN health expert said on Sunday. At a hospital in Bogalay, one of the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta towns, local doctors were working around the …
WHO arm keeping eye on situation Tripti Nath The WHO South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) is keeping itself posted of situation in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar. A control room manned by experts is gathering latest information on Nargis cyclone through communication links with the WHO country offices in Myanmar, Thailand and …
A boy feeds his younger brother at a temporary shelter after fleeing cyclone-hit areas in the Irrawaddy division of Myanmar on Thursday. Here are the health questions and answers in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis that slammed Myanmar recently: What is the main health risk after the cyclone? The primary …
Braving high velocity winds, the Indian Air Force's largest transport aircraft landed in Yangon on Thursday carrying relief supplies for the cyclone-hit people of Myanmar. On Wednesday, two smaller IAF planes discharged relief supplies under "Operation Sahayata.' INS Rana and INS Kirpan, despite inclement weather, berthed alongside a naval jetty …
THE humanitarian crisis that has been unfolding in Myanmar leaves people around the world deeply concerned about the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis. And we in Bangladesh are particularly worried because of the close neighbourly links we have always had with Myanmar. While we heave a sigh of relief that …
