At least 242 million students in 85 countries had their schooling disrupted by extreme climate events in 2024, including heatwaves, tropical cyclones, storms, floods, and droughts, exacerbating an existing learning crisis, according to a new UNICEF analysis released today. Heatwaves were the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year, with …
Cyclone Nargis may have done more than just wreck Burma's cities. It may also spell doom for the government. The massive storm that hit Burma on May 2 could not have come at a worse time for the generals who rule the country. As Cyclone Nargis raged toward them across …
BANGKOK: At risk of disease, abuse and forced recruitment into the armed forces, children are the most vulnerable survivors of the cyclone that hit Myanmar, many of them orphaned or lost, fending for themselves. As huge rainstorms drench the often-homeless survivors of the May 3 storm, with clean water scarce …
China has shown up Myanmar's generals. But it is not too late for outsiders to help the Burmese Eyevine IT HAS taken another catastrophe, this one in China, to show the generals who run Myanmar how better to respond to a natural disaster. Ten days after a cyclone struck Myanmar …
Myanmar said Friday more than 133,000 people were dead or missing in the cyclone disaster, nearly doubling the toll from the worst disaster in the country's history, which hit two weeks ago. Even as the regime again rejected calls for international aid workers to help direct the massive relief effort, …
The May 12 earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, in China's south-western Sichuan province has taken a confirmed toll of over 19,500 lives. It is feared that the number of dead could be above 50,000. The toll would have been higher but for the quick and efficient response by …
Most victims of Myanmar's cyclone remain without emergency food supplies two weeks after the catastrophe, experts said yesterday, with one calling it the worst disaster response in recent memory. Critical supplies are slowly making their way to survivors, but not nearly enough for the up to 2.5 million people who …
Unable to reach out to their families and friends in cyclone-hit Myanmar, and unhappy with the pace of rescue work in the country, Burmese nationals living in Delhi have begun collecting money and garnering support to help the affected people. These Burmese nationals, some of whom have been living in …
Large-scale destruction of mangroves contributed heavily to the damage inflicted by cyclone Nargis in Myanmar last week, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Myanmar, home to the eighth largest mangrove area in the world, has lost large swathes of mangroves over the last four decades. FAO estimates from …
The humanitarian organisation founded by actor George Clooney and other Ocean's Thirteen stars has donated $250,000 to help children and families in Burma affected by Cyclone Nargis. Not On Our Watch said it will provide an additional matching contribution of up to $250,000 to the relief agency Save the Children …
Torrential tropical downpours lashed Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Friday, deepening the misery of an estimated 2.5 million destitute survivors of Cyclone Nargis and further hampering the military government's aid efforts. Despite the latest storm, which is likely to turn already damaged roads to mud in the swamp-covered region, the former …
Cyclone-hit Myanmar faces food shortages and may need to import rice if farmers in devastated areas do not get immediate help to plant a new crop, the UN food agency said on Thursday. Some 20 percent of rice fields in five declared disaster zones, including the Irrawaddy delta rice bowl, …
Realism comes with a hefty price tag. Iraq was supposed to have put paid to the internationalist impulse in foreign policy. The gathering outrage at the behaviour of the military junta in Burma reminds us that foreign policy, like life, is never quite so simple For realists on the political …
Burma's military rulers have appealed for international help to get the county's cyclone-hit Irrawaddy delta rice farmers back to their paddy fields, amid concerns about food shortages if they miss the planting season. The request came as Burma's state television yesterday said a military-sponsored constitution had won the support of …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
