The death toll from Monday's earthquake could climb as high as 50,000, China's state council said on Thursday as rescue workers continued to struggle to reach some of the worst affected areas. The number of deaths announced so far has reached 19,500 in Sichuan province, where the earthquake was centred. However, the sharp escalation in the expected death toll indicates that hopes are fading for the tens of thousands of people who are still buried under collapsed buildings.

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, were damaged by the cyclone that killed up to 128,000 people, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

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

The death toll from Monday's earthquake in China could reach as high as 50,000 people, the state council said last night, as rescue workers still struggled to reach some of the worst affected areas. The number of deaths announced so far rose yesterday to 19,500 in Sichuan province, the centre of the earthquake. However the sharp escalation in the expected death toll indicates that hopes are fading for the tens of thousands of people who are still buried under collapsed buildings.

Barcelona: Perhaps the most striking image of Spain's drought, so severe it has forced Barcelona to ship in water, has been that of the underwater church which emerged from a drying dam. For most of the past four decades, all that has been visible of the village of Sant Roma has been the belltower of its stone church, peeping above the water beside forested hills from a valley flooded in the 1960s to provide water for the Catalonia region.

With southwest monsoon moving almost eight days in advance over Bay of Bengal and adjoining regions, the Indian Meteorological Department has predicted its onset over Kerala on May 29

Fallen Trees, Clothes Stuck In Lines Wednesday morning's thunderstorms and heavy downpour brought a pleasant weather change along with frustration of disappearing power supply in the Capital. Ironically, it was day when the Northern Grid had excess power available, yet lights and fans remained off in many homes. According to discom sources, a number of outages were reported from all across the city due to trees and branches falling on the distribution lines. In some areas, residents also complained of short-circuiting.

China mobilized 30,000 additional soldiers to the earthquake-shattered expanses of the nation's southwestern regions on Wednesday

After the squall lashed the Capital on Wednesday, Met officials attributed the sudden change in weather to a low pressure disturbances in the neighbouring region.