Yangon: The United Nations said on Tuesday 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 accept relief shipments from the UN and foreign countries, but has largely refused entry to aidworkers who might distribute the aid.

Official Figure Of Dead Stands At 12,000 Saibal Dasgupta & Agencies Beijing: The full scale of Monday's earthquake began to emerge even as rescuers managed to get to the epicentre of the quake and other uncovered areas in southwest Sichuan province. Official sources confirmed 12,000 deaths and said that 29,000 more people were buried in the debris of fallen buildings.

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.

The day after Monday's earthquake saw the spotlight in China turning on relief and rescue operations, even as the extent of the damage wrought by the 7.9 magnitude quake gradually became clearer. More than 12,000 persons were estimated to be dead in Sichuan Province alone and thousands missing or buried.

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 tur, urad and moong dal. Delivery of shipments of about 30,000 quintals each was slated to have been completed at Indian ports by October.

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.

DUJIANGYAN, China: The children who were considered fortunate escaped with a broken bone or a severed limb. The others, hundreds of them, were carried out to be buried, and their remaining classmates lay crushed beneath the rubble of the schoolhouse. "There's no hope for them," said Lu Zhiqing, 58, as she watched uniformed rescue workers trudge through mud and rain toward the mound of bricks and concrete that had once been a school. "There's no way anyone's still alive in there."

BEIJING: Tens of thousands of people throughout southwest China remained buried beneath rubble Tuesday as rescue workers struggled to reach areas cut off by a powerful earthquake that has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands injured and homeless. The authorities said that more than 18,000 people were still unaccounted for in the city of Mianzhu and that 2,300 were missing in the collapse of a school and two factories in the town of Shifang.

China began airlifting aid Wednesday to the areas worst hit by a massive earthquake, while reporting a huge jump in deaths certain to push the death toll close to 20,000

Japan will give 500 million yen worth of emergency grants and relief aid to quake-hit China, including blankets and tents, and is ready to provide additional assistance such as the dispatch of personnel if necessary, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura announced Tuesday evening. The aid will be distributed directly to the Chinese government as well as through international organizations. Komura said details of the breakdown have yet to be decided, awaiting specific appeals from international agencies such as the Red Cross. The death toll is believed to have passed 12,000.