Burma's military government raised its death toll from cyclone Nargis on Tuesday to nearly 22,500 with a further 41,000 missing, nearly all of them from a massive storm surge that swept into the Irrawaddy delta. The United Nations' World Food Programme began doling out emergency rice in Rangoon and the first batch of more than $10 million worth of foreign aid arrived from Thailand on Tuesday, but a lack of specialised equipment slowed distribution.

India is despatching more assistance to cyclonehit Myanmar in the form of two AN-32 aircraft carrying relief and medical supplies. India had earlier sent two ships carrying food and other relief items to Yangon on Monday. The ministry of external affairs said on Tuesday that all possible help has been offered to the country which was hit by cyclone

Neither the west nor the junta should play politics.

With three more cracks that developed yesterday in an embankment on Shibsha River at Bajua union under Dakop upazila in Khulna district, flood situation has worsened further. Over 3,000 houses of 15 villages under Dakop upazila in Khulna district were inundated as an embankment developed two breaches on Sunday and three more early Monday due to pressure of cross current triggered by high tide.

Myanmar's government raised its death toll from Cyclone Nargis on Tuesday to nearly 22,500 with a further 41,000 missing, nearly all of them from a storm surge that swept into the Irrawaddy delta. Of the dead, only 671 were in the former capital, Yangon, and its outlying districts, state radio said. The rest were in the vast swamplands of the delta.

The White House said Tuesday the U.S. will send more than $3 million to help victims of the devastating cyclone in Myanmar, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000. The additional commitment of funds, announced by press secretary Dana Perino, comes as Myanmar continues to resist entry for a U.S. disaster assessment team. The Bush administration insists that permission for such a team to enter the Southeast Asian nation and look at the damage would allow quicker and larger aid contributions.

Myanmar's military government raised its death toll from Cyclone Nargis on Tuesday to nearly 22,500 with another 41,000 missing, almost all from a massive storm surge that swept into the Irrawaddy delta. The United Nations' World Food Programme began doling out emergency rice in Yangon, the largest city and former capital, and the first batch of more than $10 million worth of foreign aid arrived from Thailand. But a lack of specialized equipment slowed distribution.

Dec 26 2004 TSUNAMI At least 230,000 people are killed and 43,000 are missing after a tsunami sparked by a magnitude 9.15 earthquake smashes into 13 Indian Ocean countries. More than half the victims are Indonesians, with Sri Lanka and India next worst hit. March 2005 INDONESIA Nearly 1,000 people are killed after an earthquake of magnitude 8.7 strikes off the island of Sumatra. July/Aug 2005 INDIA More than 1,000 people are killed after the heaviest rainfall recorded drenches the western state of Maharashtra. Oct 8 2005 PAKISTAN

Crackling with explosions, Chile's Chaiten volcano began spitting lava on Tuesday following its first eruption in thousands of years, and Navy warships were deployed to evacuate nearby residents in the southern region of Patagonia. Chaiten erupted last Friday, sending a towering plume of ash into the sky that has since coated the surrounding area of southern Chile and reached into neighboring Argentina.

For Burma's normally reclusive military rulers, resented by their own citizens and mistrustful of the outside world's intentions, the devastation wrought by tropical cyclone Nargis has posed an uncomfortable dilemma at a sensitive political moment. With the numbers of dead and missing now exceeding 60,000, the generals