YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's junta kept a French navy ship laden with aid waiting outside its maritime border on Saturday, and showed off neatly laid out state relief camps to diplomats.
The stage-managed tour appeared aimed at countering global criticism of the junta's failure to provide for survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which left at least 134,000 people dead or missing.
children could die of starvation within two or three weeks unless more aid gets into the country quickly.

YANGON // Myanmar took foreign diplomats and aid workers to the cyclone-hit Irrawaddy Delta yesterday, in the first such trip since the devastating storm hit the country two weeks ago.
One day after the regime said the official toll from the disaster had doubled to around 78,000 dead and 56,000 missing, they were taken on three flights into the zone, which has been mostly closed off to foreigners.
ountry yesterday, part of a group of 160 Asian medical workers that the junta is allowing to treat victims of the storm, officials said.

By Aung Hla Tun YANGON (Reuters) - Diplomats witnessed "huge" devastationin the Irrawaddy delta on Saturday and the toll of dead andmissing from the cyclone rose above 133,000 people, making itone of the most damaging to hit Asia.
With about 2.5 million people clinging to survival in thedelta, and the military government refusing to admitlarge-scale outside relief, disaster experts say the death tollfrom Cyclone Nargis which struck on May 2 could risedramatically.
re Nargis struckwith 120 mph (190 kmh) winds and a 12-foot (3.5 metre) wall ofwater.

By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, May 17 (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta took diplomats on a tour of the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy delta on Saturday as the toll of dead and

A boy carries water at a village near Yangon badly hit by Cyclone Nargis. Photo / Reuters
A boy carries water at a village near Yangon badly hit by Cyclone Nargis. Photo / Reuters
to a final figure. It said the government had "carried out search and rescue and relief work and collection of data, promptly, immediately and extensively."

By Aung Hla Tun YANGON, May 14 (Reuters) - The 1.5 million people left destitute by Myanmar's cyclone are in increasing danger of disease and starvation, experts said on Wednesday, but its ruling junta rejected a Thai request to admit more aid workers.
Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said he was told Myanmar can "tackle the problem by themselves" during a 2-½ hour meeting in Yangon where he urged his counterpart Thein Sein to ease visa rules for relief workers.
position, 16 killed