Late Friday, Chinese officials estimated that the death from last Monday's powerful earthquake could reach 50,000, with nearly 5 million survivors now homeless, according to Reuters news service.
And to the south, the human loss from Cyclone Nargis is even greater.
school construction. Thousands of classrooms collapsed during the quake, leaving thousands of kids dead or injured.

By Nicki Bennett Nicki Bennett is an American aid worker who bounces around from one hot spot to the next, working for Oxfam. She has been deployed to Sudan

While the grim death toll from the earthquake in China is at least relieved by pictures of survivors pulled from the wreckage and a relief effort that has been massive, organized and immediate, the situation in Myanmar goes from bad to worse. To the catastrophes of flooding and starvation is now being added the scourge of disease, as the first signs of what could well prove an epidemic of cholera are reported. Unless a massive international aid effort is launched from this very moment, the number of deaths in the Irrawaddy delta could rise from the present 78,000 reported dead and missing to twice this figure and even more.
The pity of all this is that many, if not most,

By Diane Smith Nearly two weeks after the devastating Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy Delta and the country’s main city, Yangon, Myanmar almost doubled the

New York - The French government, which has been pushing the United Nations to forcefully deliver aid to storm victims in Myanmar, said Friday in New York that it had sent a naval ship with 1,500 tons of food and medicine with the intention of delivering supplies to inaccessible areas in Myanmar's delta.
The move brought denunciation from Myanmar before the 192-nation General Assembly, charging that the French were sending a warship.
international aid workers and insists that material aid be delivered to the government for redistribution.

An emergency relief team from Muslim Aid Sri Lanka is now in cyclone devastated Myanmar supplying clean water, medicine and healthcare to affected communities.
The three member team arrived in Myanmar a week after Cyclone Nargis struck the Irrawaddy delta southwest of the capital Yangon, carrying water purifying tablets and equipment.
has also trained partner organizations in the use of the water purifying systems.

Burma's state media say the death toll from cyclone Nargis has reached almost 78,000 and that another 56,000 people are missing.
The previous official death toll was 43,000.
ven higher.

Warehouse staff prepare aid equipment, including tents and generators, to be delivered to Myanmar at a warehouse in Singapore. Photo / Reuters
Warehouse staff prepare aid equipment, including tents and generators, to be delivered to Myanmar at a warehouse in Singapore. Photo / Reuters
timated 2.5 million destitute survivors of the cyclone and further hampering the military government's aid efforts.

Survivors of the cyclone that ravaged Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta have received little emergency aid from the country's ruling military junta, though government officials insist their relief operations are running smoothly.
Children queue up for water near Yangon; AP photo
military government to open its doors to international relief agencies but the requests have gone unanswered and the country's restrictions on foreign journalists have made independent assessments difficult.

(NECN: Myanmar) - The United Nations said on Friday that severe restrictions by Myanmar's military junta have left aid agencies largely in the dark about

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- The UN says a small fraction of the supplies hundreds of thousands of cyclone victims need to cope with the crisis in Myanmar have

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday raised its estimate for the number of victims in need of aid in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar and again urged the government to remove all restrictions on getting aid to them.
U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters that there were now between 1.6-2.5 million people who were "severely affected" by Cyclone Nargis and urgently needed aid, up from a previous estimate of at least 1.5 million people.
not been helped. He said it was not an ideal form of distributing aid but might become an option.

As the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel and the Thai Prime Minister flew into cyclone-ravaged Myanmar Wednesday to persuade the country's junta to grant access for disaster relief and visas for aid workers, the United Nations warned that the aid getting into Myanmar was still inadequate.
A Burmese cyclone survivor woman carries her son near a tent at a cyclon devastated area in Kunyangon, Southern Myanmar, 14 May 2008. EPA/EPA PHOTO
anitarian Affairs (OCHA).

YANGON: The UN on Tuesday said only a tiny portion of international relief is reaching Myanmar’s cyclone victims, amid fears that the military regime is