Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Turmoil In Asia.
















Meanwhile Myanmar is still reeling and in need of HELPS!








UN chief condemns Burma response



United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has criticised Burma's military junta for its "unacceptably slow response" to helping cyclone victims.



Nearly 32,000 people were killed by the cyclone on May 3 and almost 30,000 others are still missing, according to Burma state television.



"We believe that it's going to be very difficult to reach everybody and to tackle the crisis as we would like without some outside military and civilian assets," John Holmes, the UN's top humanitarian official, told reporters.



Almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation. The junta says it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own.



"I want to register my deep concern - and immense frustration - at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis," Ban said.



"Unless more aid gets into the country - very quickly - we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis. I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Burma to put its people's lives first. It must do all that it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious."



Ban said Burma's leaders had not returned his repeated calls and letters to them, including a second letter sent on Monday, seeking greater co-operation with the UN and other international relief efforts.



Burma braced for more rain


Survivors of the Burma cyclone are bracing themselves for further torrential rain.



Storm warnings have been issued for the region despite large swathes of the country still lying submerged under putrid floodwater from the initial cyclone.



The Burma government has come under sustained international pressure as aid agencies warn the death toll following the cyclone could reach 1.5 million.



Further heavy deluges will hamper the progression of embryonic aid efforts which are only now starting to reach the more remote areas.



Oxfam said the stricken country faces a public health catastrophe unless clean water and sanitation are quickly provided.



Save the Children spokeswoman Kathryn Rawe said huge storms were expected to strike Burma.



http://news.uk.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8281832

7.9 Earthquake In China




Nearly 19,000 Buried Alive in Town Near China Quake's Epicenter



May 13: Local residents work to clear away debris from a collapsed building in Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province.


May 13: Local residents work to clear away debris from a collapsed building in Mianzhu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province.


Rescue workers sifted through tangled debris of toppled schools and homes Tuesday for nearly 19,000 victims buried or missing after China's worst earthquake in three decades, where the death toll soared to more than 12,000 people in the hardest-hit province alone, state media reported.



Hope that many survivors would be found was fleeting. Only 58 people were extricated from demolished buildings across the quake area so far, China Seismological Bureau spokesman Zhang Hongwei told the official Xinhua News Agency. In one county, 80 percent of the buildings had been destroyed.



Myanmar: Senior Red Cross Red Crescent aid worker returns from devastated delta

13 May 2008


The situation in Myanmar’s cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta is “overwhelming” according to Bridget Gardner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ head of delegation who returned to Yangon today following a two day assessment visit. Ms Gardner was the first international aid official to visit the disaster zone with official permission.





Please donate to INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS and other organizations!!!

International Red Cross Red Crescent



http://www.ifrc.org/



Catholic Relief Services (CRS - USCC)


http://www.crs.org/


Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and disadvantaged outside the country. Working through local offices and an extensive network of partners, CRS operates on 5 continents and in over 90 countries.



Doctors Without Borders


http://www.dwb.org/


Doctors Without Borders delivers medical help to populations endangered by war, civil strife, epidemics or natural disasters. Each year over 2,000 volunteer doctors representing 45 nationalities work worldwide in front-line hospitals, refugee camps, disaster sites, towns and villages providing primary health care, performing surgery, vaccinating children, operating emergency nutrition and sanitation programs and training local medical staff.






International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

http://www.icrc.org/

The ICRC, independent of all governments and international organisations, endeavours to promote international humanitarian law and the fundamental human values underlying that law. The ICRC was founded by Geneva citizens in 1863 and has its headquarters in Geneva.



United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

The UNHCR provides protection and assistance to the world's refugees. Today, the UNHCR is one of the world's principal humanitarian agencies, with headquarters in Geneva, and offices in some 115 countries. More than 80 percent of UNHCR's 5,000-member staff work in the field, often in isolated, dangerous and difficult conditions. The UNHCR has twice been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.



United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
http://www.unhcr.ch/

The focal point for the activities of the United Nations in the field of human rights is located in Geneva at the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).



International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx

The IFRC is one part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which comprises National Red Cross or Red Crescent Societies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (the Federation), and the ICRC.


Friday, May 09, 2008

Myanma Update





Almost a week after a devastating cyclone hit low-lying areas of southern Burma, hundreds of thousands of people are still in urgent




Burma warned over cyclone delays




The US has ships with aid standing by in the Gulf of Thailand




The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has warned of dire consequences if foreign aid workers continue to be denied access to Burma.




Speaking before the UN launched its $187m (£96m) appeal to help those hit by the cyclone, he said early action was needed to prevent catastrophe.




Burma, where the UN fears the death toll could reach 100,000, says it will accept aid from any quarter.




No contact


Aid agencies already in Burma say they have been doing what they can, but are frustrated by the government's reluctance to allow international aid teams into the country and its insistence on distributing aid itself.




EXTENT OF THE DEVASTATION






The UN believes as many as 1.5 million people could have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which struck on 3 May, and many say Burma does not have the capacity to respond adequately on its own.




Two BBC correspondents who have travelled to the Irrawaddy delta say tens of thousands of bodies are strewn across the landscape, with houses toppled and trees uprooted.




They say diseases like dysentery are already starting to take hold, and although some aid has arrived there is still no relief effort to match the size of the catastrophe.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Tens of thousands killed in Myanmar cyclone































A map showing areas worst-hit by Tropical Cyclone Nargis. Aid workers battled Wednesday to get food and water to desperate cyclone survivors in Myanmar, whose government is under fire after more than 22,000 people died in one of Asia's worst natural disasters.

(AFP/Graphic)






















Reuters
Wed May 7, 12:52 AM ET



A Thai air force personnel waits for load food and disaster supplies for shipment to Myanmar at the military airport in Bangkok May 7, 2008. Disease, hunger and thirst pose a major threat to hundreds of thousands of survivors of Cyclone Nargis, aid agencies said on Wednesday, urging Myanmar's military rulers to open the doors to international humanitarian relief. With 22,500 dead and 41,000 missing, most of them from a massive storm surge that washed over the Irrawaddy delta, it is the most devastating cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people died in neighbouring Bangladesh. .


REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang (THAILAND)





http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Tens-thousands-killed-Myanmar-cyclone-Yangon/ss/events/wl/050408myanmarcylcone/s:/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_cyclone#photoViewer=/080507/ids_photos_wl/r4260609060.jpg