ASIA: Calamities, Climate Change – Reprieve for Mangroves

Lack of access to military-ruled Burma has not stopped a global environmental body from setting its sights on the country’s Irrawaddy Delta, which was devastated by a powerful cyclone in early May. Rehabilitating mangroves is the draw.

BURMA: Females Hit Worst by Cyclone Nargis – Report

Nearly three months after the powerful Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, it has emerged that the majority of those who died in the devastated area were women.

BURMA: ASEAN Steps in Where Others May Not Tread

Four weeks after Cyclone Nargis swept through the populous Irrawaddy Delta in Burma, a regional effort to help the victims is slowly grinding into shape.

PAKISTAN: Quake Orphans Still Dependent on Charity, NGOs

Thousands of children orphaned by the earthquake that hit northern Pakistan in October 2005, leaving 85,000 people dead, continue to be dependent on charity and support provide by donors and non-government organisations (NGOs).

POPULATION-CHINA: Quake Shakes One-Child Policy

Almond-shaped eyes; a young face of poignant beauty reminiscent of Hu Die - the Shanghai film star of yesteryears. The impression is helped by the stark, retro-like monochrome photo. But the leap of imagination is clipped almost immediately by the black ribbon draped around the photo and the grieving man clutching it.

BURMA: UN Gambles With Junta – Forgets History

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is optimistic that his four-day mission to military-ruled Burma has produced a breakthrough. But the troubled history of relations between the world body and the South-east Asian nation offers a warning against high expectations.

BURMA: Did Cyclone Nargis Kill 300,000 People?

Three weeks after Cyclone Nargis crashed through Burma’s populous Irrawaddy Delta, the country’s military regime has been more forthcoming about the number of buffaloes and chickens that perished than on human casualties.

BURMA: Earthquake Lets China Off the Hook

The outpouring of global sympathy in the aftermath of the deadly Sichuan earthquake has shifted the focus away from China’s role and influence in cyclone-stricken Burma, quieting critics.

ENVIRONMENT-BURMA: 'Mangrove Loss Exacerbated Cyclone Devastation'

When researchers surveyed the battered coastlines of Asian countries after the December 2004 tsunami, they stumbled upon an arresting fact - that mangroves can save lives.

CHINA: Bowing in Grief, to Public Demand

The national mourning observed this week for victims of the Sichuan earthquake is the first public remembrance in modern China’s history ordered to commemorate ordinary people rather than political leaders.

BURMA: Public Health Ailing Even Before Cyclone Struck

Even before Cyclone Nargis tore through Burma’s populous Irrawaddy Delta, the country’s public health system was ailing. It struggled to survive on a slow drip of funds from the state’s coffers.

BURMA: Foreigners, Cameras Banned in Cyclone-Hit Areas

Images of the dead keep trickling out of Burma. The most moving are those of children who died when Cyclone Nargis tore through their world in the populous Irrawaddy delta.

CHINA: Temblor – Test of Openness

As the death toll from a devastating earthquake in south-western China continues to climb, the disaster is proving a credibility test for the government, whose mandate is derived from maintaining stability and social order and providing for the welfare of people.

BURMA: 'Junta Aid Blocks Could Multiply Cyclone Toll'

Burma’s military regime may soon face charges of allowing tens of thousands of its own people to die through incompetence and bureaucratic red-tape placed in the way of international relief efforts for over one million cyclone victims in the country.

BURMA: Junta Holds Referendum in Cyclone Aftermath

Shortly after sunrise on Saturday, a few men and women in this town on the banks of a river broke their morning routines to cast ballots - an act unusual in the military-ruled country.

BURMA: Junta Gives Referendum Priority Over Cyclone Relief

Disregarding the disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis, Burma’s military rulers are bent on holding a constitutional referendum on Saturday, said to be designed to enhance the junta’s grip over the country.

BURMA: Cyclone Nargis Exposes Junta's Anti-People Attitude

Cyclone Nargis - Burma’s worst natural disaster in living memory - has reinforced the image of the military in that country as a force interested solely in perpetuating its grip on power, regardless of costs to the people it claims to protect.

BANGLADESH: Fear of Famine Follows Cyclone Havoc

With its grain crops wiped out, Bangladesh has appealed to the world community for half a million tonnes of rice or wheat to immediately feed thousands of starving survivors of the Nov. 15 cyclone and stave of a possible famine.

BANGLADESH: Cyclone Leaves Millions Facing Starvation

As a helicopter of Bangladesh Air Force hovered over Dublar Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, hundreds of people starving for days gathered on an open space for some food and drinking water, but the helicopter failed to find any space to land on.

RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Tamils Traumatised by War, Tsunami – Study

Residents of war-wracked Jaffna city in northern Sri Lanka are a community on the run; every family has a bag packed with essentials, ready to flee at a moment's notice, a new research study reports.

ENVIRONMENT-SRI LANKA: Tsunami Alert Systems Working – Too Well

A tsunami alert, last week, sent thousands of Sri Lankans living along the coasts of this island nation fleeing inland, but authorities were exultant that the early warning systems installed after the disastrous Dec. 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were working.