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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) The Red Cross estimated Wednesday that the cyclone death toll in Myanmar could be as high as 128,000 - a much higher figure than the government tally. The U.N. warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly.

The grim forecast came as heavy rains drenched the devastated Irrawaddy River delta, disrupting aid operations already struggling to reach up to 2.5 million people in urgent need of food, water and shelter. Read more

From correspondents in Beijing
couriermail.com
THE full horror of the devastating China earthquake began to emerge today as rescuers discovered whole towns all but wiped off the map, pushing the death toll well above 20,000. Military and police teams punched into the heart of the disaster zone, with 100 troops parachuting into a county that was previously cut off while planes and helicopters air-dropped emergency supplies.

But the message that came back from this mountainous corner of southwestern Sichuan province was that town after town was flattened by the 7.9-magnitude quake that struck two days ago.The death toll has soared well above 20,000, but that toll is rising by the hour as more information comes in from stricken communities. Read more

AP: China Welcomes Foreign Aid As Death Toll Rises

Nick Macfie
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday 18,645 people were buried under debris in the city of Mianyang, neighboring Wenchuan county, the epicenter of Monday’s devastating earthquake. Some 3,629 people had been confirmed dead. The death toll from China’s most devastating earthquake in three decades has jumped to more than 12,000, a top disaster relief official said on Tuesday, as storms hampered rescuers in the most devastated areas.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the city of Dujiangyan in China’s hard hit Sichuan province where about 900 teenagers remained buried when their school collapsed.

Sarah Irwin reports.

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USA Today
More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show. This reliance on troops found medically “non-deployable” is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million servicemembers to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups say.

“It is a consequence of the consistent churning of our troops,” said Bobby Muller, president of Veterans For America. “They are repeatedly exposed to high-intensity combat with insufficient time at home to rest and heal before redeploying.” Read more

U.S. officials in Myanmar are receiving information that there may be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area because of the cyclone that devastated the Southeast Asian nation, the top U.S. diplomat in the country said on Wednesday.

“The information that we’re receiving indicates that there may well be over 100,000 deaths in the delta area,” said Shari Villarosa, the charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar. She spoke with reporters by conference call from Rangoon. Read more

Burma’s isolated and xenophobic generals appealed for international help yesterday after a catastrophic cyclone killed at least 10,000 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless in the country’s agricultural heartland.

United Nations agencies were preparing last night to fly in emergency food, shelter and medical supplies to prevent epidemics and starvation inflicting a second disaster on the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which ripped across Burma on Saturday at 120mph (193km/h), destroying buildings and fields, toppling trees and washing away roads in the city of Rangoon and the Irrawaddy delta.
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