Myanmar cyclone
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations is stepping up efforts to combat malaria, cholera and other diseases in Myanmar that are now the main threat to millions left homeless by this month's cyclone, a senior official said. Full Article
SNAPSHOTS
Mystic "sorry"
A local astrologer says he will try harder to predict events in 2009 after failing to see Nargis coming. Full Article
Monks aid
Buddhists are helping fill the void left by the junta's tight control on foreign aid. Full Article
Junta rules on
After 46 years of unbroken military rule, many people think it will take an act of God to get rid of the generals. Full Article
"I lost my family"
When the massive Cyclone struck his village, fisherman Zaw Win clung to a tree for three hours. Full Article
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Factbox: Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta
The delta is a triangle of fertile land, mangrove swamps and tidal estuaries at the mouth of the Irrawaddy, Myanmar's longest river and its most important trade artery.
Stretching from scattered islands in the Bay of Bengal to the southeast port city of Yangon, the delta's base is about 150 miles long and its western flank about 180 miles.
It is criss-crossed by a vast network of streams that swell to become small lakes during the May-October monsoon rains. Their muddy waters empty into the Andaman Sea.
The delta was jungle and high grass when annexed as 'Lower Burma' by Britain in 1852 after the Second Anglo-Burmese War.
The colonial rulers, in charge until independence in 1948, encouraged migration and rice cultivation in the delta, commercializing its once feudal lands.
An estimated 3.5 million people now live in the delta's towns and villages -- 15 percent of a total population of 53 million. About five million live in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, on the delta's southeast edge.
Most people in the delta are from the majority Burman ethnic group, though minorities such as Karen and Shan also live there. It is one of Myanmar's most densely populated areas.
Over the last 150 years huge areas of mangrove forest have been cleared and converted to paddy in order to grow rice. Before independence, Myanmar was the world's largest exporter of rice, most of it grown in the delta.
Communication inside the delta is mainly water-based. Most households own a boat, and the southern delta's major towns are all connected by steamers.
Graphic
Suu Kyi stays under house arrest
A government officer had gone to the Nobel laureate's home to read out a six-month extension order. Video
Cyclone devastation
Images of destruction and devastation of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, where entire villages have been virtually washed away. Slideshow
