YANGON, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from Cyclone Nargis has risen sharply to 77,738 in Myanmar, the state television reported in a night broadcast Friday, a fortnight after the disaster hit the country.

    The dead included 159 state service personnel.

A child takes a nap by a road at a village hit by Cyclone Nargis, outside Yangon, May 16, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    A total of 55,917 people, including 58 government employees remained missing, said the report.

    The number of the injured stood at 19,359.

    The sharp increase of the death toll was confirmed late because the disaster-hit area was so wide and the searching operation was hard that the authorities could not obtain the figures in time, the report clarified.

A woman washes clothes at her home at a village hit by Cyclone Nargis, outside Yangon, May 16, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Myanmar government outlined a cyclone-relief policy shortly after the disaster, welcoming aid supplies from any country but denying entry for foreign aid workers to help launch rescue and relief operations, saying that it prefers to use its own strength.

    The government also disallows foreigners to have access to disaster-hit areas, designating that relief activities including foreign, public and individual donations be handed over through the government's central relief and resettlement headquarters.

Strong wind and heavy rain blow down electric poles and advertisement signs, and blow away roofs as Cyclone Nargis hits Yangon in this picture taken May 3, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Meanwhile, the authorities claimed that the first phase of rescue of storm victims, provision of temporary shelter, supply of food and clothes and healthcare has been underway to an extent, while the present second phase sets domestic construction entrepreneurs to take part in the rehabilitation of the victims by promptly helping rebuild their respective wrecked houses in towns and villages mainly in Ayeyawaddy and Yangon divisions.

    The third step is to re-generate farmlands which were flooded by sea water in the storm.

    A deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and infrastructure damage.

    Hard-hit coastal towns in the southwestern Ayeyawaddy division include Haing Gyi Island, Laputta, Mawlamyinegyun, Bogalay, Phyarpon, Kyaiklat, Ngaputaw, and Dedaye, while worst-hit areas in Yangon division comprised Kungyangon, Thanlyin, Kyauktan, Twantay, Kawmu as well as the Yangon city. 

Relief camps unable to accommodate cyclone victims in Myanmar's hardest-hit township

    YANGON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Relief camps cannot accommodate cyclone victims in Bogalay, one of the hardest-hit townships in Myanmar's southwestern Ayeyawaddy delta region, according to one of the leading local news journals Saturday.

    About 50,000 refugees out of over 100,000 have been shifted to other relief camps in the nearby lesser-hit township of Maubin. Full story

Myanmar organizes diplomatic mission to look into cyclone-hit areas

    YANGON, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A diplomatic mission, organized by the Myanmar government, has been taken to some disaster-hit areas in the country Saturday by helicopters to look into the status of the areas after disaster, according to diplomatic sources.

    It is the first time that the government made such move to allow foreigners to inspect the cyclone-torn regions in the aftermath of the disaster. Full story

UN humanitarian chief to arrive in Myanmar to push for aid efforts

    UNITED NATIONS, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A top United Nations relief official will arrive in Myanmar on Sunday to talk directly with the authorities of the country in an effort to accelerate the relief efforts for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which had killed about 78,000, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here on Friday.

    Ban said at an informal session of the General Assembly that hehad asked Special Coordinator John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, to visit Myanmar this weekend. Full story

Norway critical of sanctions against Myanmar

    STOCKHOLM, May 16 (Xinhua) -- The Norwegian government expressed on Friday its critical attitude to sanctions against Myanmar, according to reports reaching here from Oslo.

    Sanctions by Western nations against Myanmar have no effects on the Myanmar government, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.  Full story