Burma today announced that 84,500 people perished in last month’s cyclone, up from its earlier toll of 77,700 for the devastating storm that drew international pleas for the insular government to accept outside help.

The UN’s envoy to Burma suggested today that the country’s military rulers should be offered incentives to move toward democratic reforms.

Police in riot gear fired warning shots to disperse more than 100 Buddhist monks who defied the Burmese military government’s ban on public assembly today by trying to penetrate a barricade blocking Rangoon’s famed Shwedagon Pagoda.

Foreign diplomats and UN representatives are bewildered by Burma’s secretive military regime transferring its government ministries out of Rangoon, in a bizarre move analysts say is driven by fears of an American attack.