Burma blocks UN emergency airlift for cyclone victims

Burma’s isolationist government blocked United Nations efforts today to airlift urgently needed food aid to survivors of a cyclone which may have killed more than 100,000 people, UN officials said.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme in Bangkok, said three flights were waiting to leave Dubai, Bangladesh and Thailand with about 50 tons (45 tonnes) of high-energy biscuits. A fourth shipment aboard a scheduled Thai Airways cargo flight was likely to carry some biscuits later today.