YANGON, Myanmar - Almost 4,000 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others are unaccounted for after a devastating cyclone in Myanmar, a state radio station said Monday.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win told foreign diplomats at a briefing that the death toll could rise to more than 10,000, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph. It knocked out electricity to the country’s largest city, Yangon, and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

Some sought refuge at Buddhist monasteries while others lined up Monday to buy candles, which had doubled in price, and water since the lack of electricity-driven pumps had left most households dry.

Myanmar is not known to have an adequate disaster warning system and many rural buildings are constructed of thatch, bamboo and other materials easily destroyed by fierce storms.

“The government misled people. They could have warned us about the severity of the coming cyclone so we could be better prepared,” said Thin Thin, a grocery store owner.

Myanmar’s ruling junta, which has spurned the international community for decades, appealed for aid on Monday. But the U.S. State Department said Myanmar’s government had not granted permission for a Disaster Assistance Response Team into the country.

Laura Blank, spokeswoman for World Vision, said two assessment teams have been sent to the hardest hit areas to determine the most urgent needs.

“This is probably the most devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia since the tsunami,” Blank said, referring to the 2004 disaster that killed around 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations. “There are a lot of important needs, but the most important is clean water.”

Myanmar’s government had previously put the death toll countrywide at 351 before increasing it Monday to 3,939.

The radio station broadcasting from the country’s capital, Naypyitaw, said that 2,879 more people are unaccounted for in a single town, Bogalay, in the country’s low-lying Irrawaddy River delta area where the storm wreaked the most havoc.

“Our staff has heard that in eight townships, over 95 percent of the land has been severely affected,” Pamela Sitko, World Vision’s communication relief manager for the Asia-Pacific region, told The Associated Press from Bangkok.

The situation in the countryside remained unclear because of poor communications and roads left impassable by the storm.

“Widespread destruction is obviously making it more difficult to get aid to people who need it most,” said Michael Annear, regional disaster management coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross in Bangkok.

At a Monday meeting with foreign diplomats and representatives of U.N. and international aid agencies, Myanmar’s foreign ministry officials said they welcomed international humanitarian assistance and urgently need roofing materials, plastic sheets and temporary tents, medicine, water purifying tablets, blankets and mosquito nets.

In Washington, the State Department said the U.S. Embassy in Yangon had authorized an emergency contribution of $250,000 to help with relief efforts.

“We have a DART team that is standing by and ready to go into Burma to help try to assess needs there,” deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. “As of this moment, the Burmese government has not given them permission, however, to go into the country so that is a barrier to us being able to move forward.”

Myanmar Red volunteers already were distributing some basic items, said Matthew Cochrane at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ Geneva headquarters.

The World Food Program has pre-positioned 500 tons of food in Yangon and plans to bring in more relief supplies, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

U.N. agencies were working with the Red Cross and other organizations to see how it can help those affected by the cyclone. UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said the U.N. children’s agency alone has five teams assessing the situation in the country.

The cyclone blew roofs off hospitals and schools in Yangon. Older citizens said they had never seen the city of some 6.5 million so devastated in their lifetimes.

Many stayed away from their jobs, either because they could not find transportation or because they had to seek food and shelter for their families.

“Without my daily earning, just survival has become a big problem for us,” said Tin Hla, who normally repairs umbrellas at a roadside stand.

With his home destroyed by the storm, Tin Hla said he has had to place his family of five into one of the monasteries that have offered temporary shelter to those left homeless.

His entire morning was taken up with looking for water and some food to buy, ending up with three chicken eggs that cost double the normal price.

Despite the havoc wreaked by the cyclone across wide swaths of the country, the government indicated that a referendum on the country’s draft constitution would proceed as planned on May 10.

“It’s only a few days left before the coming referendum and people are eager to cast their vote,” the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin said Monday.

At the meeting with diplomats, Relief Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Maung Swe said the vote could be postponed by “a few days” in the worst-affected areas. However, the foreign minister intervened to say the matter would be decided by the official referendum commission.

Pro-democracy groups in the country and many international critics have branded the proposed constitution as merely a tool for the military’s continued grip on power.

Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and crushing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.

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Associated Press writers Carley Petesch in New York and Alexander G. Higgins and Eliane Engeler in Geneva contributed to this report.

[Source: Yahoo News]

YANGON, Myanmar - A powerful cyclone killed more than 350 people and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said Sunday. Some dissident groups worried that the military junta running Myanmar would be reluctant to ask for international help.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit at a delicate time for the junta, less than a week ahead of a crucial referendum on a new constitution. Should the junta be seen as failing disaster victims, voters who already blame the regime for ruining the economy and squashing democracy could take out their frustrations at the ballot box.

Some in Yangon complained the 400,000-strong military was doing little to help victims after Saturday’s storm.

“Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat civilians?” said a trishaw driver who refused to be identified for fear of retribution. “They should come out in full force and help clean up the areas and restore electricity.”

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. Its government has been widely criticized for human rights abuses and suppression of pro-democracy parties such as the one led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.

Last September, at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.

The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups outside of Myanmar urged the military junta Sunday to allow aid groups to operate freely in the wake of the cyclone — something it has been reluctant to do in the past.

It would be difficult for other countries to help unless they received a request from Myanmar’s military rulers.

“International expertise in dealing with natural disasters is urgently required. The military regime is ill-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone,” said Naing Aung, secretary general of the Thailand-based forum.

The storm’s 120 mph winds blew the roofs off hospitals and cut electricity to the country’s largest city.

Shari Villarosa, the top American diplomat in Yangon, said the storm’s whipping winds and torrential downpour had caused “major devastation throughout the city.”

“The Burmese are saying they have never seen anything like this, ever,” Villarosa told The Associated Press. “Trees are down. Electricity lines are down. Our Burmese staff have lost their roofs.”

At least 351 people were killed, including 162 who lived on Haing Gyi island off the country’s southwest coast, military-run Myaddy television station reported. Many of the others died in the low-lying Irrawaddy delta.

“The Irrawaddy delta was hit extremely hard not only because of the wind and rain but because of the storm surge,” said Chris Kaye, the U.N.’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yangon. “The villages there have reportedly been completely flattened.”

State television reported that in the Irrawaddy’s Labutta township, 75 percent of the buildings had collapsed.

The U.N. planned to send teams Monday to assess the damage, Kaye said. Initial assessment efforts have been hampered by roads clogged with debris and downed phone lines, he said.

“At the moment, we have such poor opportunity for communications that I can’t really tell you very much,” Kaye said.

Yangon residents also said Sunday that the price of gasoline had jumped from $2.50 to $10 a gallon on the black market and everything from eggs to construction supplies had tripled.

The state-owned newspaper New Light of Myanmar, meanwhile, reported that the international airport in Yangon remained shut but state-run television said it could be opened by Monday. Domestic flights have been diverted to the airport in Mandalay.

The cyclone came only days before a May 10 referendum on the country’s military-backed draft constitution. Authorities have not yet said whether they would postpone the vote.

A military-managed national convention was held intermittently for 14 years to lay down guidelines for the country’s new constitution.

The new constitution is supposed to be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of a “roadmap to democracy” drawn up by the junta.

Critics say the draft constitution is designed to cement military power and have urged citizens to vote no.

[Source: Yahoo News]

HAGATNA, Guam - With 12 out of 20 districts reporting in Democratic presidential caucuses on Guam, delegates for Barack Obama were ahead with 899 votes to 769 for those pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More than 3,000 votes were expected in heavy turnout at caucuses in the U.S. territory, where neither candidate campaigned.

Four pledged delegate votes were at stake on the island 8,000 miles from Washington. Guam also has five superdelegates and some of those are being determined in the caucus voting as well.

Slow ballot-by-ballot counting was under way in the territorial legislative building after votes were hand carried from some 20 caucus sites.

Long lines of voters were reported in schools, community centers and other caucus sites that were open for voting all day Saturday.

U.S. citizens in Guam have no vote in the November presidential election, but the close Clinton-Obama race is giving them an unaccustomed role in the nomination process.

Voters picked eight pledged delegates who will have only one-half vote each at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

Presidential caucuses on Guam usually pass without much notice from the candidates.

This time, Obama and Clinton made their case for the territory’s four regular delegates with local advertising and long-distance interviews.

Lines formed early at some caucus sites.

Cynthia Estrada of Dedeo said she was making up her mind while waiting to vote, but she was leaning toward Clinton.

“She’s had the experience,” she said. “She’s got her husband to help her.”

Yona resident Tommy Shimizu said he was voting for Obama delegates.

“It’s the fact that he grew up in Hawaii, and I think he can make change,” he said. “I think it’s time for that.”

Clinton and Obama pitched improved health care and economic opportunity as they courted Guam voters from across the international date line.

Both candidates bought local advertising and conducted media interviews. In their protracted race for the nomination, no contest is being ignored.

Both Clinton and Obama say they’ve got the better health plan for Guamanians.

Obama said in an interview with Pacific Daily News that he would support reexamination of a $5.4 million Medicaid spending limit imposed on the territory. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, told KUAM radio earlier that his wife would work to remove the cap.

Hillary Clinton also has called for Guamanians to be able to vote in presidential elections.

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer

DAMASCUS, Ark. - Storms rolled across Arkansas early Friday, killing at least six people including a teenager crushed by a tree while she slept in her bed.

Earlier, storms late Thursday and early Friday seriously damaged homes and businesses in the Kansas City, Mo., area, and tornadoes were also reported in Oklahoma and Texas, although there were no immediate reports of severe damage.

In northwest Arkansas, a 15-year-old girl was killed early Friday when a tree fell on her home in Siloam Springs, police said. A 10-year-old boy in the home was taken to a hospital. Police said he was not seriously injured.

Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Tommy Jackson also confirmed two deaths in Conway County and three deaths in Van Buren County, north of Little Rock in the central part of the state. The Conway County victims were a father and son in a mobile home, the sheriff’s office said.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for several counties in central and north Arkansas, while a spotter reported a tornado down just after 8:30 a.m. near Damascus.

“It sounded like all hell was breaking loose,” said Randy Payne, 38, who hid in a hallway at his aunt and uncle’s house in Damascus.

In the Kansas City area, officials said several people were injured, none seriously. About 40,000 lost power at the peak of the storm, which brought wind of up to 80 mph. Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser said 100 homes suffered significant damage in the city alone. Damage was also reported in the suburbs and in Lawrence, to the west.

In northeast Kansas City, dozens of homes had chunks of their roofs missing, and trees were knocked from their roots and laying along the roads and in ditches. Police blocked off roads surrounding the damaged neighborhoods Friday.

In Canton, Texas, local officials said an apparent tornado Friday ripped down power lines and injured two people in overturned vehicles. Details on their condition were not immediately available.

The storm hit as visitors were beginning to show up for a popular open-air market that draws thousands to the county seat each month.

At least two tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma late Thursday, including one near Ralston, though no injuries or significant damage was reported there.

By JOHN WILEN, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK - Retail gas prices fell slightly Friday — the first time in 18 days they haven’t risen to a new record — and analysts say pump prices may be peaking for the year. Oil futures, meanwhile, soared after Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq injected some supply concerns into the market and the Labor Department’s employment report gave investors reason to be optimistic about the economy.

The national average price of a gallon of regular gas fell 0.1 cent overnight to $3.622, according to a survey of gas stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That’s the first time since April 14 that retail prices have fallen. Diesel prices fell 0.2 cent to a national average of $4.249 a gallon.

“It could go up just a little bit more,” said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at the Oil Price Information Service, in Wall, N.J., but, “I think it’s running out of steam.”

Prices could reach $3.70 a gallon, “at the most,” Rozell said, but are highly unlikely to rise to $4 on a national basis. Still, motorists in parts of states such as California and Hawaii are paying $4 right now.

Soaring gas prices are cutting demand for gasoline, and analysts have long theorized that falling demand will eventually force prices lower. However, gas prices bucked those forecasts for most of the spring and followed oil’s sharp gains.

On Friday, light, sweet crude for June delivery rose $3.80 to $116.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases inside Iraq for three hours overnight, a rebel spokesman said Friday. When conflict breaks out in the Middle East, investors often buy on concerns that supplies will be disrupted.

Some investors were also buying crude on a view that the economy is improving, analysts said. The Labor Department said employers cut far fewer jobs in April than expected.

“If the jobs (situation) isn’t as bad, maybe we’d see a snap back in demand,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

For a change, investors shrugged off the dollar, which rose on a theory that the employment data means the Federal Reserve is less likely to cut interest rates further this year; falling rates tend to weaken the dollar.

A rising dollar undercuts the appeal of commodities such as oil as a hedge against inflation, and makes oil more expensive to investors overseas. The rising greenback helped pull oil prices back to nearly $110 a barrel on Thursday. Oil’s climb to almost $120 on Monday from about $64 a year ago was largely due to a protracted decline by the dollar, analysts say.

However, oil’s connection to the dollar can be broken when other factors predominate, as they did Friday.

“It’s not a perfect relationship, and on any given day, oil will choose to go its own way,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill.

Still, analysts think the market’s decision to shrug off Friday’s stronger dollar will be short lived, particularly if the Fed holds interest rates steady and the dollar continues to gain.

“It will be difficult to sustain (oil price) rallies in the face of any further strength in the dollar,” Ritterbusch said.

And that means retail gas prices will likely rise no higher than $3.65 to $3.70 a gallon, before falling back toward $3 a gallon over the summer, he said.

In other Nymex trading Friday, June gasoline futures rose 7.65 cents to $2.9547 a gallon, and June heating oil futures rose 9.61 cents to $3.2138 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 21.8 cents to $10.779 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, June Brent crude futures gained $3.65 to $114.15 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

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Associated Press writer C. Onur Ant in Istanbul, Turkey, contributed to this report.