UN: No quick reply from Burma on visas for relief workers &India says it gave Burma cyclone warning two days in advance

UN: No quick reply from Burma on visas for relief workers
New York - The government of Burma had not responded to a request to waive visa requirements for international relief workers waiting for permission to bring much needed aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, the UN said Tuesday.
The UN had asked the government in Burma to waive visas for relief workers assembled in nearby Bangkok so they can begin their journey to Myanmar, said Rachid Khalikov, an official of the UN emergency relief department at UN headquarters in New York. But the Burmese embassy in Bangkok was closed on Monday for a Thai holiday.
"So far, there were no instructions for visas in Bangkok," Khalikov said.
In the past other countries have waived visa requirements to aid in relief efforts. For example, aid workers could provide emergency assistance to earthquake victims in Iran because that country waived visa requirements.
The devastating cyclone hit Burma over the weekend and the government there said more than 22,000 people have been killed and more than 40,000 people were missing. The government said more than 100,000 people needed urgent humanitarian assistance.
Khalikov said the UN headquarters in New York has had difficulties gathering information on conditions in Burma because of problems in communications with its staff in Burma. UN officials had met with Myanmar diplomats in New York to discuss urgent steps to assist the people in the impoverished south-east Asian nation, but they were also stymied by communication problems.

India says it gave Burma cyclone warning two days in advance
By Deutsche Press Agentur
New Delhi - The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday said it had given Burma 48 hours warning before cyclone Nargis smashed into the South-East Asian country claiming more than 22,500 lives.
The IMD had been monitoring the depression in the Bay of Bengal after it was first detected on April 26 and was issuing regular advisories to neighbouring Burma since then, cyclone director M Mahapatra said.
The IMD is a Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC) which is mandated by the UN's World Meteorological Organization to issue cyclone warnings to Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Oman and Pakistan.
"The system had intensified into a cyclone on April 28. Forty-eight hours before it struck, we had informed about its landfall, movement and severity such as wind speed of 180 kilometres per hour, to the Burmaese authorities," Mahapatra said.
"We were more or less correct in our assessment and warnings. There was ample time to take precautionary measures to save lives," he added.
The Burma government has said that more than 22,500 people were killed after the cyclone slammed into the country on Saturday. Some 41,000 people remained missing in the aftermath of the storm, deemed the worst disaster to hit South-East Asia since the December 2004 tsunami.
The comments by the IMD come in the backdrop of US allegations that Burma's military regime failed to warn citizens of the cyclone.
"Although they were aware of the threat, Burma's state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path," US Fist Lady Laura Bush had said on Monday referring to Burma by its former name of Burma