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100,000 Burmese Now Feared Dead

Posted May 7, 08 1:34 PM CDT in World 

(Newser) – The death toll from Burma's catastrophic cyclone could reach 100,000, a US diplomat said today. That's almost five times what the nation's government had estimated, CNN reports—and aid workers are still waiting in Thailand, to be allowed into the country to help the estimated million hungry and homeless survivors.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports, some 36 prisoners might have been shot dead by the ruling junta after the storm hit. Soldiers are said to have opened fire into a crowd when inmates rioted at the Insein Prison in Rangoon, described by former residents as “the darkest hell-hole in Burma."

Sources CNN, Daily Telegraph (UK)

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This handout satellite image provided Wednesday, May 7, 2008, by DigitalGlobe shows a November 22, 2004 view of the area of Myanmar devastated by a cyclone on May 3.   (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)
In this photo released by the Mandalay Gazette, sunken ship is seen in a river after Cyclone Nargis, in Yangon Myanmar, Tuesday, May 6, 2008.   (AP Photo/Mandalay Gazette, HO)
Passengers looks on as they are transported on a boat in Yangon, Myanmar, Wednesday, May 7, 2008.   (AP Photo)
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