Asia-Pacific News
Meteorologists downgrade cyclone warning off Myanmar
By DPA
May 15, 2008, 5:00 GMT

   Bangkok - Warnings of a second cyclone heading for Myanmar, which is reeling from the impact of Cyclone Nargis, have been cancelled, meteorologists said Thursday.

'The potential for the development of a significant tropical cyclone within the next 24 hours is downgraded to poor,' the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii said in a forecast issued late Wednesday, saying the centre of the storm had weakened.

   International aid workers had expressed fears that a second cyclone, or torrential rains, would add to the misery of up to 2 million people left in need of food, water, shelter and medicines in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis, which smashed into the country's central coastal region May 2-3.

   According to government estimates, 38,491 people died and another 27,838 were missing, state-run television said Wednesday night.

   But United Nations officials have placed the actual death toll at closer to 100,000.