Hungry crowds of cyclone survivors stormed a few shops that opened in Myanmar's devastated Irrawaddy delta Wednesday, as the military-ruled country's visa restrictions hampered international aid efforts, according to AP. Little relief reached the people in the worst-hit western region, even as corpses drifted in salty flood waters after the weekend disaster that killed more than 22,000 people and left an estimated 1 million homeless. Internal U.N. documents obtained by The Associated Press showed growing frustrations at foot-dragging by the ruling junta, which has kept the impoverished nation isolated for five decades to maintain its iron-fisted control. «Visas are still a problem. It is not clear when it will be sorted out,» said the minutes of a meeting Wednesday of the U.N. task force coordinating relief for Myanmar in Bangkok, Thailand. Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for U.N. relief efforts in Geneva, said that the U.N. received permission to send nonfood supplies and that a cargo plane was being loaded in Brindisi, Italy, but that it might be two days before it leaves.
