Morning Brief: Aid trickles in

AFP/AFP/Getty Images Top Story The Burmese junta is finally allowing the UN to deliver food aid to those devastated by Saturday’s cyclone. U.S. groups are still blocked from entering the country. The Burmese government is reporting nearly 23,000 dead but a top U.S. diplomat said the number may be far higher. Middle East Hezbollah members ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
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595137_080508_mb2.jpg
A Malaysian aid worker pack relief items including foods and medical supplies for cyclone hit Myanmar at a warehouse in Kuala Lumpur on May 8, 2008. The death toll from the Myanmar cyclone could top 100,000, the top US diplomat in the country said Wednesday, as thousands of shell-shocked survivors emerged from the flood waters, desperate for food. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Top Story

The Burmese junta is finally allowing the UN to deliver food aid to those devastated by Saturday’s cyclone. U.S. groups are still blocked from entering the country. The Burmese government is reporting nearly 23,000 dead but a top U.S. diplomat said the number may be far higher.

Middle East

Hezbollah members continued to clash with government supporters amid a called general strike that the New York Times is calling Lebanon’s “worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.”

Unsurprisingly, Jews and Palestinians have very different feelings on Israel’s independence day.

According to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, present-day Iran is ruled by a Shiite imam who died over 1000 years ago.

U.S. Election

After disappointing results in North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary Clinton was forced to loan her campagin $6.4 million.

More superdelegates appear to be breaking Obama’s way.

Would Obama have won Indiana without Rush Limbaugh?

Europe

Returning Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi formed a new cabinet in Italy. The anti-immigrant North League party took several key posts.

Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia’s new prime minister, one day after stepping down as president.

The U.S. urged Russia to “back down” in its confrontation with Georgia.

Asia

The Olympic flame reached the summit of Mount Everest.

India and Pakistan both tested nuclear-capable missiles.

Global Economy

The World Bank blasted the U.S. for funneling its corn production into biofuels while global food prices continue to rise.

Africa

Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony will meet with mediators this weekend. He’s still holding out on signing a peace deal to end Africa’s longest-running civil war.

A South African observer mission said that Zimbabwe is currently “too violent” to hold a planned runoff election.

South America

The region surrounding the Chilean volcano that erupted last week has been completely evacuated.

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Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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