Ukraine marks Chernobyl disaster amid efforts to secure reactor

Kiev (AFP)
April 26, 2013

Ukrainians on Friday lit candles and laid flowers to remember the victims of the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl 27 years ago, as engineers pressed on with efforts to permanently shield the stricken reactor.

On April 26, 1986, an explosion during testing sent radioactive fallout into the atmosphere that spread across Europe, particularly contaminating Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.

Dozens of people laid flowers and set lit candles in front of portraits at the monument to the Chernobyl victims in the small town of Slavutych, some 50 kilometers from the accident site, where many of the power station's personnel used to live.

At the same time in the capital Kiev, officials and relatives of the victims also held a pre-dawn remembrance ceremony in front of a memorial.

"The memory of the tragedy calls for unity and consolidation of the efforts of the government and society to solve the problems in implementing projects to create an environmentally safe system at Chernobyl," said President Viktor Yanukovych in a statement.

"The countless women, men and children affected by radioactive contamination must never be forgotten," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement, urging worldwide "generosity" to the affected regions.

Ukraine last year launched the construction of a permanent shelter to replace the temporary concrete-and-steel edifice that was hastily erected after the disaster and which has since developed cracks.

"A new confinement is our future, this is something that we awaited for many years," Alexander Novikov, deputy technical director for security at the Chernobyl power plant, told reporters on a visit to Chernobyl this week.

The 20,000-tonne arched structure that spans 257 meters  known as the new safe confinement, is designed to last for a century, and will contain hi-tech equipment to carry out safe decontamination work inside the ruined reactor.

The construction of the new structure is expected to cost 990 million euros, while the decontamination work on the site will push the total cost up to 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion).

Completion of the new shelter is expected in October 2015.

The plant's management said it will also soon begin construction of a temporary cover over the section of Chernobyl plant where a part of the roof collapsed this winter under the weight of fallen snow.

Novikov emphasized that the section, which collapsed in February, was not the part of the sarcophagus structure covering the exploded reactor.

"The project work is almost completed and we will start construction of temporary cover to close the hole that appeared," he said.

The general manager of the Chernobyl plant, Igor Gramotkin, added the collapse of the roof section once again underlined the need for the rapid completion of a new arch over the stricken reactor.

Chernobyl is only around 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Kiev and lies close to the borders with Russia and Belarus. The area around the plant is still very contaminated and is designated as a depopulated "exclusion zone".

The Soviet Union ordered thousands of people to take part in the clean-up in Ukraine following the Chernobyl accident, working without adequate protection.

Although only two people were killed in the initial explosions, the UN atomic agency says that 28 rescue workers died of radiation sickness in the first three months after the accident.

According to Ukrainian official figures, more than 25,000 of the cleanup workers, known as "liquidators" from then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have died after the disaster.

However the true scale of the death toll directly attributable to the disaster remains the subject of bitter scientific debate.

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ukraine_marks_Chernobyl_disaster_amid_efforts_to_secure_reactor_999.html.

Netherlands queen abdicates in favor of her eldest son

April 30, 2013

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, April 30 (UPI) -- Queen Beatrix, the 75-year-old monarch of the Netherlands, signed a formal declaration Tuesday abdicating in favor of her eldest son.

The ceremony took place in a 15th century church in Amsterdam next to the royal palace where thousands of cheering subjects waited to greet their new monarch.

Willem-Alexander, 46, became the Netherlands first king in 123 years, and his 9-year-old daughter Catharine-Amalia is now the heir to the throne, DutchNews.nl reported.

Thousands of cheering fans waited outside the palace for the royal family to appear on the balcony.

The new king, his queen Maxima and their three daughters waved at the crowd after being presented by Queen Beatrix, The Guardian reported.

In her farewell address, Queen Beatrix thanked the nation for its support.

"Without your heartwarming and encouraging displays of affection, the burdens, which certainly have existed, would have weighed heavily," the queen said.

She said her son is "ready in every way" to assume the largely ceremonial job of monarch, The New York Times reported.

"Monarchy is what unites us and makes us Dutch," one fervent royalist told the Times. "Politicians just fight each other."

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2013/04/30/Netherlands-queen-abdicates-in-favor-of-her-eldest-son/UPI-40741367323421/.

"Destruction of Ahwaz's marshes is like the destruction of the Amazon"

Friday, May 17, 2013

A speech by Ahwazi environmental activist Haifa Assadi, at the Ahwaz human rights meeting in the UK's Houses of Parliament, 15 May 2013

The Ahwaz region faces an environmental catastrophe on a par with the destruction of the Amazon rainforests. River diversion and the draining of the marshes are turning a once fertile land into desert while industrial pollution has made Ahwaz City the most polluted place on Earth, according to the World Health Organisation. As well as destroying the unique ecology of the region, the effects have been devastating for the indigenous Ahwazi Arab population.

Over centuries, the climate and environment of Ahwaz have depended on the rivers flowing through the region. The Karoon, Karkheh, Dez and Jarrahi rivers play an important role in the conservation of the marshlands of Falahiyeh and Hawr-Alazim. The life of the Arab farmers depends on the rivers’ water. Moreover, rivers prevent the salt water of the Gulf flowing up the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

However, the Iranian regime has been actively engaged in plans with the most destructive impacts on the ecological balance of the region and desertification of the once green fields of Ahwaz. One of these plans is the transferring of water to the central provinces of Iran through diversion of the rivers. This is done regardless of the region’s minimum water requirements.

Several dams and diversion tunnels have been built for this purpose of diverting water from the Karoon river to the already dry Zayanderood river of Isfahan. A total of 69 dams have been built or are under construction.

At the same time, the Iranian regime has been investing on the development of the environmentally destructive sugarcane plantations, created on 250,000 hectares of fertile farmland confiscated from Arab farmers.

The destructive environmental impact of these projects is the salty wastewater that turns the green fields of Ahwaz further downstream into barren lands. At the same time, fresh water from the Zagros mountains is being replaced by wastewater from the western cities of the country, contributing to the environmental crisis. The date plantations that traditionally sustained the livelihoods of thousands of Arab farmers are now dying. Moreover, the saline wastewater stored in a large area around the city of Muhammara for evaporation has left hills of salt there to become a great threat to the health of the Arab people of Ahwaz.

Due to the excessive pollution of the rivers the amount of total dissolved solids in the water has greatly increased. In the border cities of Abadan and Muhammara, it has reached four times the maximum level for potable water.

Another important factor in the aridification of the region is the deliberate evaporation of the Hawr Al-Azim marsh. This is being done on a par with Saddam’s destruction of the Iraqi marshes.

Hawr Al-Azim marsh has a very important role in maintaining the ecological balance in the Middle East. It has been completely destroyed and dried out due to the activities of oil companies. According to Ali Mohammad Shaeri, the vice president of the Iranian environment organization, "500 thousand hectares of marshlands of Ahwaz have dried out and this is the main cause of sand storms in the region." The sand storms are the result of a decline in humidity throughout the whole region. As a result, the Pollutant Standards Index – or PSI – of the air quality in Ahwaz region has passed 600 units. This is while according to the international standards a PSI over 300 units is critically hazardous.

The destruction of Hawr Al-Azim has forced people from more than forty villages to abandon their homes and move to city slums. In Ahwaz City alone there are more than 400,000 Arabs living in slums, suffering difficult health and social conditions.

The environmental crisis in Ahwaz has several negative effects on the health of the indigenous Arab people. In recent years, respiratory and lung diseases have become very common as a result of high air pollution, leading to many deaths. Water pollution has resulted in skyrocketing digestive and Kidney diseases.

Because of the discriminatory policies of the Iranian regime against the indigenous Arab people of Ahwaz, they are deprived of the right to manage their own affairs. The crucial managing positions are assigned to non-native people coming from other provinces. These assigned officials do not consider the right of the native people of Ahwaz in the water resources of the region and the resources are expropriated to the advantage of the central provinces. The Iranian regime has no intention of stopping or even considering stopping these plans. Instead, new projects for dam construction and water diversion are being proposed and destructive industries – which do not employ local people – are contributing ever higher amounts of toxic pollution.

Source: Ahwaz News Agency.
Link: http://www.ahwaziarabs.info/2013/05/destruction-of-ahwazs-marshes-is-like.html.

"Ahwazi Arab women are third class citizens"

Friday, May 17, 2013

Speech by Ahwazi women's rights activist Elham al-Saedi at the Ahwaz human rights meeting in the UK's Houses of Parliament, 15 May 2013

Ahwazi Arab women suffer double persecution by the Iranian regime due to their ethnicity and gender. This operates in the areas of education, health, politics and social life. While Ahwazi Arab men are second-class citizens, Ahwazi women are third-class.

Illiteracy among Ahwazi Arab women is around 80 per cent, compared to around 50 per cent for Ahwazi men and 27% for Iran as a whole. Ahwazi women suffer health problems as a result of a lack of adequate health facilities. As a result, Ahwazi women suffer gynaecological problems and have a high incidence of infertility, stillbirths and birth deformities.

Ahwazi Arab women are also subjected to state terrorism. The wives of Ahwazi political and cultural activists are often arrested and imprisoned, along with their small children, in order to put pressure on their husbands to confess to crimes they did not commit. Women and children are held as hostages by the Iranian regime and often held for months without charge.

Some incarcerated Ahwazi women have been pregnant and have either miscarried or forced to give birth in prison without adequate medical assistance and in unsanitary conditions. An example is Fahima Ismail Badawi who gave birth to her daughter Salma in prison. She was held in custody as punishment for refusing to denounce her husband Ali Matouri Zadeh and divorce him. She refused and as a result is currently serving a 15 year prison sentence following a secretive trial by Branch 3 of Ahwaz Revolutionary Court. Her husband was tortured into confessing to being a British secret agent involved in terrorist attacks and was executed.

Officially, Ahwazi Arab women have the same legal rights as every other woman in Iran. However, Ahwazi women share same the same culture and social existence with women in neighboring Arab countries.

In terms of their social and economic life, they endure a great deal of backwardness even in Iranian terms. We cannot blame only the discriminatory laws against women in Islamic republic regime as the cause of this problem. These laws are applied to both Ahwazi Arab women and women in central areas of Iran, although non-Persian women are subjected to more political repression. We cannot blame the ethnic tribal customs and traditions of Ahwazi Arabs people either. Women with same culture and social beliefs in neighboring countries, for instance in Bahrain, have become advocates and judges. As such, ethnic customs are not the only cause of Ahwazi women’s oppression.

Non-Persian women suffer multiple discrimination in terms of criminal and common laws. Because they are less protected by law, they are subjected to more social crimes and violence, such as honor killing. Honor killings are more common in non-central, non-Persian areas and are justified by law and custom. Women are subjected to domestic violence, forced marriage – sometimes while they are still children and traded like objects as gifts between some tribes in economically backward areas. Arabistan leads all other regions in anti-women crimes due to backward cultural attitudes that are tolerated and encouraged by the regime.

Only through education and culture can Ahwazi women be free of persecution. But the Iranian state prevents any form of Arab cultural activity. All cultural modes, such as television and newspapers, are controlled by the state. The government wants to sustain traditional tribal systems of control to keep the Arab community in a backward state and prevent self-directed cultural improvement. Meanwhile, official positions that are supposed to cover women’s issues in the Arab-populated region – such as the chair of women’s affairs in the provincial governor’s office – have always been occupied by non-Arab, non-local women. They do not know the culture, customs and tradition of these people.

Ahwazi Arab women's problems and concerns are rooted in their community culture, customs and traditions and they are not going to be solved unless there are civil society organisations which originate in the heart of their culture. These civil organisations can play a major role in providing the best environment to work against discrimination against women.

Ahwazi Arab women are capable of social activism, as seen in their participation in political activities during the short reformist reign of President Khatami which to some extent was politically tolerant. During this time, Ahwazi Arab women won three out of nine seats in the Arab-majority city of Showra. But in the current situation, with the regime imposing discriminatory practices against ethnic nationals, women will be the most disadvantaged people. As such, it is no surprise that Ahwazi Arab women are absent from social and political life.

The freedom of all Ahwazi Arabs depends on the freedom of the female half of the population. Women’s rights should be central to the Ahwazi struggle.

Source: Ahwaz News Agency.
Link: http://www.ahwaziarabs.info/2013/05/ahwazi-arab-women-are-third-class.html.

Willem-Alexander becomes new Dutch king

May 01, 2013

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Millions of Dutch people dressed in orange flocked to celebrations around the Netherlands Tuesday in honor of a once-in-a-generation milestone for the country's ruling House of Orange-Nassau: after a 33-year reign, Queen Beatrix abdicated in favor of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander.

At 46, King Willem-Alexander is the youngest monarch in Europe and the first Dutch king in 123 years, since Willem III died in 1890. Like Beatrix before him, Willem-Alexander has assumed the throne at a time of social strains and economic malaise.

Although the Dutch monarchy is largely ceremonial, he immediately staked out a course to preserve its relevance in the 21st century. "I want to establish ties, make connections and exemplify what unites us, the Dutch people," the freshly minted king said at a nationally televised investiture ceremony in Amsterdam's 600-year-old New Church, held before the combined houses of Dutch parliament.

"As king, I can strengthen the bond of mutual trust between the people and their government, maintain our democracy and serve the public interest." Hopes for the new monarch are high. For most of the 2000s, the country was locked in an intense national debate over the perceived failure of Muslim immigrants, mostly from North Africa, to integrate. In response, politicians curtailed many of the famed Dutch tolerance policies.

More recently, this trading nation of 17 million has suffered back-to-back recessions. European Union figures released Tuesday showed Dutch unemployment spiking upward toward 6.4 percent. That's below the EU average, but a 20-year high in the Netherlands.

"I am taking the job at a time when many in the kingdom feel vulnerable and uncertain," Willem-Alexander said. "Vulnerable in their work or health. Uncertain about their income or home environment." Amsterdam resident Inge Bosman, 38, said she doubted Willem-Alexander's investiture would give the country much of an employment boost.

"Well, at least one person got a new job," she said. Tellingly, one of Willem-Alexander's first diplomatic missions as king will be to visit the country's largest trading partner, Germany. While many are skeptical that the new king can make a difference where politicians have failed, the celebrations provided a welcome change from the humdrum of everyday life, and the popularity of the royal house itself is not in doubt. A poll commissioned by national broadcaster NOS and published this week showed that 78 percent support the monarchy.

The royal couple has also been active in the global campaign to fight poverty. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Willem-Alexander and praised the royal couple for supporting the promotion of clean water, sanitation and development. The new king has chaired the secretary-general's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.

Ban also paid tribute to Beatrix for her "outstanding public service" and "for the important and positive force the Netherlands has been throughout her reign, in promoting international law, the rule of law and peaceful settlement of disputes."

Most say that the House of Orange-Nassau, which was instrumental in the Dutch war for independence in the 16th and 17th centuries, is a cornerstone of the national identity. It represents something that is both quintessentially Dutch, and above politics.

"I think (Willem-Alexander) is just like his mum — honest, wants to do a lot for his people inside the country and also outside the country," said Ron Pols, who was attending celebrations in Amsterdam.

Willem Alexander's popularity has been steadily rising since his 2002 marriage to an Argentine commoner, Maxima Zorreguieta. In an interview shortly before his accession, Willem-Alexander turned in a relaxed performance, saying he will not be a "protocol fetishist," but a king who puts his people at ease.

Around 25,000 supporters thronged Amsterdam's central Dam Square Tuesday, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new king or the departing 75-year-old queen, now known as Princess Beatrix. Millions more watched on television as King Willem-Alexander, wearing a fur-trimmed ceremonial mantle, swore an oath of allegiance to the country and the constitution.

Earlier, the new king gripped his mother's hand and looked briefly into her eyes after they both signed the abdication document in the Royal Palace on Dam Square. Beatrix appeared close to tears as she then appeared on a balcony decked out with tulips, roses and oranges, overlooking her subjects.

"I am happy and grateful to introduce to you your new king, Willem-Alexander," she told the cheering crowd, which chanted: "Bea bedankt" ("Thanks Bea.") Moments later, the generational shift was enacted symbolically. Beatrix left the balcony as King Willem-Alexander, his wife and three daughters — the children in matching yellow dresses and headbands — waved to the crowd.

The highly popular Maxima became Queen Maxima, and their eldest of three daughters, Catharina-Amalia, became the Princess of Orange, the first in line to the throne. At a sparsely attended anti-monarchist demonstration on the nearby Waterloo Square, protesters dressed in white instead of orange and carried signs mocking Willem-Alexander.

"Monarchy is a sexually-transmitted disease," one sign said. "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others," said another. It included a picture of a pig wearing a crown, with a line crossing it out.

Amsterdammer Jan Dikkers said he attended to show his disapproval for a hereditary head of state, and Willem-Alexander in particular, who he said Dutch people only accept because "people like his wife."

He added that Beatrix is overrated. "People say the queen did a 'good job', but she didn't really do any job," Dikkers said. One criticism of the royal house is that it is too expensive, especially in difficult economic times. University of Ghent professor Herman Matthijs estimates that it costs €40 million ($52 million) a year to maintain— slightly more than taxpayers' support for Britain's House of Windsor.

The difficulties facing the Dutch should be kept in perspective. Per-capita incomes remain high, the United Nations says Dutch children are the world's happiest, on average, and the country retains its triple A credit rating.

The celebrations in Amsterdam Tuesday were lively but peaceful, a stark contrast to Beatrix's investiture in 1980. Then, squatters protesting a chronic housing shortage battled police nearly to the doors of the palace.

The official festivities concluded with the new king and queen and their daughters taking an evening boat cruise around the historic Amsterdam waterfront, at one stage climbing out of their boat to join DJ Armin van Buuren and the Concert Gebouw Orchestra on stage at a concert.

Thousands rally against European austerity on May Day

By Clare Kane
MADRID | Wed May 1, 2013

(Reuters) - Workers hit by lower living standards and record high unemployment staged May Day protests across Europe on Wednesday, hoping to persuade their governments of the case for easing austerity measures and boosting growth.

In the debt-laden euro zone countries of Spain, Greece, Italy and France tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demand jobs and an end to years of belt-tightening.

In Spain, where the economy has shrunk for seven consecutive quarters and unemployment stands at a record 27 percent, thousands of people snaked up Madrid's Gran Via central shopping street carrying placards reading "austerity ruins and kills".

"The future of Spain looks terrible; we're going backwards with this government," said former civil servant Alicia Candelas, 54, who has been without a job for two years.

Unions said 50,000 people marched in Madrid and more than 1 million took part in peaceful rallies across the country. There was no independent estimate, and police did not give a figure.

Trains and ferries were canceled in Greece, and bank and hospital staff walked off the job after unions there called a 24-hour strike, the latest in a string of protests in a country in its sixth year of recession.

About 1,000 police officers were deployed in Athens, but the demonstration passed off peacefully, with about 5,000 striking workers, pensioners and students marching to parliament holding banners reading: "We won't become slaves, take to the streets!".

Earlier, hundreds of protesters affiliated with the Communist KKE party made a clenched-fist salute on Syntagma Square, scene of clashes between police and protesters during previous protests.

"The economy won't be resurrected by the bankrupt banks and the corrupt political system but by the workers and their fight," Alexis Tsipras, leader of the anti-bailout Syriza party, told protesters.

Harsh measures to cut Greece's budget deficit are a condition of its international bailout, imposed on Athens to save it from a chaotic bankruptcy and euro exit.

But there were fewer protesters on the streets than last year when 100,000 marched on Syntagma Square. The May 1 holiday falls just before Greek Orthodox Easter, so public schools were shut and many workers had left for holidays.

AUSTERITY VS GROWTH

Four euro zone countries - Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus - have received sovereign bailouts. With little or no sign of growth in the currency bloc, the European Central Bank is expected to cut interest rates to a record low of 0.5 percent at its meeting on Thursday.

But analysts say that alone will do little to lift the zone out of recession, and several governments are now openly discussing policies to try to boost growth.

Italy's new Prime Minister Enrico Letta told Germany on Tuesday that his government would meet its budget commitments but expected Europe to drop its austerity mantra and do more to lift growth.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seen by many in southern Europe as the champion of the belt-tightening approach, struck a conciliatory tone, saying "budget consolidation and growth need not be contradictory".

Letta met French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday, expecting a more favorable hearing for his focus on growth.

France's two biggest unions, split over Hollande's labor law reforms, held separate May 1 marches. Hollande's approval rating has dropped as low as 25 percent as cuts bite and unemployment has risen.

German unions said about 425,000 people took part in more than 400 events around the country.

Michael Sommer, head of the DGB federation of German labor unions, said the German government should have more solidarity with the rest of the euro zone.

"We cannot allow this continent to be 'kaputtgespart' - forced to save so much that it breaks apart," he said.

Tens of thousands marched in Italy's major cities to demand action to tackle unemployment - at 11.5 percent overall and 40 percent among the young. Demonstrators in Turin threw hollowed eggs filled with black paint at police.

Pope Francis made a May Day appeal for governments to tackle unemployment, as "work is fundamental to the dignity of a person".

"I think of how many, and not just young people, are unemployed, many times due to a purely economic conception of society, which seeks selfish profit, beyond the parameters of social justice," he told a crowd in St. Peter's Square.

Thousands of people marched in Lisbon calling for an end to austerity dictated by Portugal's EU/IMF bailout, a day after the government said there would be more spending cuts.

Traditional May Day marches were also taking place outside the euro zone. In Russia, about 1.5 million people were expected to take part in parades, a fraction of the millions that used to march in Soviet times.

In Istanbul, Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds gathering for a rally. A Reuters photographer said at least six people were injured.

Turkish authorities often use force to prevent the rally in the city center, having this year denied trade unions permission to march on Taksim Square, saying construction work there would make it too dangerous.

(Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou and Deepa Babington in Athens, Lidia Kelly in Moscow and Murad Sezer in Istanbul, and Philip Pullella in Rome; Writing by Janet Lawrence; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/01/us-europe-protests-idUSBRE94009K20130501.

Bangladesh, Myanmar relieved as cyclone fizzles

May 17, 2013

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AP) — A once-fearsome cyclone that was threatening Bangladesh and Myanmar dissipated quickly, causing some deaths but largely relieving authorities who had told more than 1 million people to leave vulnerable coastal areas in preparation for a far worse storm.

Cyclone Mahasan lost power as it shed huge amounts of rain and then veered west of its predicted path, sparing major Bangladeshi population areas, including Chittagong and the seaside resort of Cox's Bazar, said Mohammad Shah Alam, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

Coastal areas were spared major damage because it hit Thursday afternoon during low tide, causing no major tidal surge, he said. "Thank God we have been spared this time," local government administrator Ruhul Amin said.

Before the storm threat weakened, Bangladesh had evacuated 1 million people, and the United Nations warned that 8.2 million people could face life-threatening conditions. Myanmar was spared almost entirely. Evacuation attempts there had met with frustration as some of the tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya people in western Rakhine state were wary about the government's order and refused to leave.

"It's all over, and we are very relieved that we didn't have any unfortunate incident in Rakhine state due to the cyclone," Win Myaing, Rakhine's regional spokesman said. In Cox's Bazar, tens of thousands of people had fled shanty homes along the coast and packed into cyclone shelters, hotels, schools and government office buildings. But by Thursday afternoon, the sun was shining and Amin said he planned to close the shelters by the evening.

The storm's slow movement toward Bangladesh gave the government plenty of warning to get people to safety, Amin said. "But for the evacuation, the casualties would have been higher," he said. Ferry services in the delta nation resumed Thursday night after being suspended in advance of the cyclone. Scores of factories near the choppy Bay of Bengal had been closed, and the military said it kept 22 navy ships and 19 Air Force helicopters at the ready.

A 1991 cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal killed an estimated 139,000 people and left millions homeless. In 2008, Myanmar's southern delta was devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people. Both those cyclones were much more powerful than Mahasen, which hit land with maximum wind speeds of about 100 kph (62 mph) and quickly weakened, said Alam, the meteorological official.

By the time it hit Chittagong and Cox's Bazar, wind speeds had plunged to 25 kph (16 mph), Alam said. The storm then dissipated entirely, he said. Bangladesh counted at least 10 deaths, most from the collapse of mud walls or by fallen trees. Related heavy rains and flooding had been blamed for eight deaths in Sri Lanka earlier this week.

At least eight people — and possibly many more — were killed in Myanmar as they fled the cyclone Monday night, when overcrowded boats carrying more than 100 Rohingya capsized. Only 43 people had been rescued by Thursday, and more than 50 were still missing.

Babul Akther, a Bangladeshi police official in Tekhnaf close to Myanmar border, said police there found 19 bodies Thursday in the Naaf River, which separates the two nations. He said most of the bodies were of children, and they suspect they are victims of Monday's boat capsizings.

Much of the fears about the storm's impact had been focused on western Myanmar because of the crowded, low-lying camps Rohingya were refusing to evacuate. U.N. officials, hoping they would inspire greater trust than the government, had worked to encourage people to leave.

In Rakhine state, around 140,000 people — mostly Rohingya — have been living in the camps since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes.

Nearly half the displaced live in coastal areas that were considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen. "Pack and leave," a Rakhine state official, U Hla Maung, warned before the storm hit as he walked through a camp near Sittwe, the state capital. Accompanied by more than a dozen soldiers and riot police, he suggested that people living there move to a nearby railroad embankment, then left without offering help.

Some Rohingya took down their tents and hauled their belongings away in cycle-rickshaws, or carried them in bags balanced on their heads. Ko Hla Maung, an unemployed fisherman, was among those who had not left as of Thursday morning.

"We have no safe place to move, so we're staying here, whether the storm comes or not," he said. "... The soldiers want to take us to a village closer to the sea, and we're not going to do that. ... If the storm is coming, then that village will be destroyed."

Associated Press writers Tim Sullivan in Sittwe, Myanmar, Yadana Htun and Aye Aye Win in Yangon, Myanmar, Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok and Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.