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Asian cyclone kills 140, leaves 18,000 homeless

BANGKOK: -- A cyclone that swept through western Myanmar last week left more than 140 people dead or missing, and about 18,000 people homeless, a U.N. agency said Friday.

UNICEF - the United Nation Children's Fund - said in a statement issued by its Geneva headquarters that the May 19 storm, with winds of up to 105 miles per hour, was the worst to hit the area since 1968.

It added that it "cannot currently confirm how many people have been affected by this disaster," which hit Myanmar's Rakhine State, several hundred miles northwest of the capital, Yangon.

Hardest hit were the coastal townships of Pauktaw, Myebon, Sittway and Kyaukpyu, it said.

Myanmar's state-controlled media has not reported on the disaster. The military government often downplays bad news.

Tun Lwin, director of the state meteorological department, confirmed details of the storm to The Associated Press, but declined to talk about casualties or damages, which he said were the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Resettlement

UNICEF said the storm formed over the Bay of Bengal and crossed Myanmar's southwest coast near the border with Bangladesh, causing tidal surges and flooding. Tun Lwin said the storm lasted from 11:30 a.m. until evening.

--AP 2004-05-28