Britain's Brown slams Myanmar's authorities

5/17/20 LONDON Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC that a natural disaster "is being made into a man-made catastrophe by the negligence, the neglect and the inhuman treatment of the Burmese people."

Authorities in Myanmar say 78,000 people have died and 56,000 are missing. But aid groups say the death toll alone is probably about 128,000, with disease and starvation likely to increase that number unless help is provided quickly.

Some British politicians are calling for aid to be air-dropped into the affected region. Brown says air drops have not been ruled out, but that aid groups feel they would be counterproductive.