Snowmail: toll could 'reach 50,000'

The catastrophic cyclone Nargis has wrought far, far more damage than anyone imagined. Whatever its politics, Burma is a devastated country tonight.

The former capital and largest city, Rangoon, is badly damaged but the worst-hit part of the country is the delta region of the Irrawaddy river.

The death toll, which started at several hundred, has gone from 10,000 over night to 22,500 tonight.

Chris Kaye, the director of the World Food Programme in Burma, tells us this evening that the toll may go much higher, possibly to 50,000.

The normally recalcitrant and inward -looking junta has had to accept the need for massive external aid.

This is a catastrophe on a par with any one nation's suffering in the boxing day tsunami of 2004.

The UN man in the Irrawaddy delta has told Chris Kaye that the survivors are suffering from acute skin burns from the sheer force of the torrential rain on their unprotected skin.

Tonight we have the latest pictures plus a number of key interviews and our own man, who I'm not at liberty to name, is on the ground in Rangoon, somehow managing to transmit material to us.

I shall, for the sake of argument, call him Hugh.

Hugh has seen for himself the scale of the destruction in Rangoon but, because of continuing censorship and the difficulty of getting journalists into Burma, Hugh has to remain "Hugh".

'Drunk' Portugal parents claim drinks were spiked

Next, to the case of the "drunk" parents in Portugal and their three children, who were briefly taken into care.

Jane Dodge is looking at this weird anniversary moment one year after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

A friend of the family suggests their drinks were spiked but a local barman claims the alcohol was very cheap and they had too much of it.

Crewe by-election kicks off

It's day one of the Crewe by-election campaign, kicking off before the late Gwyneth Dunwoody - former MP for the seat - is even laid to rest. Her grieving daughter is one of the candidates.

Gary Gibbon is there, his report complicated by the fact that the train carrying most of the political bigwigs who were set to campaign there today fell victim to a power failure at Euston station in London - so at this stage I'm not entirely sure what he has in his report.

Meanwhile, Charles Clarke has issued a kind of manifesto for what Labour has to do but, for some reason, he doesn't want to talk about it on television.

It's a pity because the manifesto is rather interesting.

Gordon Brown, meanwhile, has been chairing a major initiative on getting business to commit to Africa.

Gary Gibbon will be asking whether perhaps Mr Brown is good at the macro but somehow in difficulties when it comes to the micro.

Boris's big decision

Boris Johnson's first big decision: whether to allow or ban the progress of the Olympic torch through London once again, this time on August 31 for Beijing's Paralympics.

Belated Congratulations for Cliff

Finally Cliff's back. Well, not exactly, but his Eurovision song entry for 1968, Congratulations, may just have failed to win because of skulduggery by the then Spanish dictator, Franco. We are talking to Cliff and, my dear, he even sings the song down the phone...Can you wait!

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