President Hamid Karzai has criticised the US and other foreign countries for creating a "parallel government" in Afghanistan's countryside.

Total aid from rich governments and their agencies amounts to $120-billion annually, with private contributions adding another $20 to $25-billion.

A powerful cyclone that slammed into Burma's Irrawaddy Delta triggered a massive wave that gave people nowhere to run, killing at least 15 000 and leaving 30 000 others missing, officials said on Tuesday. "More deaths were caused by the tidal wave than the storm itself," Minister for Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe told a news conference.