BILL WOLFF: From NPR News in New York, this is the Bryant Park Project.
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RACHEL MARTIN, host:
Overlooking historic Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan, live from NPR Studios, this is the Bryant Park Project from NPR News. News, information, new baby. I'm Rachel Martin.
MIKE PESCA, host:
And I'm Mike Pesca. It's Tuesday, May 6th, 2008. All babies are new, but this little guy's among the newest. Congratulations to Alison Stewart and Bill Wolff. Alison delivered yesterday. It's a boy, and his name is Isaac. He's a healthy weight, a nice height, and I'm sure he's gifted. Again, congratulations to Alison and Bill and the entire family from everyone here at the BPP.
MARTIN: Coming up on the show this hour, the region of Santa Cruz in Bolivia has voted for more autonomy from the central government. Now the president is calling that vote illegal, and is dismissing it as a plot by the wealthy. We're going to talk with NPR's Latin American correspondent Julie McCarthy about what's going on in Bolivia.
PESCA: Also, three guys are making a road trip across the country. That's not that special, but this is. They're trying to become the fastest guys or anyone to make it through all 48 states. They've driven 24 hours a day to make it happen and they'll be with us later this hour.
MARTIN: And today it's Book Club. It's the meeting of our BPP Book Club. We called Aryn Kyle, talked to her. She's the author of "The God of Animals," and she took questions from you, our listeners, and those of you who read the book. Stick around for Book Club today. We'll get the day's headlines in just a minute, but first...
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PESCA: The death toll in the wake of the cyclone in Myanmar is now 15,000, with 30,000 others believed to be missing.
MARTIN: Ten thousand of the victims came from one town alone. Cyclone Nargis slammed into the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta over the weekend. The cyclone triggered a massive tidal wave that gave people nowhere to run. A government minister says the four foot wall of water caused more deaths than the storms high winds did.
PESCA: Yesterday, NPR spoke with Shari Villarosa, a U.S. charge d'Affaires in Yangon, also known as Rangoon, the country's largest city. A good phone line is also hard to come by there, but Villarosa did her best to describe the damage.
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Ms. SHARI VILLAROSA (Charge d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy, Myanmar): It is tragic. The people are suffering. I can just - if it is bad here in Yangon, I can just imagine how horrible it must be in the delta.
MARTIN: In spite of the devastation, the military junta that rules Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been slow to accept international aid. Thailand was the first country to arrive, and India is close behind. The U.S. Embassy is providing 250,000 dollars in immediate aid from an existing emergency fund. But First Lady Laura Bush said yesterday the U.S. would provide further aid only if one of its own disaster teams is allowed into the country.
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Mrs. LAURA BUSH: The United States stands prepared to provide an assistance team and much needed supplies to Burma as soon as the Burmese government accepts our offer.
PESCA: Today, Myanmar's information minister said the military junta is, quote, "doing its best," unquote, and acknowledged they need a lot of help. But yesterday in Yangon, Shari Villarosa says the military didn't seem to have its priorities straight.
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Ms. VILLAROSA: When I was going to the foreign ministry today, I did see two trucks full of soldiers pouring the trees on a traffic median, which gives them the scale of damage, but didn't seem to be the most urgent priority. There's nothing on the side streets in the more remote neighborhoods. There's no military presence at all.
MARTIN: Mrs. Bush also faulted the junta for its approach.
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Mrs. BUSH: It's just another way that the military regime looks so cut off, and so unaware of what the real needs of their people are.
PESCA: The regime did agree to postpone a May 24th constitutional referendum, at least in the worst hit areas, but the vote will go on as scheduled everywhere else around the country.
MARTIN: Political analyst Aung Naing Oo, who fled Myanmar in 1988, believes the government's disaster response could be damaging. He says, quote, "The myth they've projected about being well prepared has been totally blown away."
PESCA: You can go to npr.org throughout the day for updates on this story. Now, let's get some more of today's headlines with the BPP's, Mark Garrison. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
